Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick

Posted first to Blog Critics as Book Review: 'Black Ice' by Becca Fitzpatrick.

Chance meetings can be just that, meeting someone at a point of time and never seeing them again. Yet there are also encounters that bring fast friendships, or possibly even danger.  
In Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick, Lauren Huntsman has a chance encounter that changes her life. No one knows where she has gone, and her family is horrified. Yet she is not the only young woman to have gone missing.
Britt Pfeiffer is not worried about some random disappearances. As her class decides to take their break in Hawaii, Britt talks her friend Korbie into backpacking with her in the Teton Range. Korbie’s brother Calvin was Britt’s boyfriend, and suddenly he dropped her with no explanation. Korbie doesn’t know what happened, but when she agrees to the trek, Calvin also decides he wants to tag along. Calvin is very experienced in the outdoors, while Britt has done more rudimentary training. Unsure of how she feels about this unexpected situation, Britt and Korbie agree to meet him at their destination.
Wondering if she can figure out what happened to them, and determined to rekindle their relationship her plans go awry when they get stuck on their way up the mountains. Knowing that Calvin is on his way, they are not so much afraid of being on their own, but that they might freeze before he reaches them. Deciding to take their gear and hike the rest of the way to their destination, they get lost but stumble on a cabin that appears occupied as they begin to lose heart. Two young men inhabit the place, and agree to help them after much discussion. They seem nice and it doesn’t hurt that they are good looking. That is until the gun comes out. Suddenly they understand the dangers of the mountain in a new way.
Agreeing to help their captors find their way out of the woods, Britt knows that Calvin is on his way and will save them.  Stumbling upon a body in a hidden trunk in the room where she is kept, she begins to understand that she and Korbie are in way over their heads. The descriptions of one of the missing girls’ clothing match the clothes on the corpse in the trunk.  Can they survive long enough for Calvin to find them?
Fitzpatrick has given us characters that seem quite real, and the mistakes they make on the way while a bit sophomoric, seems to fit in with the character and age of the girls. On the surface Calvin seems like the knight in shining armor, but there is something wrong that you can sense from the beginning. Yet Britt has stars in her eyes and misses the strangeness that is noticeable to the reader.
The beauty of the wilderness shows through as well as the danger of the weather and terrain. To have trust in such a setting of someone unknown only shows how desperate and afraid the young women were on their own. Letting down their guard in the most inappropriate situation has put them in danger.
This work takes you into the darkness of a killers mind, but the red herrings have you guessing and wondering what is really happening. There is a chilling secret that slowly peels away, revealing the truth of who can be trusted.
If you enjoy mystery, suspense and romance you will find this a great read. The danger and beauty create a haunting mystery that even as it is revealed stays with you long after the book is done.
Rating 5/5
This book was recevied free for an honest review. All oninions are my own based off my reading and understanding of the material.

No comments: