Fire and Ice

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 show more 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. show less

Really good. fire and Ice was the perfect title. It described Jilly and Reno's relationship to a T. He wasn't quite as dark and damaged as the other heroes of this series. But it was fun watching him fall in love all the same.

Fire and Ice
3 Stars

Jilly Lovitz arrives in Japan to visit her sister and becomes the target of Russian assassins and Japanese Yakuza who want to use her as bait in a mafia turf war. Sent in to protect her, Committee agent, Reno, must deal not only with Jilly’s distrust of his motives, but his increasing attraction to a woman who is definitely “hands off”.

Not one of the better installments in Anne Stuart’s Ice series. The plot is paper thin and the romance is unrealistic.

The mutual attraction between Jilly and Reno began two years earlier when they first set eyes on each other. Jilly’s adolescent crush has not matured and she comes across as a lovestruck teenager making excuses for a man who treats her like dirt. Reno is not show more much better and his degrading and condescending attitude is not appealing in a hero. The fact that they cannot spend two minutes in each other’s company without hurling insults does not make for a promising romance and the eventual “I love you's” are not believable.

The kidnapping assassins plot and internal struggle within a Yakuza family lacks foundation and is not fleshed out well. There is never any real threat from the villain and the last few chapters are completely superfluous.

All in all, Stuart’s ice cold heroes are starting to wear thin. Its a good thing that there is only one more book in the series. Hopefully it will end on a high note. show less

It kills me to give it three stars, and I even contemplated going lower than that, but I'm upping the rating thanks to Japan. I just wasn't feeling it.

You already know Jilly and Reno - and you probably know there was something going on between them when they first meet in Ice Blue. So many possibilities.
You already learned in Ice Storm that Reno has been kept away from Jilly, and you will learn in this book that her sister kept her away from Reno, too.

I have no idea why these people think they can mess with other people's love lives! And I know this is such a weird thing to say in relation to these books, because everyone does whatever they want to do in them, but it was like the author tried to fabricate this huge conflict, only she show more didn't. But okay.

Jilly is so annoying! I swear I wanted to smack her repeatedly and I did a little *whoop* every time someone got to her. For how many times we are told she's this genius, smart girl that was done with college by the time she was 18 - I never once saw it. Starting with her stupid one night stand, to coming to Japan on an impulse, then she proceeds to act stupid around Reno and she doesn't take her safety seriously at all. She throws a hissy fit which lands them in some really deep sh*t. Basically, she's a whiny, spoiled child and as much as the author tried to make her look like this strong heroine, she just wasn't that for me.

Reno, it breaks my heart to say this, but I think you're just not Committee material! I liked you, Reno, in both previous books, but here you just came off as a typical commitment-phobe in denial. Yeah, you have some mad skills but you're constantly running rampant, and tell me, how is that good material for a Committee operative? Let me tell you, it's just not.

The whole thing just felt forced, you know? And I was looking forward to it, too, which is probably why I'm so disappointed. Their whole relationship was forced, the way they interact, the way they come together (no pun intended, I promise). Somewhere halfway through there is finally, finally some chemistry between them, but it was too little, too late.

Also, how is Jilly 20, when she was 16 in Ice Blue? Not sure.
As usually, there are a couple of graphic sex scenes in the book.

And there was no Bastien (but there were Taka and Peter). Just kidding. He wouldn't have saved this book for me. Or maybe he would, I don't act reasonable when it comes to Bastien. But I digress.

Anyways, here's your proof I'm not handing out my five stars to these books just because. This essentially had everything the other books had, but the author just didn't handle it right. I'm kind of miffed because I was hoping I'd have a 5.0 series, but no. I just wasn't feeling it. show less

I read this more on a whim than anything else, since I've only read one other book in this series and I felt like reading something by this author.

What I liked was the setting in Japan, and not your typical hero or one I've run across and actually wanted to read. But one thing I have noticed is how the author can take an unlikable character type and make that character likable.

The heroine Jilly is a genius and still young but while some may not liker I found her to be a likable character and that mostly had to do Jilly's quips that were laced through the book. Reno though something of a jerk amused me as well. Honestly I kept picturing a certain character from Kyo when his long, dyed red hair was mentioned but that mostly has to do show more with fact that I was watching Kyo the other day. One thing I do know for me is that humor can save a book from a tosser to keeper.

What I didn't like but I was able to overlook as I read was the lack of "getting to know" each other. Mostly they were running about Tokyo and the bad guys constant something going on the whole time. Dropping dead guys here and there then taking off. I thoroughly enjoyed it. show less

As for this installment in the Ice Series, I'm more pleased than I was with Ice Storm though I do have some complaints here, as well. My biggest problem is that Jilly doesn't come across like the wunderkind genius she's supposed to be, especially considering we get her perspective and thoughts for half of the story. Aside from her language skills, there's nothing to indicate her advanced intelligence. Stuart was more successful at this in Ice Blue, showing Jilly's mental fortitude during her captivity. I guess I'm comparing with Karen Marie Moning's supersmart characters, who maintain a brainiac theme to their perspectives even if they're not spouting off cosmological formulas. Still, I liked this book, especially how Stuart works in show more Japanese culture -- just enough to put you in mind of watching anime and eating terriyaki chicken with chopsticks, not so much that it reads like a tour guide. I also love Reno's character and the return of Taka, whose story was the first of the series that I read. show less

Very fast paced up to the very end. I loved reading Jilly an Reno's story. I wanted to learn more about Reno's past and personality and this book really gave so much insight.