Review: Adriana Anders's WHITEOUT.

​I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Netgalley but all opinions provided are my own.
 
I can’t say that I remember reading any books set in Antarctica before, much less a searing romance that features one of my favorite combinations: a grumpy, taciturn hero and a “sunshine” heroine who’s friends with everyone…but the hero.
 
The fact is that despite my extreme aversion to the cold—I usually try to walk around in head to toe fleece in the winter—Adriana Anders’s Pole romance Whiteout has everything that I want: the fantastic tension of that aforementioned grumpy/sunshine dynamic; a keen sense of bated-breath suspense, given that the stakes are life and death and the latter seems all too easy to imagine with an Antarctica survival story; and a distinctive writing style that makes even something like the endless white and sometimes gray/sometimes blue expanse of Antarctica—the ice and the rush and the despair, the way such an inhospitable environment can bring a grumpy hero and a sunshine heroine together—feel fresh and new, even as said hero and heroine spend day after day trekking across it.
 
Simply put, this book is amazing, and I loved every minute of it.
 
Cook Angel Smith accepted a position at the Burke-Ruhe Research Station in the South Pole after her life fell apart. She’s drawn to the grumpiest person in the camp, researcher Dr. Ford Cooper, whom she’s privately christened Ice Man. Despite her attraction (which grumpy hero Ford secretly reciprocates but will never act upon), Angel has every intention on saying goodbye to the station and heading back home, only she misses the plane out and witnesses a murder instead.
 
Suddenly, she and Ford are allies, the only people left at the station who can possibly prevent the villains in the story from a nefarious plot involving something-which-will-not-be-named-because-spoilers. In their desperation they set out across the landscape, knowing that with every step they’re probably walking closer, and not farther away, from death.
 
Whiteout’s full of twists and turns, it’s intense and even stressful at times, and all of it’s blissfully rewarding for the reader. It’s also full of passion and sweetness, the latter of which is particularly powerful because Ford doesn’t really have those soft/protective instincts for anyone but Angel, and he’s all too willing to do whatever it takes to keep her safe. He’s the ice-bound bodyguard she's (you’ve) always wanted.
 
Whiteout was a complete surprise for me, and I. can’t. wait. to. read. more. (Seriously, when can I read more?)

5 ⭐️