Customer Reviews

Fire and Ice

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I love Julie Garwood. Really, I do. She is a literary goddess, and I worship at her feet. However, as divine as she may be, "Fire and Ice" is anything but ambrosia.

Honestly, it kills me to say this. You must understand that I cut my teeth on Garwood's brilliant romantic historicals. I have spent a good portion of my life collecting each and every one---not to mention reading them again and again to the point of memorization. (Sad, I know, but the woman is, after all, a goddess.) There was a time that I would count down the days until a new Garwood was published like a crack addict awaiting her next fix.

Unfortunately, those days are now gone.

I have known it for a while, but, with each new book since the debut of "Heartbreaker," I have watched this author turn her back on every talent in her arsenal (witty, hilarious dialogue, fast-paced plots, fabulously interwoven and highly-entertaining sub-plots, sigh-worthy love stories, interesting historical facts, and side-splitting chaos) to reach out for the murder-mystery world where she simply doesn't shine. Ever since "Heartbreaker," (I am not even going to bring up "Shadow Music"--Don't get me started on that trainwreck) I have had to read the same basic plot over and over again, each time growing more and more disenchanted and disheartened. The smart-yet naive, sexy heroine is in danger from a psycho killer---but refuses to actually believe that---and it's only the big, bad loner lawman who is going to be able to save the day. P.S. They fall in love somehow along the way. Did I mention that?

Now, I will tell you that I am not a huge fan of the murder-mystery romance genre. This is why it has taken me this long to speak out (or type, as the case may be). I kept thinking it was me. Well, guess what? I just read this latest book, "Fire and Ice," and I can tell you one thing for certain:

The problem isn't me.

Not only are we dealing with the same plot as all the others, but we also have the incredibly quick development of Jack and Sophie's relationship. It's like someone injected them with steroids or something. One minute, they barely know each other, the next he's announcing that they'll be heading off to bed "by 10pm." Huh? I am all for quick romances and I have seen plenty of authors pull it off dozens of times. This one just isn't believable to me. These two just get to head off to Alaska, jump into bed, dodge a few bullets---as well as a crowbar (ouch)---and, BOOM, live happily ever after. Sophie herself even tries to figure out why she's so involved with someone she barely knows. Honey, if the characters are asking these questions, don't you think the readers will, too?

Then, there is the mystery plot. It was far-fetched for me to believe that someone like Sophie would really pursue this Harrington fellow as much as she did after he disappeared. He was irritating, boring, and colossal waste of brain power every time she was in his presence. He disappears before a race. So what? I was a journalist for many years. Believe me; reporters (especially those who work for smaller papers) have too much to do and too little time to do it in to worry about people like that---especially when the guy is a self-centered, egotistical creep. Even if you honestly want an apology, you wouldn't try to track him down because you would be too worried that he would suck you into his narcissitic vortex again. No, you'd put him in the "weirdoes to be avoided in the future" file and move on to the next story.

But, let's say Sophie is jonesing for an apology so bad she tracks him down. Why on earth would the bad guy actually call her? And, if he did only call her to find out what she knew, it was obvious she knew next to nothing about the whole thing---or at least not enough to piece anything realistic together. (We'll leave out the fact for a minute that Sophie is automatically suspicious of all lawmen and, nevertheless, answers every question fired at her by two strangers on the phone calling from Alaska). Harrington's death was ruled an accident. The bad guy is in the clear. Why would he keep calling her, trying to get her to come to Alaska? Does he want someone to connect him to the Harrington death? The bad guy is supposed to be this smart, educated scientist. I know rednecks who aren't that stupid.

I could go on and on about all the issues I have, but I won't. I could tell you the few things I liked in this book (and there were actually a few), but they're irrelevant. It comes down to this: If you love Julie, as I do, you would buy a copy of the phonebook if she put her name on it. But, in return for this devotion, it would be nice if she'd forget about all this foolishness of trying to be this "thrilling, Queen of Suspense" and write to her strengths. Julie: Just tell a good love story that has heart and rings true. If you still feel the need to toss in a body or two along the way, I'll survive.

Maybe she'll listen. Maybe she won't. Until then, I guess I'll just be doomed to disappointment.

