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A review by paulabrandon
Fire and Ice by Julie Garwood
2.0
Well, that was a....thing.
While not as bonkers and illogical as something you might expect from Sandra Brown, this is definitely a similar case of a romantic thriller being about 150 pages longer than it needs to be. The story involves Sophie Rose, the journalist daughter of some sort of modern-day Robin Hood, Bobby Rose, who is constantly hunted by the FBI for questioning (not for any actual crimes, or something. Apparently.) So Sophie is not too trusting of FBI agents.
Her latest journalist assignment is to cover the achievements of rich boy William Harrington, who has won twenty-four 5K races and has entered his 25th race. She suffers through an interminable interview with him, as he is completely self-obsessed, yet on the day of the race, he is nowhere to be found. When Sophia searches for him, first she's told he's in England. But then comes the news that his remains have been found in Alaska after being eaten by a polar bear!
Sophie is intrigued, and wants to chase this story up. But with her father now a suspect in the misappropriation of a high profile company's retirement fund, Sophie is in the spotlight again, with the FBI interested in her. This brings her into contact with her best friend's husband's FBI partner Jack MacAlister, who is both interested in Sophie as an attractive woman, and also would like to know the whereabouts of her father. But because of his actions in an unexpected bank robbery that wound up on YouTube (!), his boss wants him to stay out of the spotlight, and he winds up accompanying Sophie to Alaska to follow up on Harrington's death.
Interspersed with all this are diary entries from a member of a team in Alaska studying the family relations of a pack of wolves, involving some sort of serum or drug.
That was actually a lot of plot description for a book that didn't really have much of a plot! I also wonder if some of it could be considered spoilers, since Sophie and Jack don't even get to Alaska some more than 200 pages into this 375 page book. But it's all there on the back cover blurb, I guess!
Most of the book just seems to be her best friends, some of the FBI, her boss and her father worrying about her health and safety and zzzz. Although I'm assuming this is meant to be romantic suspense, it all felt very try-hard screwball romantic comedy (much like something Cassie Miles might write for the Harlequin Intrigue line), with much romantic sparring between Sophie and Jack, who of course annoy each other no end despite being attracted to one another.
And what can I say about the romance? Not much, really. Each thinks the other is hot, they bicker light-naturedly, have sex and eventually decide they're in love. About as convincing as about half the Intrigue books, I guess. At least those books are shorter!
Harmless fluff, really. Easily read, easily disposable. I've got another Julie Garwood book lying around somewhere, though I'm in no hurry to read it based on what I felt about this one. The website Fantastic Fiction seems to suggest her last published book was in 2017.
While not as bonkers and illogical as something you might expect from Sandra Brown, this is definitely a similar case of a romantic thriller being about 150 pages longer than it needs to be. The story involves Sophie Rose, the journalist daughter of some sort of modern-day Robin Hood, Bobby Rose, who is constantly hunted by the FBI for questioning (not for any actual crimes, or something. Apparently.) So Sophie is not too trusting of FBI agents.
Her latest journalist assignment is to cover the achievements of rich boy William Harrington, who has won twenty-four 5K races and has entered his 25th race. She suffers through an interminable interview with him, as he is completely self-obsessed, yet on the day of the race, he is nowhere to be found. When Sophia searches for him, first she's told he's in England. But then comes the news that his remains have been found in Alaska after being eaten by a polar bear!
Sophie is intrigued, and wants to chase this story up. But with her father now a suspect in the misappropriation of a high profile company's retirement fund, Sophie is in the spotlight again, with the FBI interested in her. This brings her into contact with her best friend's husband's FBI partner Jack MacAlister, who is both interested in Sophie as an attractive woman, and also would like to know the whereabouts of her father. But because of his actions in an unexpected bank robbery that wound up on YouTube (!), his boss wants him to stay out of the spotlight, and he winds up accompanying Sophie to Alaska to follow up on Harrington's death.
Interspersed with all this are diary entries from a member of a team in Alaska studying the family relations of a pack of wolves, involving some sort of serum or drug.
That was actually a lot of plot description for a book that didn't really have much of a plot! I also wonder if some of it could be considered spoilers, since Sophie and Jack don't even get to Alaska some more than 200 pages into this 375 page book. But it's all there on the back cover blurb, I guess!
Most of the book just seems to be her best friends, some of the FBI, her boss and her father worrying about her health and safety and zzzz. Although I'm assuming this is meant to be romantic suspense, it all felt very try-hard screwball romantic comedy (much like something Cassie Miles might write for the Harlequin Intrigue line), with much romantic sparring between Sophie and Jack, who of course annoy each other no end despite being attracted to one another.
And what can I say about the romance? Not much, really. Each thinks the other is hot, they bicker light-naturedly, have sex and eventually decide they're in love. About as convincing as about half the Intrigue books, I guess. At least those books are shorter!
Harmless fluff, really. Easily read, easily disposable. I've got another Julie Garwood book lying around somewhere, though I'm in no hurry to read it based on what I felt about this one. The website Fantastic Fiction seems to suggest her last published book was in 2017.