Carved in Ice

Carved in Ice is the final book in the Made of Steel Trilogy. If you have not read the first two books in the series (Made of Steel, Forged in Flames), I highly recommend reading them first. Don’t read this book as a stand-alone novel as there is so much information given in the previous two books. Plus, the previous two books are awesome, and the backstory and information given in the first two books is pivotal to enjoying this book. Each book builds upon the previous book and it is exciting to find out what happens next, especially when a cliffhanger is involved. Plus, you will enjoy this book even more as you will finally learn if Summer/Sadie gets the answers she is looking for. But she is not the only character in this book/series, throughout the trilogy, the reader is introduced to several characters -characters who the reader will come to care about and root for. It is enjoyable as a reader, to learn where the story takes their characters.<br /><br />A brief history:<br /><br />Summer was just a child when tragedy stuck and life as she knew it came to an end. She had to leave her childhood home and her best friend, MIles, to go live with her grandmother. Unfortunately, her Grandmother passed away and Summer bounced from home to home until she was "placed" with the sadistic, Don. Finally, she is given a new chance at life and moves to the city to attend college with a new name and new identity. There she sees her childhood best friend and makes several other friends as well including the vigilante "V" who pops up to save the day when there is trouble.<br /><br />There will be plenty of trouble throughout all three of the books in the series. Carved in Ice shows Summer/Sadie picking up the pieces after the cliffhanger at the end of book two (Forged in Flames). In this book, Summer/Sadie and her group of friends are still trying to keep safe all the while trying to stop Don from doing further damage to her life. <br /><br />As with book two, the reader does need to suspend some disbelief and just sit back and enjoy the story as it unfolds. As the conclusion of the trilogy, Summer/Sadie gets many answers to her questions as does the reader. One burning question has always been "who is V?" All I can say is I KNEW IT! But if you do not know what I am talking about, again, pick up book one and begin the series and start there. This trilogy has been full of suspense, mystery, romance, intrigue, and has a super hero type element. This book series is very riveting and binge worthy. It is easy to pick up any book in the series and finish it in one day. I was hooked from book one and wanted to know where Smoak would take her characters next. As with the previous two books in the series, there is no down time in this book. Things happen fast, and the action keeps coming. <br /><br />This was a sexy fun series that also dealt with some heavy/serious issues. I enjoyed how unique this series felt. Many times, I read a book and it reminds me of other books I have read. I did not get this feeling with this book at all. It felt very original and well thought out. Again, there is a lot of action and the plot moves quickly. The characters, as well as, the reader will experience many emotions while reading his book. Emotional and thought provoking, this is a great end to the series!<br /><br />I received a copy of this book from the Author in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.<br /><br />Read my reviews at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="http://www.openbookpost.com">www.openbookpost.com</a>

This was an annoying ending to the series. The heroine took wayyyyyyyyy too long to figure things out and the romance conflict was resolved too quickly. But this was definitely an entertaining series and I'm glad I picked it up!

<strong>Seriously??</strong><br /><br />Honestly I can’t believe the number of 5 star ratings. The first book was promising. It started out with a great story line. But then it just dragged and dragged. It felt like a mexican soap opera most of the time. And dont get me started with the heroine. Seriously the amount of times she would change her mind about who she was in love with, i felt like she needed some psychiatric help. <br />Definitely stay away from this trilogy. I don’t think I can dare read anything else from this author either. I just wasted two days of my life

<strong>So bad! Just...so very bad!</strong><br /><br />***SPOILER ALERT***So...this whole series was a tough one for me. First off...I should say I hated the whole premise of the story. A vigilante in New York City? A super hero...but no super hero powers? So...basically a regular person running around in a mask jumping from building to building saving lives, killing bad guys, stopping bank robberies...but again, no actual super powers. Well, other then the fact that apparently...he was able to blind the entire city! Seriously...no one is looking for this guy? He has no actual powers but...as a regular dude, he was able to trick the entire city of New York??...and for MONTHS!!! And...in a few hours of training...he has this chick jumping from building to building too? JUMPING FROM BUILDING TO BUILDING!!! Read that again! In NEW YORK CITY! One of the most populated cities in the country! No one saw? No one stopped him? She is being watched by all of Don’s people but...no one ever found their lair? And...we’re calling it a lair? For real?? When I got to the end of each book...all I felt was...pissed that I was going to have to read a whole other entire book full of this trash in order to see how it ends. (I have never been able to put a book down in the middle and walk away...even a bad one). So many times, I wanted to log into good reads and ask if anyone could just tell me how it ends so I could stop reading...but I forced myself to see it through to the end. It was bad! It dragged on so much longer than necessary. It really could have been one book. Definitely didn’t need to be more than two! After reading three books about these people...I feel nothing. Don’t care that they lived. Don’t care that they escaped all possibility of prosecution. Although...really??? So many problems with this book...and honestly, right from the beginning.<br /><br />- Are we all okay with the idea that a 6yo is ‘madly in love’ with her neighbor?<br /><br />- this 6yo girl watches her 8yo neighbor ride a bike without a helmet and says to herself ‘that is the SEXIEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN!’ Really? Really?? So then...what? Sexier than big bird? Give me a break!<br /><br />- how about Don taking over the ENTIRE police department in every town they move to? Yeah...a couple bad cops in his pocket I would be okay with but...the entire city of New York is completely fooled by this guy? There is ABSOLUTELY NO TRACE OF ANY OF HIS PREVIOUS RECORDS OR OFFENSES??? Just no.<br /><br />- who TF says pesky? Oh...that pesky vigilante?? So Don is a scary mafia kingpin and....also my grandma? Just shut up! <br /><br />- how bout all the boyfriend swapping? Summer chooses Miles so, she just passes Eli to Liza? No questions asked... Eli?..Liza?..Everyone?...We cool?<br /><br />- she walks right up to the front door and knocks but...somehow the entire team is already inside? All of them? Even Patrick? He joined this team 15 minutes ago and he’s willing to sneak into the governor’s mansion (who also happens to be a violent crime boss)? Also...with all of Don’s men coming running...none of them noticed FIVE COLLEGE STUDENTS SNEAKING INTO THE MANSION?? Really...the GOVERNOR’S MANSION doesn’t have video surveillance?<br /><br />- then they all just get to go home and live happily even after. No repercussions at all from them being involved with all this. Like, the FBI was so happy to get Don and his team that they just said ‘hey, why were you guys here today?’ And...then we just give them an excuse and they just let us walk out?? <br /><br />- at the hospital they ‘re-did his stitches and didn’t even ask any questions about the injury. It was such a relief.’ It was such a relief??? More like...it was such BS.<br /><br />- Dad has been alive but locked in a storage locker for more than 10 years but...William showed up this morning and saved him and later this afternoon he is visiting at his wife’s gravesite? So...ten years in a storage locker and he didn’t need to talk to the authorities at all? He didn’t need...I don’t know...a BAND-AID? Or, more like 3 days of testing and observation in a hospital followed by 15 hours of questioning? Nope, just open the door to the storage locker and then drive him to his wife’s grave for a family reunion.<br /><br />So...I get that it’s a work of fiction! I do get that...and I am not usually this girl! All books have something unbelievable...I get it. This one was just TOO FREAKIN MUCH! It would have been better if the whole thing was done form a viewpoint of an actual superhero. If the vigilante could fly or was invisible or had some other fantasy super hero powers...than all this other fluff would be able to be brushed aside because the whole thing is fantasy. But...trying to pass this regular guy with no powers off as ‘that pesky vigilante’ and these regular college students (and one pathetic undercover cop) off as the Cracker Jack ‘scooby do crime fighting team’ they became...was just insulting.<br /><br />In closing...this one was too much BS. Not relatable. Not believable. Made me feel nothing. Not great! Do NOT recommend.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

