Still Kind of Cold

 

Published:  July 15th, 2013



Frigid (Frigid #1)
By: Jennifer L. Armentrout (writing as J. Lynn)
Spencer Hill Contemporary
ISBN-13:  9781939392749


For twenty-one-year-old Sydney, being in love with Kyler isn't anything new. They'd been best friends ever since he pushed her down on the playground and she made him eat a mud pie. Somewhere over the years, she fell for him and fell hard. The big problem with that? Kyler puts the 'man' in man-whore. He's never stayed with a girl longer than a few nights, and with it being their last year in college, Syd doesn't want to risk their friendship by declaring her love.

Kyler has always put Syd on a pedestal that was too high for him to reach. To him, she's perfect and she's everything. But the feelings he has for her, he's always hidden away or focused on any other female. After all, Kyler will always be the poor boy from the wrong side of tracks, and Syd will always be the one girl he can never have.

But when they're stranded together at a posh ski resort due to a massive Nor'easter, there's nothing stopping their red-hot feelings for each other from coming to the surface. Can their friendship survive the attraction? Better yet, can they survive at all? Because as the snow falls, someone is stalking them, and this ski trip may be a life-changer in more ways than one.

Review

 

     Sydney and Kyler have been best friends since their playground days and that relationship is still going strong.  Now they're both in their last year of college, and both of them are secretly in love with each other.  Sydney is too scared of rejection to admit her feelings and Kyler thinks she deserves better so he's sleeping with a ton of different girls, trying to bury his feelings.  Going away for the weekend at a ski resort where Kyler's parents have a house, he and Sydney get stranded when a blizzard strikes.  The rest of their friends are unable to make it and with nothing else to distract them from the growing tension and the feelings they can no longer hide, things finally explode.  Just when it looks like Sydney and Kyler might actually be able to start a real relationship, a violent stalker appears on the scene putting their lives in danger.  Will they both get out of the resort alive and if they do, can they manage to make things work romantically or will they lose their friendship for good?

     I am kind of tired of the good girl/virgin/naïve heroine trope in New Adult books.  And the guys she falls for is always some tatted up, womanizing bad boy.  Been there, done that and so sick a tired of it that I'm almost completely out the door with the entire genre as it currently stands.  That said, this book did kind of take a fresh turn by making the two leads childhood best friends, who both want something more with each other.  It was extremely nice to have a romance between two people who have seen each other at their best and worst, know almost everything about each other and they still are attracted to each other after that.  Usually it's a couple people who've known each other for a month, f***** like rabbits, and now "love" each other.  Yeah, sure you do kids.

     Unfortunately, refreshing best friend aspect aside, this book was an extremely mediocre read for me.  Insecure girl, man-whore guy and some really contrived suspense to add an element of danger and make the reader "fear" for the characters' lives.  Sydney and Kyler were both somewhat two-dimensional and I think the thing that bothered me the most was Sydney's supposed naivety and inexperience when it came to sex.  She worries a lot about being frigid, which is what her ex-boyfriend called her when breaking up with her.  They only did it ONE TIME and she's basing her entire sexual self around that experience!  It got on my nerves, because yeah the first time is usually uncomfortable and a little painful.  And unless the guy is some sort of sex god, you're probably not going to get off.  That's kind of common sense, but Sydney's self-confidence issues get in the way of her realizing this and she takes it on as her fault.  This makes her even more reluctant to admit her feelings to Kyler, because of how much of a sexual person he is.  Then when they get together, Kyler is questioning her at every turn, whether or not she actually wants to be with him (which I get, cause she basically propositions him like a male hooker).  They both treat each other stupidly, even after sleeping together.  And the suspense plot is very easily figured out, with really no purpose other to lend some action to a pretty sparse plot. 

     My favorite part was the end, when Kyler and Sydney spend Christmas together and resolve their feelings, finally getting together.  Overall, I really liked the "best friends in love" aspect, but it wasn't enough to really sustain this one for me.  The characters are likeable enough, but really flat and kind of annoyingly dumb when it comes to their own and each others' feelings.  I only recommend this if you really are in the mood for some brainless fluff, with a little but better writing than average.  Cute romance, but no spine or real substance.

 

VERDICT:  2.5/5  Stars

 

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book was published July 15th, 2013.*