Finished Ice Blue by Anne Stuart. This is the third book in her Ice romantic suspense series.

This one is about Summer Hawthorne, a museum curator determined to keep a valuable Japanese ceramic bowl out of the hands of a cult leader named Shirosama. What Summer doesn’t realize is that Shirosama wants the bowl as part of a ceremony where he will unleash nerve toxins and other nasty things on the world. Also on the trail of the bowl and Summer is Takashi O’Brien, an agent for the Committee, a group which prevents doomsday events from happening. Takashi saves Summer from Shirosama’s goons, even though he has orders to kill her. And it goes on from there.

I like a lot of things Stuart does in this one, including the absolute, over-the-top evilness of the villain and Summer’s trickery (she has a bowl forged rather than let Shirosama get his hands on the real one). Stuart is also really good at bringing back characters from previous books in the series and weaving them into the action. Peter and Madame Lambert are always a treat to see again.

But I really, really didn’t like the hero in this one. Takashi comes off as cold and hard and completely unyielding. I know he’s supposed to be a tortured agent of the Committee who’s forced to make hard choices that eat away at his soul. But Taka starts to kill Summer half a dozen times, and he’s not terribly remorseful about it. His treatment of Summer is also rough and rather callous. There’s a scene in an airplane bathroom that really made me want to shoot him. 👿

I liked Summer’s character a lot better. Her backstory was interesting, and she has her own inner demons to deal with. But I didn’t really connect with Summer, mainly because she stays in a self-imposed, calm fog through most of the book. It’s hard to really get into a character who’s always five seconds away from hysteria. Although, given what she goes through, Summer has plenty of reasons to be hysterical.

Another thing that bothers me about Stuart’s books in general (but especially this one) is the abruptness of her endings. It’s action, action, action. Then, the bad guy is defeated, and the hero and heroine go their respective ways. So far, so good. But then, at the very end, the hero comes back in for usually just a page or two. The heroine sees him, falls weeping into his arms, and that’s where the book ends. There aren’t any grand declarations of love between the two — Summer and Taka in this case – or any sense of them having overcome their inner problems or being better people. It just … ends.

So, thumbs down on this one.

Up next: Probably nothing for a while. Must do my own Assassin revisions!