<>

Albert Camus

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Thursday, November 16, 2017

REVIEW A Cold Dark Place & A Cold Dark Promise (Cold Justice #1 & #8.5) by Toni Anderson

A Cold Dark Place (Cold Justice #1)
A Cold Dark Promise (Cold Justice #8.5)
by Toni Anderson



REVIEW

The Dark Cold Place

What is more important for you: the first reaction or the one that you get after some time passed and you can “somehow” to think thinks in a more detached way? Yes, I talk about books here, not a major life decision, but still, this is important for a reader.

Even the event today is dedicated to A Cold Dark Promise, I have to start with its leading book A Cold Dark Place. And I could start saying that Mrs. Anderson made a good job with this story. That, because of the characters and the way in which the plot flows.

The characters are also very well built. The female leading character is not a damsel in distress bordering the kickass heroine, but she still preserves her femininity and delicacy. The mix is great. HE is an invincible alpha, but more important is a smart one. Mrs. Anderson knew how to conduct his actions and through them, without being perfect, he is of a Chinese perfection (you know the most appreciated Chinese vases have a story: it is said that none of these absolute perfect vessels resisted the second day, because the perfection couldn’t exist; so, the Chinese craftsmen scratched each of the vases in a hidden place so that they would not reach absolute perfection).

The secondary characters, good or bad are also well round up characters. The bad ones even get both aggravating circumstances and mitigating circumstances.

Mixing the romance and suspense/mystery parts could be tricky, but once again the author managed all very well. There are enough gruesomeness and terror in order to create the perfect stage for a romantic suspense and enough romance to please the reader. Add to this mix: several surprises, wishes that not all of them will be fulfilled and different glimpses of what characters think, and the result will be a steady pace, tension and, at the end, an attractive story with several good guys that could make it… or not... 

The Dark Cold Promise

It was nice to meet again Alex, the main character of A Cold Dark Place. It is obvious that over time and other six books he became even better and he deserved to have a (another) book of his own, even if only a novella. The plus is that this novella gives a fine story. And a bit disappointing for me, because jumping over the other six volumes caused me to lose a lot of interesting protagonists. Yes, even if Alex has the leading role, there are many other nice and interesting characters from the previous stories that have a role to play now and I’m quite curious how they got together. For example, I cannot wait to see how the relationship between Alex and Frazer changed from “rivals” to friends.

Giving the fact that the series is a romantic suspense, Mrs. Anderson played as matchmaker one more time and created another couple. Good and bad (or apparent bad) come together for the romance fans.

With humor, some turns, good rhythm and enough of unexpected, A Cold Dark Promise is not so dark or cold but thoroughly enjoyable. Still, the significance of the title is more than meets the eye at first sight as it is impossible to think that Alex would not keep his promise!

Coming back to my initial question: my first reaction was “great!” and the second one, after the Promise, was: still great!

I had to keep it short in order to cut the losses and start reading the whole series!
PS: A nice way to prepare a wedding! 😏

About the author:
New York Times and USA Today international bestselling author, Toni Anderson, writes dark, gritty Romantic Suspense novels that have hit #1 in Barnes & Noble's Nook store, the Top 10 in Amazon and Kobo stores, and the Top 50 in iBooks. Her novels have won many awards. A former Marine Biologist from Britain, she inexplicably ended up in the geographical center of North America, about as far from the ocean as it is possible to get. She now lives in the Canadian prairies with her Irish husband and two children and spends most of her time complaining about the weather. 

Toni has no explanation for her oft-times dark imagination, and only hopes the romance makes up for it. She's addicted to reading, dogs, tea, and chocolate. 

If you want to know when Toni's next book will be out, visit her website and sign up for her newsletter. If you want to read other fascinating stories about life in a city that, during winter, is sometimes colder than Mars, friend her on Facebook


No comments: