Friday, November 07, 2014

Review: Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick

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I received this book for free from Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review: Black Ice by Becca FitzpatrickBlack Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick
Published by Simon & Schuster BfYR on October 7th 2014
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery, YA
Source: Simon & Schuster
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three-stars

Sometimes danger is hard to see... until it’s too late.

Britt Pfeiffer has trained to backpack the Teton Range, but she isn't prepared when her ex-boyfriend, who still haunts her every thought, wants to join her. Before Britt can explore her feelings for Calvin, an unexpected blizzard forces her to seek shelter in a remote cabin, accepting the hospitality of its two very handsome occupants—but these men are fugitives, and they take her hostage.

In exchange for her life, Britt agrees to guide the men off the mountain. As they set off, Britt knows she must stay alive long enough for Calvin to find her. The task is made even more complicated when Britt finds chilling evidence of a series of murders that have taken place there... and in uncovering this, she may become the killer’s next target.

But nothing is as it seems in the mountains, and everyone is keeping secrets, including Mason, one of her kidnappers. His kindness is confusing Britt. Is he an enemy? Or an ally?

There is a lot I could complain about with this book, but I was still strangely entertained by it all. I also think the fact that it was an audiobook made me enjoy it more than if I had read a paper copy – the narrator was great and really brought the MC to life. As if she was telling me her story.

But man, the romance. *pokes out eyeballs*. First, I’m sorry but that was totally Stockholm Syndrome. Or at least it started that way, which creeped me out more than it made me swoon. This dude is forcing you to bring his criminal ass back to civilization so he can run from the cops, but you fall for his charms because he’s hot? Eh, okay.. But anyways, I’m getting ahead of myself. So this book starts out like your average horror movie – girls get stuck in a storm and walk into this strangers’ cabin only to find out they’re not exactly as friendly as you had made them out to be. Obviously, it’s not the most original of plots, yet I found myself compelled by it all. I enjoy survivalist stories, which this one turned out to be, and it had me curious as to how it would all turn out. And like I said, the lively audiobook narrator made it entertaining!

Britt, the main character, I have very mixed feelings for. I didn’t like her, really, but I didn’t exactly hate her either. She’s resourceful and with enough balls to take risks – she doesn’t just cower in a corner as a helpless victim. She’s also strong and smart when it comes to knowing how to survive in the wild (or at least she seemed to be from someone who has no clue about hiking). So I admired these qualities in her. On the other hand, she can be awfully oblivious and this frustrated me on a regular basis. Like I mentioned, the romance is just strange, and when she’s not swooning over her captor, she’s reminiscing about her jerk of an ex boyfriend who cheated on her. Plus, it becomes so clear who the “bad guy” in this story really is, and I wanted to slap her for being so blind to it all. For automatically blaming the wrong person and not putting 2+2 together. I mean come on! Maybe I’m just tuned-in to the obvious because I’ve read about a million mystery books, but I found it terribly predictable.

Due to this predictability, the plot was not as thrilling or exciting as it could have been. The tension is missing for the most part, and there isn’t anything especially shocking. The story is also told with the help of regular flashbacks, during which we learn of her past relationship with Calvin and what he meant to her. Instead of coming to understand her admiration for him, however, it only cemented my opinion that this guy is a complete ass. She keeps believing that these “bad boys” have a heart of gold somewhere hidden inside and that just made me sad, to be honest. She wants her knight in shining armor, a guy that will take care of her and protect her – save her from herself, maybe? Bleh. Though to be fair, she also chose badly when it came to best friends. Her “BFF” is a bitch who keeps up a journal listing the ways in which she’s better than Britt O_o

I’m aware that this review contains mostly complaints. And this book is far from being perfect, but even with all its faults I was always happy to be getting back to the book; it compelled me despite it all. I also did like the ending. I liked that they gave it time and didn’t expect their love to heal all. So overall I found it was 3-star worthy!

three-stars

3 Hot Espressos

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Canadian blogger, wife, mother, coffee lover, and sarcastic at heart! She has had a love for all things bookish since before Amazon and eReaders existed *le gasp*. You can also find her organizing tours and other fun things at Xpresso Book Tours.

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13 Responses to “Review: Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick”

  1. Pili

    Well, it seems that despite it being entertaining and all that, the romance is something that will put me off the book for sure… Seems that the author has a knack for writing romance that I’m not a fan of…

  2. Nick @ Nick's Book Blog

    I’m honestly not sure if I want to read this. Even though it sounds entertaining, the characters sound like real pieces of work. I think for now I’m just going to skip it. The bff sounds like a complete bitch. Ugh. -_-

  3. Becky

    I’m very reluctant to pick this up purely because of hush hush by her, I really didn’t enjoy it but that may be more to do with the story of hush hush than Becca Fitzpatrick’s writing.. This hasn’t really made me want to pick it up, there are books I want more! But you did a really great review as always 😀

  4. Chyna @ Lite-Rate-Ture

    At some point Black Ice just felt so draggy. Ended up hating the book because of it, the romance made it worse for me. I was so excited to read Black Ice because it was my first arc from this publisher, but then….my happiness wasn’t enough for me to enjoy the book. But I did like the last 5 pages HAHAH

  5. Mishma @ As the page turns

    Well, I am neither a fan of mysteries nor Becca Fitzpatrick-I hated her Hush Hush-but still I really wanted to read this book since the blurb sounded so interesting and captivating.But after reading all the reviews for the book, I am kinda having second thoughts whether to go for this or not.
    Stockholm syndrome is a concept that’s shown in a wrong way in fiction nowadays.There are cases where the guy is misunderstood or circumstances make him do wrong things.I can accept that.
    But when a girl falls for a psychopath or a criminal, then it’s a bit too much.
    Thankfully the concept is not much used in YA unlike it’s overuse in NA and Adult.

  6. Kristilyn (Reading In Winter)

    Yup. My review was pretty much the same. It looked like SUCH a good story, but I knew the instant I met the so-called best friend that it wasn’t going to be great … not to mention the “Oh, everything seems totally sketchy and we really shouldn’t be here but these guys are totally hot so we might as well call dibs on them and la la la …” part. I still finished the book, but yeah, I expected it to be way better.

  7. Lorna

    Sometimes books we don’t really like, make us still want to know what happens, I guess. I have so many books that I didn’t finish; I think this would have been one of them for me. Thanks for sharing 🙂

  8. jazmen

    I was so excited for the release of the book. I haven’t read it yet but I plan to. I hope I like it a little more than it sounded like you did. I hate to be disappointed by books I’ve been wanting so bad.

  9. Savannah

    Personally I really loved the mystery aspect of it. I never did guess who the killer was till the end but it did have me at the edge of my seat. Thanks for being honest and sharing your thoughts.

  10. Vi

    Yeah, I think I’m gonna pass on this one. I remember reading a couple chapters and not feeling it at all, lol. I really hate it when the best friend is a bitch. Ugh, why do people have friendships like that?!