I'm sorry, but I just don't think Julie Garwood is writing her books anymore. This isn't her voice. Julie's voice is charming and funny and quirky, with lots of romance, character development, and heart. This has none of that. Her last few books haven't. Now more than ever, though, I'm convinced that Julie isn't writing these books. Authors don't change voice. I don't know how this book got published. The plot is lame and boring with so many holes and inconsistencies that it just isn't fun. Unfortunately, there is not a sizzling, electric romance to make up for the lame plot. The characters are all one dimensional and spout simple, boring dialogue. I don't know how or why the characters fell in love, because they were hardly together at all. When they were, there was zero chemistry. That used to be Julie's strength: chemistry. Plus, the descriptions, vocabulary, and sentence structure were plain old elementary. Very basic sentence structure. After the last book, I vowed I would not waste any money until the writing got better. I checked this one out of the libary. I'm afraid I'm done with Julie, which is a shame, because I have read and re-read her historicals (and the first two modern books, which were quite good), and I count many of those as some of my all-time favorite books. Oh well...another one bites the dust.

I realize that this genre of fiction always includes an overly macho man, but Jack is insufferable. No matter what he looks like, how could any self-respecting woman be attracted to a man who orders her around, forbids her to do what she wants, talks down to her and invades her space without asking. That is not sexy. That is creepy.

Sophie Rose is a determined woman. She has broken all financial ties with her infamous father and has struck out on her own as a newspaper reporter. She has the complete support of her two best friends and her new boss. Now if the FBI would just stop trying to bug her and realize that she is not the direct pipeline to her infamous father the notorious big-time modern day Robin Hood. The new small local newspaper she works for isn't as fast paced as the big dailies but she works for an amazing, if addicted to root beer, boss who trusts her and looks out for her. Too bad her best friend went and married an FBI agent, but he has become family.

Sophie is given an assignment to cover a quirky local personality who runs 5K's and thinks he is front page worthy. She spends one amazingly boring evening with him but a story is a story and meets him to get photos and follow his race the next day. Only he disappears between the time she talks with him until he shows hundreds of miles away in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska the victim of a polar bear attack. They find Sophie's card on the body and call her. Now she is intrigued as to how he just up and disappeared and just might head north. But before she heads out there is an attack on her life and everyone thinks it is coordination with the recent news of her father, again.

Now suddenly Sophie is traveling with a bodyguard, one Jack MacAlister, the super hot but very opinionated partner of her best friend's husband. Their attraction is mutual but both try to deny that it exists. Suddenly it looks like Sophie's trouble has followed her to the frozen north. Will they make it out alive and more importantly will they stop fighting their passion, and let nature take its course?

From Chicago to Alaska you will wonder what is going to happen to Sophie next. I was captured from the first page of Fire and Ice until the last. I love how Ms. Garwood made her a spunky; take no crap, woman who is dealing with life the best way she knows how. I was slightly confused about the journal which started Fire and Ice but before too long was able to see how things would interact. I laughed out loud at the office full of root beer, the painful description of having to listen to William's blister talks as well as when Jack first meets Sophie. I hope that we see Sophie and Jack in a future book and I think Ms. Garwood definitely has a winner in Fire and Ice. You will thoroughly enjoy your time spent reading Fire and Ice.

Tanya
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

Garwood can write a great romance, the relationship between Jack and Sophie is very good. Some funny dialogue, attraction and pull between these two was entertaining and it's always good to see old "friends" from previous books show up in a novel.

The mystery portion of this book is where it all falls apart, I kept asking myself "Why" There was no reason for Jack and Sophie to have gotten involved in the mystery, the link was to weak. Using "Journal entries" to explain the mystery portion is an attempt to build a story involving readers, and it just doesn't work in this book.

This book would have been outstanding if the mystery portion blended better with the love story, as is they are oil and water.

Julie's books were the first romance novels I ever touched. When I read them all (usually finishing a book a day- they were THAT good), I went onto Judith McNaught and now I'm stuck with picking out another author who's even remotely comparable to these two revolutionary women. I just relieves me so much to find that everyone thinks the same way about Julie's latest books and I believe that they're like... bad sex. The irony being that I don't know what sex is even like, I think her last few books of "mystery romance" is everything bad sex would be like.

