Black Ice; Anne Stuart
What can I say? YUMMMY. Sebastien is one of my favorite hero types: emotionally wounded, cynical & jaded. Chloe- not so much, although I appreciated her willingness to leave her family rather than bow to their pressure & I loved how they came through for her when she needed them. I also loved how Sebastien had them come rescue her, even if it wasn't necessarily for the right reasons.
Ms. Stuart also comes theough with one of my favorite poems of all time, The Highwayman by Englishman Alfred Noyes. I have tremendous respect for Ms. Stuart's work already, quoting a poem (p. 266, I believe) only increases my respect.
Er. One problem though. Early on in the story Sebastien refers to himself in the third person- implying that this is an assumed identity (he is an agent in a supersecret spy organization) he will have to give up. By the end of the book, he & Chloe are sucessfully united & defeat the bad guys. However, no mention of his 'real' identity or if, indeed, Sebastien Toussaint is his actual identity. Minor detail, but a crucial one. Even more importantly- Chloe doesn't ask about his identity, despite knowing he's an agent.
Perhaps I'm a bit too jaded & cynical & devoted to a drop of reality. Chloe meets him in a circumstance where she's extremely wary of Sebastien & doesn't trust him. Once she realizes he's an agent, she wonders where he's really from but never pursues his background. I guess I'm simply too nosey- I ask too many questions & I'm probably too persistant in wanting answers.
Still, even with that issue- loved this book. Plan to go find the others in this group. Stuart's heroes have always been at the top of my list & Toussaint is no exception. BTW, links are in Tuesday's post.
Romantic Suspense Review, Anne Stuart, Black Ice
3 comments:
Ohhh, another Stuart lover!!!
That's the thing about Stuart books though, you don't always get all the answers.
I remember reading one of her stories (sorry, bad with titles) where at the end, this tortured hero was at peace, building a home for him and his wife and she was expecting a child. It was shocking in that I was used to him as this dark hero and then you see him almost idealically happy. Too much of a switch which might be why Stuart choses not to do epilogues.
CindyS
I guess I'm simply too nosey- I ask too many questions & I'm probably too persistant in wanting answers.
This was exact type of situation I meant when I blogged about Ask The Question yesterday.
But, like you I completely overlooked that in this book, because I LOVED everything else about the book.
Cindy- I'm glad she doesn't do epilogues often. It's enough for me that the couple is together at the end.
Tara- Maybe the questioning issue is simply a factor of a) getting older & choosier or b) having too much time on my hands that I dissect my books or c) reading too many less than adequate novels & becomeing more critical as a result.
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