TJ's Reviews > Cold As Ice

** spoiler alert **

Proof that even the gifted Anne Stuart can have a really, REALLY bad day.

I SO wanted to like this book. So much so that I stubbornly held on to my 3 star desires even though Peter and Genny's relationship became more and more offensive as the story progressed.

Judge for yourselves:

Genny stumbles into a deadly situation she knows nothing about. Peter then chooses to kidnap her rather than kill her immediately - rationalizing that giving her a couple more days of life before he does the deed is honorable. He makes no bones about the fact that he will kill her in the end though (they discuss it often). He assures her he will make it as painless as possible, this should make her feel better. For some deranged reason, he then decides to prove the point that he uses sex only as a weapon of war and proceeds to seduce her, bed her and bring them both to orgasm without batting an eye or raising his heartbeat. This against her will - well, against her mind, her body betrays her and responds (eye roll). He proves his point repeatedly over the two days they are together, she is devastated but somehow realizes she has fallen in love with him... uh, why?

Without giving too much away, let's just say she escapes. He finds her and repeats above performance. This time telling her she is "nothing special" as he does it. Before leaving, he is thoughtful enough to inform her that the sex this time was only a means to get her to do what he wanted her to. She does, but she is so broken up over his indescribable, despicable treatment, it's hard to even read.

I won't even attempt to discuss her myriad stupid decisions such as KNOWINGLY running into a guns-drawn stand off screaming Peter's name. Of course he looks and gets shot to pieces while she wails. Beyond brainless.

So what happens in the end? Months later, after that last "you're nothing special, I just used you to get what I want" go around and without seeing or speaking to each other since, he decides to go home. There he finds the surprise of his life. Her... living in his house, smiling and saying "welcome home, I've been waiting, what took you so long?" The end.

I'm not kidding. It is that bad, that stupid and that ridiculous. The ending should win an award for the absolute worst, pathetic, doormat ending in the history of contemporary romance - bar none. It is also what convinced me that I couldn't in all honesty give this book anything but a 1 star.