This was my first foray into romantic suspense, and I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction. Adriana Anders has written a deeply compelling, atmospheric and intense thriller, artfully combined with a A+ grade forced proximity romance.

Dr Ford ‘Coop’ Cooper has been living and working in Antarctica for the better part of a decade. He’s fiercely solitary, preferring to spend the majority of his time alone on the ice than with his fellow ‘Poleys’ at the Burke-Ruhe Research Station. In particular he doesn’t want to spend any more time than necessary with the station cook Angel Smith.

Angel is one of the summer hires, servicing the large contingent of fair-weather researchers who will leave before austral winter sets in. She makes Coop think about things that he doesn’t like to think about, and want things that he doesn’t allow himself to want. She’s just so damn colourful and full of life, in a world that is otherwise monochrome and peacefully empty. The desire to avoid is mutual. Angel finds the ‘Ice Man’ both compelling and intimidating by turns, but always unpleasant.

So when Burke-Ruhe is attacked and Angel and Coop are left together, alone, in the middle of the least populated continent on earth, things don’t look good for their survival. How will they manage to make the 300 mile journey to safety, with no vehicle. only a few weeks supply of food, and one tent? Coop may be an experienced survivor but Angel hasn’t even been on skis before. Not only that: whoever destroyed the station may well be coming back to finish the job they started.

The scene is set for an achingly tense plot, which sees Coop and Angel face the most extreme dangers that both nature and humans can throw at them. Antarctica is a vivid and terrifying setting, which emerges as a significant character, and proves to be surprisingly conducive to the slow burn romance between a grumpy, reticent geologist and a sunshiny cook. You’ve got no choice but to stick close together, no choice but to take care of one another, and to get up close and personal for...you know...warmth. You’ve also got no option but to take it slow, when exposing the smallest amount of skin might be the death of you. The merest of touches, through a glove and several layers of thermals, become intimate in ways that I didn’t know to appreciate until now.

The suspense arc is a lot of fun, as if Mission Impossible was remade and framed around feelings rather than explosions. There’s plenty of action and the ending has heaps of tension - Anders really makes these two work hard for their happy ending - and I was impressed by how well the romance and action elements worked together to move the story forward. Neither feels like a bolt on. But I have to admit that my favourite parts were those with Angel and Coop alone together on the ice, building the most peculiar and lovely domestic routine together. I loved how Anders used the stark shock of the place as a way to find shared territory between two such different people.

Loved this book!
Grumpy Ford and cheerful Angel were the perfect characters to go on this intense journey with. Escaping for their lives on the frozen tundra of Antarctica put them in a number of precarious positions. Some that had me on the edge of my seat, biting my finger, hurrying to read so I'd know what was going to happen.
The relationship and trust that grew between Ford and Angel had me loving them together. The fate of the side characters had me wanting to know the ending but also wanting to savour the entire story.
If you want to read about action, adventure, romance, great characters and a few twists then this is the book for you. I can't wait to read more in this series..

I had really high expectations, especially with all the positive reviews that I saw. Romantic suspense set in Antarctica and involving survival skills? Sign me up!

While I really enjoyed the first half and the pulse-pounding action, the second half of the book started to feel a bit repetitive to me. And, if I’m being honest, I didn’t care about the chapters from the POV of the bad guys. I wanted more Angel x Coop interaction and conversation. The steam between them was hottt, but I wanted more emotional development before they fell in love.

This also ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I don’t know if I’m invested enough to continue on to book 2 or not.

***I was graciously given an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review***

My first read by Adriana Anders and I really enjoyed it! Well done romantic suspense!! I would love to read more from this author.

Whiteout by Adriana Anders is a fast-moving and action-filled romance novel that has the main characters—Ford and Angel battling the elements and running for their lives. Adriana Anders balances the suspenseful and romantic elements of the novel nicely. The chemistry of the Ford and Angel combined with the gripping storyline keeps readers engaged until the very last page. Whiteout by Adriana Anders will captivate readers and keep them coming back for more.

I’ve been a fan of Adriana Anders’s writing since the moment I picked up Under Her Skin. While I don’t read much romantic suspense, I was excited to learn she was taking on the subgenre because I knew she would do it justice and that it would avoid the aspects I typically don’t like in those stories. I was right: Whiteout was so good!

Give me a grumpy-sunshiney pairing any day and I’ll be happy. Put them together in the highest of high stakes situation and I’ll read with my heart in my throat. Angel and Ford have to flee for their lives across Antarctica, which is high stakes in itself and all the higher because the sun is about to go down for the season and there will be no hope if they’re still out in the elements. GAH. I feel cold just thinking about it.

