New Release & Review: Shadow & Ice by Gena Showalter

 

The Queen of Paranormal Romance, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Gena Showalter, stuns with SHADOW AND ICE, the first title in her scorching new paranormal romance Gods of War Series. Grab your copy of SHADOW AND ICE today!

 

Gena Showalter, the New York Times bestselling author who brought you the Lords of the Underworld, introduces a scorching new paranormal romance series… Gods of War.

Knox of Iviland has spent his life competing in the All Wars, where vicious warriors with supernatural powers fight to the death to claim new realms. One winner takes everything—and all losers die. Enslaved as a child for his ability to control shadows, the most ruthless champion in history will stop at nothing to kill his king. But first he must win the battle for Earth. When a fearsome weapon imprisons every combatant in ice, centuries pass without progress…until she walks in.

Vale London craves a fun arctic getaway with her foster sister before settling down to open a bakery. Street-tough but vulnerable, she is unprepared to find ancient gods escaping a frozen cave—merciless beings who target her when she inadvertently enters their war.

Though Vale is now his enemy, Knox is consumed with lust and a fierce need to protect her. But only one combatant can prove victorious, and he will have to choose: live for freedom, or die for love. 

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“I love this world…this is Gena Showalter at her best!”—J.R. Ward, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“The Gods of War series is my new obsession.”—Christine Feehan, #1 New York Times bestselling author  

She’d put her life on hold for years, working var­ious jobs while going to school full-time. Just when she’d completed a business degree from the University of Oklahoma—Go Sooners!—with zero student debt, she was going to kick the bucket? No! Completely un­acceptable. And die knowing she’d caused her sister’s suffer­ing? Never. “I’m sorry,” she said, guilt getting the better of her. Despite a top of the line face mask, her nose and lungs burned when she inhaled. When she exhaled, her gog­gles fogged. “Don’t you dare take the blame. It’s mine, and I never share. You know that.” Nola’s breath no longer misted the air. A bad sign. Very bad. “I was feeling so good, I kept bugging you to add more stops to our itinerary.” Her sister suffered from fibromyalgia. On any given day, Nola’s overactive nerves could cause extreme fa­tigue, total body aches, and swell each of her joints. A cocktail of medication helped alleviate the symptoms, but couldn’t cure the disease. “Sorry, sis, but the hike was my idea.” Apparently, relaxing wasn’t her thing. Any time she’d had a quiet moment, she’d considered the avalanche of responsi­bility headed her way, and panicked. Which made zero sense. She’d dreamed of opening the donut shop for years. And yes, okay, her dreams revolved around No­la’s happiness rather than her own, but come on! Mak­ing Nola happy should make Vale happy. Still, in an effort to hide her panic, she’d made sure she had no quiet moments. “The blame is mine, and that’s final.” “Fine. I’ll go halvsies with you.” Nola pretended to fluff her hair. “If we die, we die, but at least we look cute.” “Dude. We do look cute.” They both wore a sleek coat, a downy jacket, thermals, fleece tights, a pair of goggles, a face mask, a hat and gloves. On their feet were multiple pairs of wool socks and hiking boots with ice cleats. “We could charm the flannel off a snow-biker gang.” “Or a yeti with a Southern girl fetish. I bet we could win his heart no problem.” “If he doesn’t want to eat our hearts first…battered and deep-fried, with melted butter on the side.” Her mouth watered. “I wonder what sautéed yeti tastes like.” “If you start licking your chompers when you look at me… I won’t feel so guilty for debating whether your liver would pair better with a nice red or a six-pack of cheap beer.” “You’ve seen my hangovers. Avoid my liver and go for the rump roast.” She gave her butt a little slap. Nola chuckled, only to lapse into silence when a bit­ter wind nearly knocked them both off their feet. “D-distract me f-from the cold, and I’ll l-l-love you forever.” Her lips were tinted blue, her teeth chattering with more and more force. “You already love me forever.” Just as Vale loved Nola, the greatest person in the world, living or dead, real or fake. Would move heaven and earth for her. “But I’m awesome, probably the awesomest, so I’ll take on this herculean task. Tell me your favorite part of the trip.” “Only e-everything.” Nola shifted atop her bag, un­able to stifle a whimper of pain. Then she continued as if nothing had happened. “Well, except f-for the aban­donment, starvation and h-hypothermia, of course.” “Such trifling matters.” Helplessness pelted her in­sides with bullets. Rub some dirt on it and keep going. “We did everything on our BA lists.” BA—before adult­ing. Extending her index finger, she said, “We marveled over the northern lights.” The chattering slowed, and Nola said, “We went on an overnight dog sled expedition that made me want to adopt a rescue pet as soon as I get home.” “We ice sculpted. FYI, my blob was better than your blob.” “It’s true. Oh! We also hot tubbed while drinking champagne.” “Lastly, we hiked through the Arctic Circle.” “Only one item remains unchecked.” “Fall for a handsome local,” they said in unison. Nola grinned and added, “I thought I had a connec­tion with our guide…until he left us to die and all. But even then, he was better than my most recent online dates. Would someone please explain why modern guys send strangers unsolicited pictures of their genitals?” “Because of course we women are catapulted into a foaming-at-the-mouth sexual frenzy the instant we catch sight of some rando’s man-junk. Duh.” “They are so proud of their peens, aren’t they? Mean­while I’m over here like, congrats on your average-size erection, dude, it’s maybe not quite as hideous as ev­eryone else’s.” They snickered. “But,” Nola added. “Oh, no. No buts.” Her sis was a hopeless romantic. A hopeless optimistic as well. Nola believed everyone deserved a second, third and fourth chance—which was why she wrote such an excellent How To column. How to intrigue your crush blah, blah. Vale, however, was a realist. 

