Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick

Britt is spending spring break with her best friend Korbie, backpacking in the mountains. Britt has been training hard for this adventure and is really looking forward to it. But she's shaken when Korbie's parents insist that her older brother tag along as a chaperone. Calvin, you see, is Britt's ex. The break-up wasn't kind and Calvin is still somewhat of an obsession for Britt.

Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick
Buy Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens
Reviewer: Jill Murphy
Summary: Romantic thriller in which a young girl is attracted to one of her abductors while they're alone in the woods during a blizzard. Thriller lovers will roll their eyes but fans of romantic fiction will thoroughly enjoy it.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 400	Date: October 2014
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 1471118142
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But the girls are caught in a snowstorm before they even make it up the mountain. Seeking shelter at a remote cabin, they are taken hostage by two fugitives and Britt finds evidence linking them to a series of murders. They expect Britt to lead them off the mountain to safety and Britt's only option is to agree. Can she stay alive long enough for Calvin to come to her rescue? And why does one of her captors keep showing kindness to Britt? Is Mason an enemy? Or an ally?

Ok. I'll just get the straight-talking out of the way before we go any further. Black Ice is a romantic thriller. If you are a big fan of the thriller side of that combination, this probably isn't the book for you. You're just going to spend the entire time rolling your eyes. If, however, it's the romance side of things that interests you, you'll love this story. It is a romance novel with a touch of thriller for good measure. It has all the tropes. There's a "spunky" heroine used to depending on men and fighting for independence, which she finds but only in terms of romance novels. That is to say, our central character's life is all about boys at the beginning of the book and it's still all about boys at the end of the book. There's a user of a boy. We don't like him. And there's a romantic hero. We like him. There's a bitchy best friend. We feel superior to her. You know the drill.

The thriller aspect is considerably less satisfying - if you like thrillers, that is. The main characters put themselves in danger in truly ridiculous ways. The heroine is more bothered about the gleam in the eye and the curl of the lip of the hero than she is about the grizzly bear charging her down. You can spot the villain and the plot denouement in nano-seconds. But even so, if you look at it in terms of a romance novel, the thriller aspect actually does work. You have blizzards, grizzly bear attacks, a serial killer, survival techniques and lord knows what else, all tied up in an easy writing style that invites you to turn pages more and more quickly. And a very sexy boy to lust over.

So y'know. Whether or not you'll enjoy Black Ice very much depends on the type of story you generally enjoy. I'll be honest: it wasn't for me. But I can think of plenty of readers who'll love it.

You might also enjoy Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready and Tease by Amanda Maciel both of which combine thriller and romance and achieve a good balance of the two. You might also enjoy The Mark by Rosemary Hayes.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick at Amazon.com.

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