Fire And Ice

Sophie Rose, a tough and determined newspaper reporter, is the daughter of Bobby Rose, a suave, charming, and handsome gentleman who also happens to be a notorious big-time thief sought by every law-enforcement agency in the country. When the major Chicago daily where she works insists she write an exposé about her roguish father, Sophie refuses, quits her job, and goes to work at a small newspaper. Far from her onetime high-powered crime beat, she now covers local personalities such as the quirky winner of several area 5K runs whose trademark is goofy red socks.

Those red socks–with Sophie’s business card neatly tucked inside–are practically all that’s found after runner William Harrington is killed near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, seemingly the victim of a brutal death by polar bear. The Alaska cops want to know why Harrington carried Sophie’s card. With an unerring nose for a good story, she heads north.

What Sophie doesn’t realize is that on her journey from Chicago to Prudhoe Bay, danger follows in her wake. After one attempt on her life, she’s been assigned brash but sexy Jack MacAlister as a bodyguard by the cautious FBI. Amid great peril and deadly intrigue in the unforgiving Alaskan terrain, she and Jack form an uneasy alliance sparked with sensual attraction. But they will soon be fighting more than their growing passion for each other. Powerful forces will stop at nothing to prevent the exposure of the sinister conspiracy Sophie and Jack are about to uncover.

Captivating mystery, unyielding desire, unrelenting action in a setting both beautiful and lethal–Julie Garwood weaves these thrilling elements into a heat-generating masterpiece of romantic suspense.

I admit that I haven't been pleased with Julie Garwood's contemporary romantic suspense novels, I love her historicals and it's taking me a long time getting used to her writting contemporaries (can you tell?!) but that hasn't stopped me from reading her books. I do have to say that this one hasn't helped change my mind, either.

It has the usual quick pace and great dialogue, the characters are good, and we see familiar faces, the suspense is there. Even though I really didn't get the reason why Sophie was so hyped about finding the guy with the red socks. And where's the romance? Can someone please tell me where the romance has gone? I found that Jack and Sophie fell in love too quickly, and it just didn't make sense to me.

Fire and Ice by Julie Garwood (3/5) Romantic Suspense; Published: Ballantine Books (2008); 2009 100 + Reading Challenge (47); 2009 Support Your Local Library (41);