I’d give the whole series a 4 but Carved in Ice brought things down a notch. Overall, I loved it. I loved Summer and Miles, and I loved their complex and tortured love story. I usually loathe love triangles (squares, kind of, in this case?), but this one was done in a way that I didn’t mind. I could understand Summer’s conflict. I understood how confused she was about the her love interests, and her paranoia made sense. <br /><br />But as much as I loved the first two books, a few things that didn’t sit well with me. One was Liza and Eli’s relationship. It felt so forced. If Eli was so in love with Summer, now could he move on so fast? It really irked me. And what about Summer’s dad? How did Crawford find him so easily? How did Crawford have the means to move Summer to NYC? How did Miles and Eli manage to escape death from such grave injuries? How was Miles able to be an RA and play soccer while also being the vigilante? Why was he wearing a mask the first time he went to the bank to get information on her? How did he know that was her bank in the first place? How was he always able to just disappear?<br /><br />There were several plot holes that seemed to be in place just to paint the HEA. Questions that were never answered. Things seemed to just tie up too nicely with little to no explanation. <br /><br />Don’t get me wrong. I did really like this series, but I was hoping for a little more at the ending.

This series was painful to get through, many eye rolls on my end... The storyline had such promise, but poorly executed. The book was full of JR. High dialogue, with ADULT themes.. explicit sex, language and situations (Do those things go together, NOPE! Teenage conversations, in adult situations BLEH.) I have been spoiled by authors who really know how to use proper language to tell a story, such as Nora Roberts, Irene Hannon, Robyn Carr, Preston and Child, Mary Higgins Clark.. (Need I go on?). The conversations in the protaginist's head and other characters were redundant, and silly. If you are going to write on mature subject matter, please please get a great editor to support that premise. <br /><br />The book for the most part was predictable to the ridiculous!<br /><br />The only reason I stuck it through was to finish the story. <br /><br />Purely ridiculous.

<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1531749147i/25981826._SY540_.jpg" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br><b>Carved in Ice is NOW AVAILABLE:</b><br>Amazon: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://amzn.to/2y2jmin">https://amzn.to/2y2jmin</a><br>iBooks: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://apple.co/2JMwi0i">https://apple.co/2JMwi0i</a><br>Nook: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="http://bit.ly/2l0WF4A">http://bit.ly/2l0WF4A</a><br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1528730058i/25720866._SX540_.jpg" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy">

So lets wrap this series up from my perspective. Summer is our main character. A mobster is infatuated with Summer's mom when she is a teenager, can't kidnap her so he takes her sister instead (who is all for being kidnapped). When Summer's mom (the one the mobster really wanted) was in a car crash (apparently he was responsible for) and dies he kidnaps and tortures her husband for years. So Summer (8 years old) goes to live with her grandmother. Then granny has a 'heart attack' but it's really from carbon monoxide poisoning (sounds like mobster did it) and Summer goes into the foster system. If the mobster killed granny, why wouldn't he take Summer then? She is bounced around for a while in the system and the mobster finally ends up adopting her, uses and abuses her. She goes into the witness protection plan but the mobster knows exactly where she is but instead of getting her back, he plays dumb games. He has to know she is f****** three different guys but doesn't seem to mind but at the end, Summer says one of his goons touched her, so the mobster has him taken and beat up or killed. I'm not sure. Ugh. <br />If it there wasn't sex and abuse involved, maybe the YA set would like this. Terrible premise. <br />

how did I even make it here?

<strong>I would have given a higher star but</strong><br /><br />I think the author should have finished this series in one, perhaps two books. So much repition. Too much he said she said. Clearly meant to keep readers on the edge of their seats, guaranteeing they would buy the next book. You disappoint me Ivy.