First off, I have to wait for months at a time for the next book to come out. So I'm waiting with this feeling of constipation because of all the anxiety built upon reading her next great book and then... poof. That was it?! I felt as if she literally, LITERALLY copied and pasted the last few books (Heartbreaker, uh... Killjoy, Mercy) and just inserted new first names. Even the surnames remained the same because they were all about the Buchannans! Talk about keeping it in the family...

I just feel that she should move away from murder or suspense entirely and focus on human emotions and appeal to what us non-law enforcers or multi-millionaire heroines and focus on something like the economy or what this generation is going through for us to really like her works. I mean, her books were so repetitive that I honestly think that I would make a guy crazed enough like how the heroines did in her books and they would come chasing after me with a crowbar. So how do I go about hiring a hunk-of-a-cop Julie? If you're going to write about the same thing again for the 6th time, you mind putting some information on how I should go about reserving one in a more realistic way?

I AM IN COMPLETE AGREEMENT WITH B.WILLIAMS SOUTH CAROLINA, AND E.RAIFORD BROOKLYN
N.Y. MY FAVORITE WRITER IS GONE. PLEASE OH PLEASE JULIE COME HOME WHERE YOU BELONG!
I HAVE READ ALL YOUR HISTORICAL ROMANCES AT LEAST 20 TIMES EACH AND CAN STILL LAUGH
EVEN IF I KNOW THE NEXT LINE BY REMOTE. I CAN NOT BELIVE THESE SUSPENSE AND CONTEMPORIES ARE YOUR WRITINGS. SOMEONE IS OUT TO RUIN YOU JULIE!!!!

First, I am a huge fan of Julie Garwood, but when I read this book, I felt as though it ended abruptly, and wasn't sure what the plot really was. I agree with other reviewers that Jack and Sophie are great characters and Garwood always does a great jobe in here "series" books historical or modern to loop familiar characters in like, Alec, Regan and Cordie. As always the dialogue is fantastic, but I found the journal entries distracting. Overall, if you like Julie's books, you need to read this, but I was a little disappointed.

julie garwood never disappoints me! i have all her books and i love the way she spins the stories from book to book with characters that have been mentioned in other stories..thats what gives fire and ice its extra oomph is that it is created with former characters in mind. her clarity with her characters brings them to life amid various backdrops further connect them to a sense of reality. mystery, love and suspense she has them all working as a finely tuned instrument. i so enjoy haveing her books and these days i listen to them rather than read due to eyesight problems but listening brings the story all that much closer to me. thank you ms garwood.

As with many of the reviewers, Julie Garwood is one of my favorite authors. This book is average at best. Sophie Rose who was introduced in Regan's story in The Murder List is the heroine of this book. Sophie works for a small newspaper and is adverse to a serious relationship because her father is the notorious Bobby Rose--a modern day Robin Hood. The hero Jack MacAlister is an FBI agent on leave due to a YouTube video that catapults him to Internet fame. The mystery concerns a missing runner, a pack of wolves, and of course a hodge-podge of bad guys that are connected to the two events!

The story is a bit far fetched, the pairing of Jack and Sophie lacks something. Personally I thought Sophie was a far better fit with Regan's brother Aiden. They have a history and if Garwood had wished, she could have put together a really good book complete with tension as Cordy(the third member of the friendship triad)is in love with Aiden (a really odd pairing if Garwood goes in that direction) and Aiden and Sophie intellectually, physically, and emotionally seem to be a good fit. Jack MacAlister on the other hand is an overbearing FBI agent that doesn't seem to appreciate Sophie's accomplishment, her drive, her ambition and the things that make her special. There did not seem to be a lot of chemistry between the two and perhaps this was due to Garwood having Sophie and Jack over analyze the relationship so that by the time they do get together you are kind of analyzed out from the waiting.

One of the trademark Garwood tools from her historicals and some of her contemporaries is her sense of humor. The scenes in some of the historicals where she uses humor are laugh out louds. It seems that as she continues to write her contemporaries, that humor is missing. It would be nice to see it in the contemporary novels.

To sum this up, not a bad read if you can go with the plot and the two main characters and their lack of chemistry. There are some interesting twists and turns in the story. You may however, kind of scratch your head a bit with regards to the Sophie-Jack pairing.