Cold as Ice

You have to understand that Anne Stuart does not create ordinary hero's. In this case, "Peter Jensen" is a cold, robot-like trained killer. He is known to have ice in his veins. This is a book where romance is not overflowing but subtle. You have to watch every crack in the hero's armor to understand how much he loves the heroine. This technique is even more moving than blatant romance. Definitely a must-read! Another Anne Stuart winner!

Warning up front for people who haven't read and admired the brilliance of author Anne Stuart before - her books are strong. She asks you to dance on the razor's edge, plays the Pied Piper and commands you to dance into the fire. She pushes the reader to go where most writers won't ask. I always wanted to write heroes like Stuart, but I get too intrigued with the complexities of males, adore them, and love what makes them tick, how they react differently to given situations than we do. I fear only Stuart can conjure and breath life into a Stuart Bad Boy. I also fear some writers write men as we'd like them to be, not as they are. Stuart gives us pure gamma rogue males. These males are beyond laws, beyond morals, often beyond kindness. They are Dark, Dangerous and Deadly. What your mama warned you to stay away from. They are heartbreakers. They are Stuart's Bad Boys. She gives you men that are not heroes by most standards, yet with the power of a sorceress, she compels you to love them. We are a poor moth to her males' flames. So if you cannot take your males raw and unvarnished, then you might want to give Stuart a pass, because you will come away mesmerized, shaken. Stuart holds up the mirror and forces the reader to look deep into oneself, and that rattles some. She is a brilliant talent few writers ever achieve. At home equally in Historicals or Contemporary Romances, Stuart has taken use into the fire, now wants us to be cold as ice. The Resident Genius of Romance strikes bull's-eye again in this edgy tale. Genevieve Spenser is tired. A nice get away for Costa Rica lies ahead. Only there is one more thing she must do before she can kick back - get papers signed by Harry Van Dorn. He is a wealthy client of her firm, so she knows there is no getting around running this chore for them. She is quickly on route to his yacht, and hopes to pick up the papers, then be on her way to sun, beach and cabana boys fetching her funny drinks with paper hats. Only, Harry Van Dorn isn't just a wealthy businessman; he's a merchant of chaos, and its Peter Jensen's job to stop him from executing plans he's set in motion that could devastate the world. Genevieve's arrival is untimely for his plans, so he wants her gone. When he cannot get rid of her, he accepts he will have to kill (a theme Stuart made us face and accept in the brilliant Moonrise). Peter is a killer, an assassin. Again, Stuart delights in giving us "heroes" who are not heroes by any fashion we know. He is a gamma rogue, a male who lives by his own rules, that can kill, cheat, lie and steal to do what must be done. However, Peter is finding dealing with Genevieve troublesome, to say the least. Genevieve is a strong heroine, so much fun, and Peter is one of Stuart's Bad Boys that evokes the heroine - and the reader - to walk on the razor's edge. Stuart delivers, yet again, one strong read that dazzles from start to finish.

I read Anne Suart's BLACK ICE last year and thought it was so different. I picked this up in the airport and barely noticed takeoff and landing! It is a bit over the top but I loved it! Peter Jensen was about as cold blooded as you could get until he meets Genny. Gradually, he melts but not much. Genny is fiesty and needs a keeper. Harry Van Dorn was the necessary creepy billionaire bad guy. Jack O'Brien was a possible next hero. Bastien makes a reappearance just in time. And the Committee is scary and an enigma. Anne Stuart's books are worth every penny. Sensuality is a 9. Very entertaining. Great takeoff and landing too!!!! :D

Genevieve Spencer was on her way to Costa Rica for a much needed vacation when her law firm sends her to get legal papers signed by their very wealthy client, Harry Van Dorn. Knowing she can't refuse, Genevieve reluctantly agrees to be taken out to the client's yacht, hoping that she can leave within a few hours. Peter Jensen is on a mission to bring down Harry Van Dorn before he can bring chaos to the world with the seven tragedies he has planned. When Genevieve comes aboard unexpectedly, Peter wants nothing more than to get her off the yacht. When he is unable to get rid of her, Peter reluctantly accepts that he will have to kill her. Though he is used to having collateral damage during his missions, he is confused by his reluctance when it comes to Genevieve. Anne Stuart doesn't dissapoint in COLD AS ICE. If you are a fan of her work, you won't be dissapointed by Peter nor by Genevieve. Peter is a classic Stuart hero...emotionless and frighteningly effcient. The twists and turns of this book in regard to the suspense will keep you on the edge of your seat. Actually, the romance will keep you on the edge of your seat, as well. Genevieve's confusion in relation to her feelings about Peter really make you sympathize with her as a woman. I feel the need to address the review(s) below regarding Peter's bi-sexuality. Peter is not a bi-sexual character. There is absolutely NO sexual explicit content of him with another man. The bottom line in regard to his sexuality is that in his job, he does what needs to be done. He can turn is emotions on and off at will, which is what makes him as good of an operative as he is. Please don't let that turn you away from this book. It is barely worth mentioning.

"Cold As Ice" is the much anticipated follow-up to Anne Stuart's wonderful, darkly romantic thriller, "Black Ice"; it is the second in a series of novels featuring members of a covert group of ruthless operatives employed by a quasi-government agency ominously referred to as "The Committee". "Cold As Ice" is a page-turner of a story delivered in Anne Stuart's trademark fluid prose, with a complex, interesting hero and plucky, prickly heroine. It is a worthy follow-up to "Black Ice", although not quite as delicious as the original (mainly because the hero of "Cold As Ice" cannot compete with "Black Ice"'s hero, Bastien Toussaint, in the smoldering sensuality department. Bastien was *French*, after all!) The hero of "Cold As Ice" is Peter Jensen, currently the Committee's premiere assassin and "closer", a man renowned for his ability to separate himself from his emotions and do whatever it takes to get the job done. Jensen himself muses sardonically that his line of work involves "Saving the world, one murder at a time." Called "The Iceman" for both his temperament and his cool British efficiency in his profession, Jensen possesses a chameleon-like ability to blend into his background, so much so that the heroine, corporate lawyer Genevieve Spenser, all but overlooks him when she first encounters him posing as the bland but hyper-efficient personal assistant to billionaire playboy Harry Van Dorn. Genevieve has come to Van Dorn's private mega-yacht in the Caribbean to deliver some papers for signature prior to beginning her own vacation in Costa Rica. But the billionaire's public facade as a genial philanthropist hides the mind of a very evil, twisted megalomaniac, and the Committee and Peter Jensen are in place to bring Van Dorn down. Genevieve ends up being in the wrong place at the wrong time when she is forced to spend the night on Van Dorn's yacht and finds herself being held hostage as part of a deadly scheme spun by ruthless people who refer to her possible death as "collateral damage" (and those are the good guys.) "Enigma" is the crossword puzzle word that the rather uncannily helpful personal assistant Peter Jensen supplies for Genevieve at the beginning of the book, and the word serves as a good description of his character. He is a fascinating character, but his chilly temperament and emotional distance make him a lot harder to warm up to than Bastien from "Black Ice". Although he certainly is able to appreciate the moral ambiguities of his work, Peter is both more principled and less jaded than Bastien was. Peter dislikes the idea of an innocent bystander such as Genevieve being treated as collateral damage, although he is prepared to do his duty "for the greater good" in order to foil Van Dorn's evil schemes. Peter's gradual emotional thawing is one of the high points of the book. Genevieve is also something of a chameleon--transforming from a poised, elegantly groomed Manhattan lawyer into a brave, scrappy fighter