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

5 STARS

Holy crap on a cracker, Batman! I have a feeling this series is going to turn into my next obsession, and that's saying a lot because I've been currently devouring and rereading Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark Series. I always have an audiobook in progress on my phone. But this book....wow. Just wow. The world that Ms. Showalter created is just unbelievable. I know that the immortal warriors are supposed to be bad guys, but I want to live in this world! 

Ms. Showalter made the incorporation of the All War spilling into our present day society very believable. I liked how one of Vale's first priorities when they randomly show up in a small town is to check social media to see if there have been any other "weird, mysterious people sightings." A lot of authors don't connect all the dots, even the more obscure ones, like Ms. Showalter does. She was already one of my favorite authors but this book just completely cements her place on the list.

The banter between Vale and Knox is over the top in all the best ways. I didn't think the back and forth between Corbin Blue and Evie Black from Black and Blue, also penned by Gena Showalter, could be topped but Vale and Knox went above and beyond. Knox is this ancient immortal warrior who essentially has a single minded focus on winning the All War when he is sidled with this gorgeous, mouthy human who refuses to let him intimidate her. Every time he issues an order, Vale has a comeback and it.was.glorious. 

The fight sequence descriptions were awesome; Knox is a straight up bad ass. I really enjoyed all of the twists and turns in the story and am eagerly looking forward to the next book in the series. I don't know how I'm supposed to wait to find out what comes next!

      

Gena Showalter is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of the spellbinding Lords of the Underworld and Angels of the Dark series, two young adult series--Everlife and the White Rabbit Chronicles--and the highly addictive Original Heartbreakers series. In addition to being a National Reader's Choice and two time RITA nominee, her romance novels have appeared in Cosmopolitan (Red Hot Read) and Seventeen magazine, she's appeared on Nightline and been mentioned in Orange is the New Black--if you ask her about it, she'll talk for hours…hours! Her books have been translated in multiple languages. She’s hard at work on her next novel, a tale featuring an alpha male with a dark side and the strong woman who brings him to his knees. You can learn more about Gena, her menagerie of rescue dogs, and all her upcoming books at genashowalter.com or Facebook.com/genashowalterfans

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