I am back with another book review, Surviving Ice by K.A. Tucker. In working towards my goal of completing all my started series by the end of this year, I have finished the Burying Water series!
It's been over a year since I first started this series and I am happy to say I have completed it, and really enjoyed it!
This story follows Ivy, a young woman working with her uncle at his tattoo shop. One night, she comes into the shop to find two men threatening her uncle, and they end up murdering him. After losing the only family she's come to love, Ivy decides to sell the shop and her uncle's home and move on. Enter Sebastian, an ex-Navy SEAL who isn't all he seems. He actually works for a private company that works to 'remove' dangerous people all over the world. His next assignment is to get the videotape that could destroy the company and take out anyone who knows about it - maybe even Ivy.
Like I said, it's been a while for this series, so I was glad when I started reading and was able to jump back in easily. Tucker writes the background where you get the necessary background info, but you don't really need to remember all the details from the other books because they are more companion novels then sequels.
I really liked Ivy's character. She was so refreshing to read - fierce and headstrong. But she didn't have some tragedy to make her that way, it's just who she is. Often times we get either one of two tropes in these kinds of books: the meek, shy girl who is afraid of her own shadow and the macho man will swoop in and save her, or we get the traumatized, hardened girl who trusts no one. Ivy was her own beast altogether. She was strong in her abilities, but that's because that's who she is, not who she had become.
This book was a great blend of tension and romance. Sebastian is always on edge, and you never know when or if Ivy will find out about what really happened to her uncle. I appreciated that there was more to this story, or really the story of any of the other books in this series than just a romance.
I thought the pacing was a little slow at times, there was never a dull moment, but parts of the book seemed like they could have been cut down. While I enjoyed the day-to-day aspects, I think some weren't really beneficial to the story. Part of me just wanted to get back to the action with the Sebastian storyline.
Overall, I have enjoyed this series and this book.