by Hanna Martine

TasteOfIceA Taste of Ice is book #2 in The Elementals series by Hannah Martine. I’m a huge fan of book #1 (see my review here), and book 2 did not disappoint. The world continues to grow and develop as Martine introduces new characters and continues the story from before in one nice, well rounded heap of awesomeness.

A Taste of Ice starts out at a slow burn and focuses on the budding relationship between two misfits: Xavier (a chef and a Secondary, or not quite human alien from another planet but still amazingly hot with steamy grey eyes) and Cat (an artist with breathtaking skill who is drawn to water). Xavier has a lot of sexual issues he needs to work through, and Cat is more than willing to see him through the hard times (er, no pun…well okay, pun intended). Just when things are heating up between them, politics and outside pressures heat up as well, and the story swings into action. I didn’t mind the slow start, because it gave me plenty of time to get to really know Xavier and Cat so that when things go really wrong, I’m rooting for them the entire way.

First Line:

Xavier Jones lingered on the edge of chaos, and about a thousand people stood between him and his knives.

The first morning of the Turnkorner Film Festival and already he could throw a rock and hit a celebrity. For two weeks each winter, that’s exactly what he wanted to do. He hadn’t moved to White Clover Creek, Colorado, for the swarms of film lovers, the squealing fans, or the demanding Hollywood types. He’d come here for the other fifty weeks of the year, when the insular world of the historic mountain town wrapped its arms tightly around his life, and helped him forget what needed to be forgotten.

I love the first line. It had my brain heading in one direction, and then later on turns it completely around. Talk about get my attention! Why are so many people around and what, exactly, does he want with knives? I knew him from the first book so I didn’t figure he was a mass murderer but then again…you just never know these days do you?

Is he, indeed, a mass murderer looking for people to stab? Or is there someone even more sinister waiting to destroy them both?  I think you should read it and find out!

I loved this story because it continues a world I’d already come to know in the first book, and when it’s a rainy day outside nothing is more comforting than diving into a familiar place, and exploring the people within it. This sort of series keeps things fresh and new, while letting me keep my feet firmly grounded in an extraordinary new world. The wonderfully sexy times don’t hurt either. If you’re looking for some hot steamy times, mixed with some sexual disfunction, a psychopath, politics, great food, art, and elemental magic, look no further. The special powers might come from aliens, but it’s still magic to me!

By the way, as a side note to the author, I’d give anything to actually see the paintings that Elizabeth created. Hint, hint.