IN THE COLD by Jeanie London

I looked at this book on the NEW RELEASES shelf forever in my local Barnes and Noble. I kept picking it up and putting it down indecisive about buying it. I've never read Jeanie London books under the Harlequin Blaze imprint, so she was a complete unknown. But being the book junkie that I am, I purchase the book and put it in the towering TBR basket of books in my office.

Then in early December Karen Scott made mention in her TBR III book reviews that she read the book and liked it. Nothing like getting an endorsement from another reader, one you trust, to get you to read a book. I still didn't rush to read it. It languished in the basket.

Then this past weekend I was looking for something different to read. Instead of reading the backs of a stack of books or looking at the blurb in the front of the books, like I usually do when I'm deciding what to read next, I just picked this one up and started reading.

I was captivated immediately. IN THE COLD is not your run of the mill spy/adventure/suspense book. In fact, we know who the betrayer is early on. What I liked about it is the realistic way it portrayed the H/H discovering one another with no apologies. They make mistakes, and have made mistakes in the past by not revealing their feelings to one another. Usually this makes me nuts being a direct person myself, but this conflict was presented very realistically.

Even though these two main characters are very intelligent and accomplished, they still have concerns and insecurities about the realtionship...serious and realistic ones like: yearning, wanting to gain acceptance before risking and revealing themselves, self discovery and suppression of feelings they don't feel they should have.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I'm always most interested in depth of character and this book does that. We know these people and understand their inner conflict. The author was also able to hold my interest in the plot even though we have many of the pieces of the puzzle for most of the book. This is a book of the struggle of the human spirit in extreme conditions.

When the author explains why Simon, the head of the special black ops group, has the handle King Arthur because he believes in things like honor, integrity, and loyalty I was hooked. It's damn hard to write these qualities in a realistic way that doesn't sound corny or fake and to present someone who lives those ideals in this day and age and not make them look one dimensional.

I would have liked to have a little more about how Violet transitions back to her life at the end, but overall a good solid read...and these days I'm very grateful for those!