#333 ~ Fire and Ice

Fire and Ice by Anne Stuart

Published by: Harlequin

Published on: September 2008

Page Count: 384

Genre: Romance

My Reading Format: Audiobook given to me as a gift

Audiobook Published by: Tantor Media

Narrator: Xe Sands

Audiobook Length: 8 hours, 29 minutes

Available Formats: eBook, audiobook

Note: There’s a lot of spice in this novel. Although the premise of the novel was too fantastic for me to take any of it as anything other than steamy fun, there is one scene especially that may offend some readers.

My Review

Jilly Lovetz is a smart, beautiful LA girl. She grew up with a mother concerned only about appearances and seemed to rebel by proving her worth outside of her own good looks.  For all of Jilly’s smarts, she’s naive about matters of the heart and body. After making a disastrous choice in the first man she ever slept with, she takes off to Tokyo. Her sister Summer lives there with her new husband who happens to be part of a powerful Japenese Yakuza (organized crime syndicate) family. Jilly tries to kid herself that she’s going only to be comforted by her sister and study, but in her heart of hearts, she’s hoping to run into Summer’s cousin-in-law, Reno.  What Jilly didn’t know when she drove from the airport to her sister’s house was that all hell was breaking loose in the business and she was about to get caught up in the middle. Soon enough she would be too close to comfort with the real Reno, not her fantasy.

Jilly has been crushing on Reno since Summer’s wedding. With tattoos on his face, gorgeous hair, and the physique of a god, this punk is the ultimate bad boy. She doesn’t think she’d ever have a chance with him because of her American build. What passes for beautiful in the US is gargantuan in comparison to the tiny women of Japan. What she doesn’t know is that Reno, a man not one for long term relationships, wants nothing more than to get into her pants. Unfortunately Summer’s husband and his cousin, the one man who could hurt Reno, has threatened him with this life if he ever lays a hand on Jilly. When he’s forced to be her protector and body guard, he does everything he can to piss her off in hopes of keeping her at arm’s length. It was inevitable. The fun was in watching them get there.

Fire and Ice was an audiobook read and I was excited to finally get to hear the voice of Xe Sands. We’ve chatted often on Twitter, but I had no idea what to expect from her in terms of her narration. She made the experience all the more entertaining because I could sense that she had  a good time, too. Her voice is melodic and distinctive. While the male voices weren’t always distinct, the Japanese accent was convincing and impressively different from her speaking voice. The entire time I felt like I was sitting back while a good friend told me a taudry story. I was also happy to finally learn how to pronounce Xe’s first name. I had been saying “Zee” in my head while Xe is actually pronounced as if reading out each letter individually. That it rhymes with sexy was most appropriate. She enhanced the sexual tension while Jilly and Reno fought their feelings and turned on the spice as they became fully entangled.

Fire and Ice lived up to its name. Half the time I was yelling at Jilly and Reno to get over themselves and get down to business. The rest of the time I was fanning myself to cool down. Anne Stuart’s story was over the top.  Reno was nothing short of a mafia superhero and it was fun to lose myself in the drama. I didn’t completely buy Jilly’s lack of sexual experience and her somewhat exaggerated self-esteem issues, but then again I didn’t really care. I was in it for the ride and Reno was a nice piece of Harlequin reader’s-eye candy. The audio was the cherry on top. Xe Sands can read to me anytime.