After spending the summer working as the chef at an Antarctica research station, Angel Smith is ready to leave and get back to warm weather. However, on her last day, the remote research station is attacked, leaving only two survivors – Angel and scientist Ford Cooper. Stranded with no way to contact the outside and realizing that their attackers will return when they figure out they didn’t get what they wanted from the station, Angel and Ford make the decision to cross 300 miles of the desolate and frozen Antarctic to get to the next closest station to get help.
I have kind of a lot to say about this book so this may be a long review…
When I first heard about this book, that it was set in Antarctica and was about a woman who was spending her last day at the research station and that there was an attack and murder and that the name of the book was Whiteout, I immediately thought of the Kate Beckinsale movie, Whiteout, that also takes place at a research station in Antarctica where there is a murder while the main character is getting ready to leave the station for the winter. I kept thinking, is this a book version of that movie? And if it is, why has it taken so long to come out since the movie was released in 2009? And while I thought the movie Whiteout was entertaining, it isn’t really a romance so why are so many people liking this book? But then, I realized the book has no connection to the move but I kept wondering, why would you name your book the same name as a movie when there are so many similarities between the two? I can’t be the only person thinking this right?
This book is a romantic suspense that mainly relies on the forced proximity trope. Angel and Ford are forced to travel together and to share a tent at night. Of course, feelings would develop between the two. However, I couldn’t really get behind the romance. I just didn’t feel really invested in either one of them and I didn’t understand the attraction.
This book is the first book in the Survival Instinct series. This is not a problem (although I do have to say that there was nothing on the Kindle cover that indicated this book was part of a series – see picture above). What is the problem is that the book ends on a cliffhanger that I was not expecting. You think everything is somewhat wrapped up, the characters are going about their business, and then something happens, there’s an action scene, I turned the page and the book was over. I was like what? Especially because my Kindle told me I had at least 20% left in the book – it turns out there was a completely unrelated novella at the end of the book that took up that 20%. I hate it when books end on a cliffhanger and I seriously think that should be disclosed at the beginning of the book.
The villain/bad guys were a bit weird and we kept getting snippets of what they were doing with no real explanation so it took a big chunk of the book before you figured out why the research station was attacked and just what exactly they were after. I found it a bit confusing and I would have just preferred to have a big info dump or some sort of villain monologue so that then I would have known what was going on when the bad guys showed up.
I supposed I was kind of disappointed in this book. I guess I thought the action would actually take place at the research station but a large part of the book is Angel and Ford crossing the ice and traveling to the other station. I read so much about them walking and skiing and then sleeping in the tent and walking and skiing the next day and so on.
I do have to say that I was intrigued by all the stuff we learn about Antarctica, like all of the layers and clothes they have to wear just to go outside and all of the calories the characters have to consume because it is so cold there. Ford and Angel eat a lot of cubes of butter because of the high-fat content which, to be honest sounds kind of gross, but also kind of yummy at the same time. There were times though where I didn’t understand the weather and the temperature. It’s too cold for Ford and Angel to have sex in the tent while lying under multiple sleeping bags, but it’s not too cold to go to the bathroom outside the tent?
This book was fine, but it wasn’t as good as I had hoped it would be.
To check out other reviews, find this book on goodreads or amazon. Please note, all links are affiliate which gives a small portion of profit to Rainy Days and Clichés. Thank you so much for your continuous kindness!
Leave a Reply