I’ve finally worked my way through Anne Stuart’s Ice series and I highly recommend reading them the moment you get a chance. I’ve just finished Ice Blue, and while it isn’t my favorite of the series, it’s still pretty damn good.  

Summer Hawthorne is a curator for an exclusive museum in California. When her museum decides to do an exhibition on Japanese ceramics she views it as the perfect chance to keep a beloved keepsake safe. A beautiful ice-blue bowl that was given to her by her Japanese nanny is wanted by a creepy leader of a cult who is convinced he needs it to start Armageddon.  

When Summer is kidnapped by Shirosama, the leader of the True Realization Fellowship, Committee member Takashi O’Brian is there to save her. Or is he? Takashi’s mission is to make sure Shirosama does not get his hands on the priceless bowl or Summer, who has the location of a long lost temple buried deep in her memory. Though Summer doesn’t realize she has this information, the Shirosama will do anything to take these two things from her. Takashi must stop this from happening any way he can, even if it means killing Summer.  

Though he tries several times, in the end Takashi’s cold heart is melted by Summer. Throw in several fakes of the ice-blue bowl, the hunt for a secret temple, kidnap attempts, murder, and drop dead gorgeous assassins and you have one hell of a story. Ice Blue is gripping, and Takashi O’Brian is now one of my favorite characters in the entire series.    

One of the things I love is how Stuart weaves the characters from previous books into the plot. Peter (Cold as Ice), Bastian (Black Ice), and Madame Lambert (Ice Storm) all show up at various points as undercover operatives, doing what they do best as members of the Committee. It gives the series a very solid feel and I’ve always been a fan of authors who are able to incorporate favorite characters successfully.  

If you like your romance with an edge, and you don’t mind a little bloodshed, then the Ice series is perfect. After reading all four it’s a little formulaic in that the heroes are always these hard, cold blooded killers and the heroines are these sexually inexperienced girls who are in the wrong place at the wrong time and manage to melt the hero. It works though, and Stuart puts a new twist on it each time. I can’t wait for the next book!