Arctic Wild

Arctic Wild (2019) Annabeth Albert (Frozen Hearts)

Tobias Kooly loves his job–even if he did have to drop out of university to help support his family to take it. He loves flying, and leading tours allows him to socialize and flirt AND fly.

Reuben Graham was supposed to be taking this Alaska trip with his best friend and his wife (a partner in his law firm) when the couple cancels because of of work. The fact that the firm is offering Reuben a buy-out that his ex-wife is really pushing him to take means he really does need to take time to figure out his life. Especially since his 14-year-old daughter has turned into this sullen teen he no longer recognizes.

He was a master negotiator and could close multinational deals, but all it took was one fourteen-year-old to reduce him to a bumbling fool who couldn’t even talk with his own kid.

Towards the start of the book, Toby is injured. That Toby spends a lot of the book recovering resonated with me, as I know how much work and how tiring recover can be.

“Okay. What are you going to do while we’re out?”

“At the risk of sounding like a total slug, probably nap.

If anything, I feel like Toby didn’t nap enough. I felt as if all I did in the month after I broke my ankle was sleep. And that was just my ankle, not multiple injuries like Toby had. But that’s not a ding against the book, just my personal experience.

I know a lot of people don’t care for books with kids in them, but I thought Amelia was a full-fledged character and integral part of the story. Plus, she was often very much a teenager.

“And if they expect stuff, you don’t have to go along with it, and that probably means they’re not the right person either. The right person will wait—”

“Can we not have a sex talk in the middle of a fabric store?” she said in a harsh whisper. “I meant more they’d expect me to game less, pay attention to them more, be all… squishy-happy-touchy.”

I also liked that Toby’s family was complex. His dad was prickly and defensive and hard on Toby but he is also a good man who loves his family and feels guilty about being a burden (which leads to being prickly and defensive). Even Reuben’s ex-wife was complex–she wanted the best for their daughter, but had a hard time recognizing that what she wanted and what her daughter wanted for herself were two very different things.

Which is also completely normal.

And like the previous book in this series, I loved the setting. I wish there had been MORE hiking, but beggars can’t be choosers.

There is boinking in this story, but far more time was spent on the story, which made me like the book even more. But there is boinking here.

I liked it and definitely want to read the next book.

Publisher: Carina Press
Rating: 8.5/10

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