Cold as Ice

By: Anne Stuart

Narrated by: Natalie Gold

The job was supposed to be dead easy: hand-deliver some legal papers to billionaire philanthropist Harry Van Dorn's extravagant yacht, get his signature and be done. But Manhattan lawyer Genevieve Spenser soon realizes she's in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that the publicly benevolent playboy has a sick, vicious side.

As he tries to make her his plaything for the evening, eager to use and abuse her until he discards her with the rest of his victims, Genevieve must keep her wits if she intends to survive the night.

But there's someone else on the ship who knows the true depths of Van Dorn's evil. Peter Jensen is far more than the unassuming personal assistant he pretends to be - he's a secret operative who will stop at nothing to ensure Harry's deadly Rule of Seven terror campaign dies with him. But Genevieve's presence has thrown a wrench into his plans, and now he must decide whether to risk his mission to keep her alive, or allow her to become collateral damage.

©2006 Anne Stuart (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A master at creating chilling atmosphere with a modern touch." ( Library Journal)
"Stuart courts controversy with Jensen's lack of emotion and total body control, allowing him to use sex as a tool for disarming both women and men; her hero's sexual flexibility is bound to turn off some readers, just as it's bound to entice others. Those who take the plunge shouldn't be disappointed: Stuart knows how to take chances, and this edgy thriller shows how well they can pay off." ( Publishers Weekly)

audio voices

would like to hear men's voices for the men and women's voices for women. it would make for a better audio experience.

Great

Exciting, keeps our attention, written well Really enjoyed the book!
Makes you wonder all during the book.

Delicious.

When I first began reading Anne Stuart's "Ice" series, I was both drawn to, and repelled by, the extreme anti-hero nature of the male protagonists. Reading two or more in the series, though, you quickly learn that even the baddest of Stuart's bad-asses are basically tasty truffles, with a soft, gooey romantic soul at the center.

This is one of my favorites in the series, perhaps because the truffle in question, luscious Peter, decides pretty much from the get-go that he isn't going to allow anything horrific to happen to Genevieve. He can't bring himself to tell her as much, of course, because Stuart's Ice men are all about keeping control by intimidation. Which makes it all the more thrilling when they melt and fall in love.

Entertaining Book

Anne Stuart is known for her bad-boy heroes, but in Cold as Ice it's the heroine who steals the show. Genevieve Spenser is a wonderful character - she grew up nouveau pauvre, in a family that insists on keeping up appearances despite the fact that the money's all gone, and it gives her a unique mix of effortless cultivation and real toughness. Peter Jensen admires her because she never gives up - she always fights back, even though she doesn't stand a chance against a team of trained professionals. She doesn't lose her cool, she keeps her dignity, she doesn't whine or have hysterics.

Peter is the Iceman - the perfect operative, conscientious, careful, totally dedicated to his job. First he's just upset that he hasn't managed to get Genevieve out of danger - he's never killed an innocent before, and he doesn't want to. Then he toys with her, testing the limits of her resilience; he taunts her and she doesn't break down, he teases her with the possibility of escape, and he's full of admiration when her reaction is just to listen and learn. Ultimately, Peter finds out that he wasn't just toying with her after all.

The plot is well-paced, and I liked the twists and turns; each shift in the villain's dastardly plans ends up making emotional demands on Peter and Genevieve in a way that propells their relationship forward. I could have wished that the novel were longer, took place over a greater period of time, so that their relationship could develop into something more solid, but I believed the connection between the two.

Natalie Gold was excellent with the delivery of the story.

Ok, why??

Great story, but I wanted to smack the heroine. Why are all of the female leads so stupid? Smart and head strong is one thing, intently hardheaded and reckless another.