Black Ice (Ice, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Jul 17, 2017 Juliana Philippa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: romance-contemporary, cr-series-book-1, cr-hero-early-to-mid-30s, 4-half-stars, cr-mistaken-identity-impersonation, 4-half-to-5-romance-books, cr-heroine-somewhat-wallflower, cr-delicious-hero, 0-own, 4-half-to-5-romance-contemporary

He just hoped, for some odd reason, that he wouldn’t have to be the one who killed her.

4.5 stars. Have read Anne Stuart's HR, but never any of her contemporary romances (don't read much CR to begin with). I've really been looking forward to this one though, because my GR friends' reviews were so good and the story really appealed to me. No one does bad, tortured, antihero heroes like Anne Stuart and it sounded like this was one to take the cake; I was interested to see how believable it woul

He just hoped, for some odd reason, that he wouldn’t have to be the one who killed her.

4.5 stars. Have read Anne Stuart's HR, but never any of her contemporary romances (don't read much CR to begin with). I've really been looking forward to this one though, because my GR friends' reviews were so good and the story really appealed to me. No one does bad, tortured, antihero heroes like Anne Stuart and it sounded like this was one to take the cake; I was interested to see how believable it would be that Bastien fell for Chloe.

Happy to report that the book was just as enjoyable as I expected and I found the entire thing very believable. (Am referring to their relationship and them falling in love being believable ... I have no idea what goes on at super-secret illegal gun-running meetings or what the inner workings of shady organizations supposedly running the world would look like, lol).

Sometimes in books like this, when the hero is an operative/spy/whatever and the heroine stumbles upon everything, she pulls some very TSTL moves and it can get extremely annoying; thankfully, there was really only one incident like this with Chloe and given the circumstances of everything that she's gone through in the last 24 hours, I was willing to let it slide. She also adds some unexpected humor and while yes, she's physically brave (given the shit she goes through and sees in the story, I think she holds up pretty well, let me tell you), I really appreciated that she's also quite emotionally brave. Overall, Chloe was really, really likable and Stuart was able to make her both naive and vulnerable, while also smart and strong—she balanced it really well, which was necessary because if the scales tipped too much to one side or the other, the pull on Bastien's side wouldn't have made as much sense.

Because to be clear: Bastien does NOT see Chloe and think, "Omg I have to save this girl, something is going to happen to her and she's completely innocent and uninvolved"—quite the opposite. And thank G-d for that, because would have been very unbelievable if so and not at all fitting with his character and the way he's depicted. Bastien is very dangerous with very sharp edges, and I say "sharp," not "rough," on purpose, because it's much more accurate. The character he's playing at the time of the story is one of a charmer/ladies' man, and he does that well, while also having a clear "silent but deadly" vibe; he's seductive and magnetic, but there's also a clear coldness and indifference to him. His evolvement and step-by-step interconnectedness with Chloe was very well done though and by the end, when he's fallen hard and completely done for on the love front, I didn't question it in the least and just found the entire thing very swoon- and sigh-worthy.

I don't like asshole heroes; I hate them and don't find it charming in the least—but that's the thing, Bastien isn't an asshole. Don't get me wrong: he's an emotionally-disconnected killer who has no compunction about killing an "innocent" if the situation calls for it, but he's not an asshole ... if that makes sense. He doesn't act the way he does or do the things he does because he's an immature pushing-everyone-away cliché romance hero, so while he can be totally cold, do heartless things, etc., it's never to be an asshole. He's actually a contrast to some of Stuart's HR heroes, because in those instances, they are anti-heroes by being stupidly and needlessly assholes for no real reason, and it adds annoying and unnecessary angst that I don't enjoy. I'm not into the angsty books or the ones where both characters (especially the hero, of course) are pushing the other away because they're afraid of their feelings or think they're protecting the other person or blah di blah di blah. You have a little of this last, but given the plotline, this is one instance in which it actually makes total sense!! [After writing this review, went through shelving the book and perfect point: I did not put this book on the cr-hero-sometimes-a-jerk shelf, because he's not! ... Though he has the cr-hero-is-anti-hero-villain shelf locked down hard lol.]

Quote. As always with these wonderfully quote-worthy books, there are so many to choose from! Here's what I'm putting for now though:

"How do you happen to understand so many languages? Most American girls can barely manage to speak English."

She shot him an angry look. She was so predictable, so easy to play. All he had to do was make a sweeping, disparaging remark about American women and she forgot all about her misery. He tended to like sophisticated, unpredictable women. But for some reason he liked her.

Bottom Line. Fantastic!! Loved both main characters, plotline is good and keeps things moving, wasn't really sure what would happen next, is extremely quote-worthy and is surprisingly emotional and romantic on several levels.

Minor Note Re: Kindle Version. There were spacing sections missing from mine, anyone else have this issue? Talking about when within a chapter, there's several spaces from between one paragraph and the next because it's a change of scene or a change of POV or whatever, so there's space left to signal the transition. In my version, it just starts like it's the next paragraph and was a bit confusing at times. ...more

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Sep 23, 2007 Pam rated it liked it

TITLE/AUTHOR: BLACK ICE by Anne Stuart
RATING: 3.5/C+
GENRE/PUB DATE/# OF PGS: Romantic Suspense, 2005, 377 pgs
TIME/PLACE: Present, Paris, France
CHARACTERS: Chloe Underwood/American translator; Bastien/spy
COMMENTS: Chloe fills in for her roommate on a weekend translation
assignment. Her clients are illegal arms dealers and she soon
finds herself on the run w/ Bastien.

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