Cold as Ice: A Romantic Thriller

Wow! What a fast-paced and heart-stopping romantic suspense. So many twists and turns and red herrings. I was absolutely hooked from the very first page....and the action and thrills never let up. The killer was clever and diabolical. Darby and Eban most definitely had to work for their HEA. Highly recommend. I received a copy of this book from the author via Bookfunnel. My thoughts and opinions are my own and without bias or favor or expectation.

Coming to Alaska after last summer, trying to get her life back. Her life centering on grants and scholarship to get thru school. A party at Martin’s house for grad students,glad she stayed overnight till she found a murder had happened. A frantic call to FBI agent Eban a negotiator, once again he is there to help her. A gripping tale of Darby’s life once again is being ripped from her, is she a target of the killer. Note subject matter may not be for everyone. Given ARC for my voluntary review and my honest opinion

4.25 stars--COLD AS ICE is the fifth instalment in Toni Anderson’s contemporary, adult COLD JUSTICE: THE NEGOTIATORS erotic, romantic suspense series. This is thirty-four year old, FBI Supervisory Special Agent Eban Winters, and twenty-six year old PhD student Darby O’Roarke’s story line. COLD AS ICE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary. Darby and Eban’s story begins in book two Colder Than Sin. Told from dual third person perspectives (Darby and Eban) and first person (killer) COLD AS ICE follows in the wake of the murder Darby’s PhD mentor Martin Carstairs, a murder of which our heroine has been unjustly accused. Desperate for help, Darby ‘accidentally’ contacts FBI Supervisory Special Agent Eban Winters, the man who helped Darby months before following her kidnapping and torture in Nabat Island in the Flores Sea, Indonesia but a second victim all but releases Darby as the prime suspect, a release many refuse to acknowledge or accept. With the arrival of Eban Winters, Darby finds herself under the protection of the man with whom she will fall in love but a man who refused her advances months before. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Eban and Darby, as the Eban, and the local Fairbanks, Alaska police department hunt for a killer. Eban Winter’s attraction to Darby has never waned in the months since her rescue from Nabat Island, Indonesia but Eban refused to act on his attraction knowing Darby had suffered enough at the hands of her kidnappers and abusers. Desperate to prove Darby is innocent of the crime of murder, Eban sees red when the local PD begin to circle like vultures on our story line heroine. Darby O’Rourke doesn’t remember much about the night in question only that she woke to a dead body in someone else’s house but when the killer begins targeting a number of people in our heroine’s life, Eban knows that the killings are personal and directed at the woman he loves. The relationship between Eban and Darby is one of immediate attraction but months will pass before Eban allows himself any kind of personal interaction in the face of the horrific atrocities Darby suffered at the hands of someone else. With very few people behind Darby as a means of help or support, Eban finds himself Darby’s first line of defense when it comes to proving herself innocent of the crimes. The $ex scenes are intimate, passionate and intense without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text. There is a large ensemble cast of colorful secondary and supporting characters including several victims of a serial killer who is getting desperate. We are introduced to several fellow PhD students at University of Alaska Fairbanks, as well as local therapist Kim Gleeson, his receptionist Corinne Brown, police detective Signy Torgeson, attorney Elliot Byrne, as well as FBI Negotiator Quentin Savage, and business woman Haley Cramer (Colder Than Sin 2). There may be something developing between Elliot Byrne and Signy Torgeson. COLD AS ICE is a story of obsession, vengeance, and murder; secrets and lies; relationships and love. The premise is intriguing and haunting; the romance is seductive and steamy; the characters are dynamic, charismatic and resilient.