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A review by iam
Arctic Heat by Annabeth Albert
4.0
Another great addition to the Frozen Hearts series.
Content warnings include: cancer survivor main character, homophobia, avalanche, fatal car accident (the main characters are not involved but they are at the scene), sex on-page; mentions of: heart attack, parental death, surgery, amputation, dysfunctional bordering on abusive family dynamics.
I'm having a bit of a hard time sorting my feelings about this one.
There were many things I loved. I adored Owen, who was optimistic and.... mature - that's the best word I can find for it. He was hard to anger, always polite and friendly, never acted out or treated someone hurtfully even when he was hurt himself, he remained calm even when agitated. He was just such a wonderful person and many things I aspire to be.
Meanwhile Quill had a lot of internal demons to fight, which I on the one hand found painfully relateable, on the other... found weird and almost uncomfortable. Part of this was that I could relate to a lot of his fears, yet it was also obvious that, while I share a lot of his sentiments, his and my own reasons were rooted in very different things.
To elaborate: A lot of the things he said and felt and thought were exactly how I as an aromantic and asexual person felt. Yet he decidedly wasn't either of those - he even says so on page - and he says these things I could relate to so much because of bad experiences and internalized fear, shame and homophobia.
I know the book was in no way trying to invalidate asexuality, and even mentions that that is a whole other thing, but... it still made me feel queasy when Owen tried again and again to get past Quill's walls. They reminded me too much of my own boundaries, and that made it hard to separate my discomfort from the gruffness that covered Quill's yearning.
That said, Owen does respect Quill's boundaries. He does test them frequently, but I found it more a gentle brushing and teasing than outright disrespect. Additionally, Quill does want him to do so, especially as the book continues, but I couldn't help but be reminded of the extremely similar patterns from [b:Arctic Sun|42354665|Arctic Sun (Frozen Hearts, #1)|Annabeth Albert|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549648632l/42354665._SY75_.jpg|66003456].
Overall, all three books of the series, including [b:Arctic Wild|43263021|Arctic Wild (Frozen Hearts #2)|Annabeth Albert|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549648970l/43263021._SY75_.jpg|67141842], follow the same arc, kind of. At first one character is reluctant, then they start having sex, they develop feelings, one of them is sure they will never work out while the other is pushing for the relationship, they fight, something big bad happens, they get their happily ever after.
All of the books are very well executed and still distinct enough in their details and settings (even if they all play in roughly the same part of Alaska), and especially the characters themselves are very different and most of them have very itneresting backgrounds - there are just quite a lot of common elements.
Overall an enjoyable, if rather slow, read, with a lot of cozyness and tenderness between an introvert and an extrovert in the icy winter of Alaska.
I received an ARC and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.
Content warnings include: cancer survivor main character, homophobia, avalanche, fatal car accident (the main characters are not involved but they are at the scene), sex on-page; mentions of: heart attack, parental death, surgery, amputation, dysfunctional bordering on abusive family dynamics.
I'm having a bit of a hard time sorting my feelings about this one.
There were many things I loved. I adored Owen, who was optimistic and.... mature - that's the best word I can find for it. He was hard to anger, always polite and friendly, never acted out or treated someone hurtfully even when he was hurt himself, he remained calm even when agitated. He was just such a wonderful person and many things I aspire to be.
Meanwhile Quill had a lot of internal demons to fight, which I on the one hand found painfully relateable, on the other... found weird and almost uncomfortable. Part of this was that I could relate to a lot of his fears, yet it was also obvious that, while I share a lot of his sentiments, his and my own reasons were rooted in very different things.
To elaborate: A lot of the things he said and felt and thought were exactly how I as an aromantic and asexual person felt. Yet he decidedly wasn't either of those - he even says so on page - and he says these things I could relate to so much because of bad experiences and internalized fear, shame and homophobia.
I know the book was in no way trying to invalidate asexuality, and even mentions that that is a whole other thing, but... it still made me feel queasy when Owen tried again and again to get past Quill's walls. They reminded me too much of my own boundaries, and that made it hard to separate my discomfort from the gruffness that covered Quill's yearning.
That said, Owen does respect Quill's boundaries. He does test them frequently, but I found it more a gentle brushing and teasing than outright disrespect. Additionally, Quill does want him to do so, especially as the book continues, but I couldn't help but be reminded of the extremely similar patterns from [b:Arctic Sun|42354665|Arctic Sun (Frozen Hearts, #1)|Annabeth Albert|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549648632l/42354665._SY75_.jpg|66003456].
Overall, all three books of the series, including [b:Arctic Wild|43263021|Arctic Wild (Frozen Hearts #2)|Annabeth Albert|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549648970l/43263021._SY75_.jpg|67141842], follow the same arc, kind of. At first one character is reluctant, then they start having sex, they develop feelings, one of them is sure they will never work out while the other is pushing for the relationship, they fight, something big bad happens, they get their happily ever after.
All of the books are very well executed and still distinct enough in their details and settings (even if they all play in roughly the same part of Alaska), and especially the characters themselves are very different and most of them have very itneresting backgrounds - there are just quite a lot of common elements.
Overall an enjoyable, if rather slow, read, with a lot of cozyness and tenderness between an introvert and an extrovert in the icy winter of Alaska.
I received an ARC and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.