Adriana Anders

Whiteout

Lauren Sullivan

Romantic suspense can be something of a mixed bag for me. Some of the tropes seem very silly to me (“We’re in immediate peril! Let’s stop to make out!”) but every once in a while I’ll find some that are, well, absolutely amazing, and Whiteout definitely deserves that praise.

“Cooking’s like making music.” She threw him a smile. “It’s the perfect storm of smell and touch and taste and even sound, you know? That sizzle in the pan, the pop of spices. The moment you turn the heat off and there, right there, the ingredients let off a warm, enveloping steam.”

One of my absolute favorite things is the grumpy/sunny opposites attract trope, and in this case the hero is literally an Ice Man with a sunshiney cook heroine. At the start of the book, Angel is convinced that Coop hates her due to his gruff treatment of her, while Coop acts that way because he’s overwhelmed by Angel’s excessively everythingness, to paraphrase the book. Both are trying to deal with an unwanted attraction to the other, and it looks like nothing will come with it on the day Angel is due to leave the Antarctic research station with the rest of the summer hires. But a last-minute trip to the storage room leads to her witnessing a murder, and soon she and Coop are the only people at the abandoned base. Forced to trek across the unforgiving Antarctic landscape, they must face not only pursuit from the murderers but the dangers of the Antarctic winter as well.

“And suddenly, he understood why he couldn’t have her back then, or now. Or ever.
He was a starving man and she was an oasis, a hallucination, a single sparkling drop of water in his desiccated world. And the problem with giving in, drinking that water, getting just one little taste, was that he’d know exactly what he’d been missing. And he’d never, ever be able to go back.”

A reoccurring theme throughout the book is control. Coop is an absolute control freak, happiest out on the ice where he can avoid any of those pesky emotions. Part of it is that Coop has a sensory processing disorder and hyperfocuses on things, part of it stems from some childhood trauma. Angel, on the other hand, jokes that she never had any control to begin with, and that she jumps into things headfirst without thinking. Those rash decisions – and their consequences – ended up with her taking the post as cook at the research station as a way to escape her past and rebuild herself. Even the main villain is searching to regain control after a devastating loss. Beyond the characters, though, there’s also the very “high school English class”-esque man versus nature going on. One of my favorite touches was the chapter headings listing how many miles remained to their destination and the amount of food left. It’s such a minor thing, but it highlighted exactly how little control Angel and Coop had over their journey.

Despite the fact that most of the book takes place in an environment where taking your clothes off for a little making out would kill you, the sexual tension is ridiculous. From being forced to link their sleeping bags together to share body heat, to each character’s insistence on not leaving the other behind, it paired perfectly with the thriller plot’s tension. And this book was so suspenseful that I had to put the book down because I was too worried about the characters! One of my main gripes with suspense/thrillers is the villain’s POV: I’m usually completely uninterested by them and find that they take away from the building suspense rather than add to it. In this case, however, I honestly enjoyed them, especially the female villain’s, and thought it added to the suspense.

Overall this was an extremely enjoyable read, and I’ve already grabbed the anthology with the series prequel. I will definitely be looking for the next book in the series! 4.5 stars!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Nicola Sarah Brooks

Danger comes in many forms in the Antarctic. It's not just the weather that's out to get Ford and Angel!

Extreme weather, extreme danger, and extreme passion. Sure the romance may be mistimed occasionally but, heck, it's romantic suspense - real-life rules do not apply! Let's just say their fist full-on liplock made my toes curl in a good way!

Action, adventure, and unexpected heroes. A Glaciologist and Chef are not your usual action heroes. But they are super resourceful and it's nice to see the nerds save the day!

b.andherbooks

A chef running the cafeteria for an Antarctic science research facility finds herself caught in a deadly trek across the ice with the one man she couldn't stand after rogue mercenaries try to kill everyone to obtain ice cores holding a deadly virus.

Both thrilling and steamy, this is a delicious forced proximity romance.

I adored the awkward, tall scientist Ford Cooper, who is so afraid of his own feelings he had to run away to the Antarctic to escape them, until he finds Angel Smith who is also a sheer delight. Bonus points to Anders for making frozen sex super hot and the tension between these two fun and also with light-hearted moments, despite being basically on a death race. This reminded me of the X-Files episode Ice, minus the deadly ear worms (and that is high praise from me).

CW for gun violence, on page murder (not of main characters), sleeping bag sexy times.

Lynn Braden

The time has come for Angel Smith to leave Antarctica and return to the US after spending months as head chef for Burke-Ruhe Research Station at the South Pole. Angel doesn't know where she will go or what she will do since coming to Antarctica was a means to get away from a difficult situation in Pennsylvania which had been her home. It doesn't help that her attraction to glaciologist Dr. Ford Cooper has gone unrequited. Ford has purposefully isolated himself from anyone and anything other than his work ever since his arrival at the station. When Angel's departure is interrupted and she is left behind, she discovers that there is more going on at the station than research.

Whiteout is an enjoyable, if unrealistic, romantic adventure/survival novel with underdeveloped but likable characters. The beginning of the book is exciting and draws the reader into multiple possible scenarios surrounding the mysteries of the research station, but when the story moves out into the wilderness and becomes all about survival, the pace slows considerably causing interest to wane. Excitement picks up again in the last third of the story, salvaging the book and making it an enjoyable novel. Overall, Whiteout has enough action, suspense, and romance to make it worth the read. 3 1/2 stars.

Nicky Morgan

Ashley Baker

Lorena

"Scorching hot and beautifully emotional."—Lori Foster, New York Times Bestselling Author With a storm coming and a killer on the loose, every step could be their last... Angel Smith is finally ready to leave Antarctica for a second chance at life. But on what was meant to be her last day, the remote research station she's been calling home is attacked. Hunted and scared, she and irritatingly gorgeous glaciologist Ford Cooper barely make it out with their lives...only to realize that in a place this remote, there's nowhere left to run. Isolated with no power, no way to contact the outside world, and a madman on their heels, Angel and Ford must fight to survive in the most inhospitable—and beautiful—place on earth. But what starts as a partnership born of necessity quickly turns into an urgent connection that burns bright and hot. They both know there's little chance of making it out alive, and yet they are determined to weather the coming storm—no matter the cost. Survival Instincts Series: Deep Blue (novella—featured in Turn the Tide) Whiteout (Book 1) Praise for Whiteout: "Adriana Anders brings twisted intrigue and sizzling passion hot enough to melt the ice in WHITEOUT! Sexy, smart and tough characters in a beautifully ice-cold landscape will grab you from the first line and keep you along for a wild ride to the very end."—REBECCA ZANETTI, New York Times Bestselling author "Strong heroines, sizzling tension. Heart and heat abound!"—MOLLY O'KEEFE, USA Today Bestselling Author "The gripping characters, fresh writing, unique setting, and a villain as cold as the Antarctic itself, make this a fiercely enjoyable story."—TONI ANDERSON, New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author "Whiteout is an exhilarating story of survival and love against all the odds. I couldn't put it down!"—KATEE ROBERT, New York Times Bestselling Author "What a thrill ride! The action is nonstop—I don't think I took a breath until I finished."—KATIE RUGGLE "A thrilling chase across the desolate and changeable beauty of Antarctica. Adriana Anders is a master."—MARIA VALE

Whiteout

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