Review: Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick

Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick

 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Goodreads link: (click here)

What's it about?

It's Britt Pfeiffer's Spring Break and her plans are different than everyone else's. Instead of relaxing on a warm, sunny beach, Britt and her best friend Korbie will be hiking the Tetons in Wyoming. Korbie is reluctantly going along on this trip because her parents have a warm, cozy cabin in the mountains and she hopes to spend more time sitting by a fire than backpacking through the snow. Britt has been training all year for this trip, but she has an ulterior motive for dragging Korbie high up the mountain. Britt used to date Korbie's brother, Calvin, who she had originally hoped would want to tag along. Calvin is an expert hiker who would normally never pass up a trip like this, but the way they split was not quite amicable. After some time had passed, Britt came to accept that Calvin maybe wasn't the love of her life, and she wants to hike the Tetons to prove to herself that she can do it on her own. If only she could truly forget about him. Unfortunately for her, Korbie's parents decide that they want Calvin to meet them at the cabin for the girls safety. Backpacking in the snow is dangerous and Calvin knows how to survive, plus, this past year a few girls in the area had gone missing...or worse, and whoever was responsible has yet to be caught. Now Britt has to spend her Spring Break with her ex-boyfriend looking over her shoulder and she's not sure how she feels about that, or about him, anymore. Unfortunately, a freak snowstorm throws a wrench in their plans.

On the way up the mountain, Britt and Korbie get stuck and have to abandon their Jeep to find warmer shelter. They stumble upon a cabin in the woods just before they think they're about to freeze to death. The two men in the cabin reluctantly let them in, but something seems off about them. What begins as a fun trip soon becomes a terrifying nightmare as the girls become captives with no help in sight. Their only hope is that Calvin will worry that they haven't arrived at their cabin and go out searching for them, but the storm might make that impossible. After some chilling discoveries, Britt finds herself running from danger, possibly with danger by her side. One of her captors seems to be protecting her as much as he can, making Britt wonder if she's got Stockholm syndrome (falling for her captor) or if she can really trust this guy. She knows he's got secrets and she doesn't know what he really wants. It doesn't help that he's incredibly attractive and seems to have at least a partially thawed heart, but she's still got Calvin in the back of her mind. If she wants to survive, she's going to have to figure out who to trust, but more importantly, she's going to have to rely on herself.

My Thoughts:

Black Ice is a PERFECT book for winter reading. It really was an exciting, pulse-pounding, romantic thriller. I'm already a fan of Becca Fitzpatrick, I loved Hush, Hush, and this definitely didn't dissappoint. Unlike her other books, there is nothing paranormal at all about this book, it's a straight-up contemporary thriller. I admit that I did figure everything out pretty quickly, but it didn't matter. I furiously flew through the pages to find out if my guesses were right (they were). There are little breadcrumbs left along the way, it's just a matter of picking them up. But once the mystery was officially revealed, a little more than 2/3 through, I was on the edge of my seat wondering how it all would end. For me, it was less about figuring out the mystery (but once I did, I was pretty darn proud of myself) and more about the adventure, suspense and romance. Black Ice was a fun, thrilling story that I really enjoyed reading, I actually found it difficult to put down at times. Along with the main story, you also get to flash back into the pasts of Britt, Korbie and Calvin to see how friendships and people change over time. The epilogue ending was a tiny bit cheesy, but honestly the whole thing felt like a movie, so the end worked if you look at it that way. It would actually make an awesome movie. 

(*I know who I'm giving this book to for Christmas. It's a stand alone, so it would make a great gift.*)

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<3 Michelle