Ford Cooper is a class Adriana Anders hero: haunted and gruff and yearning. He’s neurodiverse. He’s grumpy. He just wanted to be left alone with his ice samples. He also was very ready for chef Angel to be done with the season and out of his hair so he no longer had to think about why she affected him so strongly. But there’s no avoiding her when they’re the only two survivors after members of their team turn out to not be who they thought they were.

Angel Smith came to the South Pole as a way of starting fresh after a devastating accident. She’s there to cook and to think about what’s next. She’s not at all equipped to run for her life and I was so impressed by the way she rose to the occasion again and again, no matter what happened to her and Ford. Such a badass! It’s also worth noting that I loved the way she talked about food and feeding people. She brought such warmth and nurturing into Ford’s life and it was so lovely to watch him respond to that.

This was such an intense story. There’s only one tent! They had to join sleeping bags to stay warm! They ran out of food about halfway through the journey! I was very stressed out for them, especially because Anders kept tightening the screws. I'm generally not a fan of villain POVs but here it was used to great effect and only deepened my horror at the conspiracy at work. There are big things at play as the series continues and I cannot wait to see how they play out.

As for Angel and Ford, I simply loved them together and I’m so glad the forced proximity literally forced them to confront their feelings for one another. There are some great side characters as well and I loved the concept of Polies as found family, really highlighting Anders’s gift at crafting vibrantly complex characters. Bring on book two!

CW: hero is neurodiverse, murder, violence, crevasse and other Antarctic dangers, concern for hypothermia, past infidelity, knee injury due to past car accident, past car accident fatality, past death of loved ones, hero served in the Army, hero’s father died of alcoholism

The adventure aspect of this book was really engaging, you could feel the ever-present need to hurry, to outrun the bad guys that were in pursuit. You could feel the cold too. While Ford and Angel slowly froze, I had to put on extra layers and drink hot tea, because I was getting colder too. The pace of the story is great, perfectly natural. The characters are interesting and the ice tunnels sound absolutely terrifying. And the ending? What a hook!

I thank the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a really terrific book.

Angel Smith is just about to end her time as the cook for Burke-Ruhe research base at the South Pole in Antarctica. Winter is about to start and instead of all days they’ll switch to all nights and only a skeleton crew will be staying on, but before she can get on the plane the base is attacked leaving her and Ford Cooper stranded. Now they must get to safety and survive in the harsh elements before their food runs out and before the bad guys hunt them down and finish them off.

Ford Cooper tried to keep his distance from Angel because of his intense attraction to her, because nothing could come of it, but now that they’re thrown together and on the run for their lives he doesn’t have much hope he’ll be able to resist her.

This was a thrilling, fast-paced, action filled read, and I loved every minute of it! At the beginning of the story Angel and Ford have a bit of an antagonistic relationship. Angel’s attracted to Ford, but thinks he hates her as all he does is scowl and avoid her as much as possible. She doesn’t realize that he’s attracted to her as well and has some fears about getting together. Of course, when all hell breaks loose, and they’re thrown together under life and death circumstances they get close and the sparks fly! Very steamy when they weren’t running for their lives! I was just worried about them surviving long enough for the relationship to go anywhere and let me tell you it was pretty intense and shaky there for a while!

Adriana Anders is a new to me author, but I had a strong feeling I’d love Whiteout after giving her a try with Deep Blue, the prequel novella to Whiteout. The story features Zoe and Ford’s brother, Eric. It isn’t necessary to read before Whiteout, but it was a lot of fun and a quick read! It’s still free on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, part of a bundle of novellas in Turn the Tide.

✦Spotlight, Review & Giveaway: WHITEOUT by Adriana Anders https://wp.me/p3d0RZ-bpm
Publication Date: January 28, 2020
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Reviewed by: Reading in Pajamas/ Donna
Rated 4 Stars

This is a new author that is going on my must-read list. I like how the author didn’t go into minute detail to explain the environment, yet I felt I was there. That made the story flow and not get bogged down. What a wild ride it was…I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to see what would happen next. It had it all: A couple you grew to care about, villains you love to hate, ongoing human caused danger, survival of the elements in the balance, and people around them that blend as a group. Coop/Ford, was seriously introverted, yet the author let us see what was going on inside him enough to feel for the guy. Angel was my favorite heroine. Vulnerable, but when strength and determination are needed, she was right there leading the way. They made a great and believable couple. I am was excited to see the development of this new series – now I have to wait for book 2.

*Review copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

~*~*~*~

Kindle https://amzn.to/2GnHHAt

Title: Whiteout
Author: Adriana Anders
Genre: Romantic suspense
Rating: 4 out of 5

Angel Smith has been in Antarctica long enough. She came there to get over a tragedy in her past and found a group of people that helped her get ready to live again. Now, on the day she’s going to return to civilization, the remote research station is attacked, and people are murdered—leaving her with only irritating glaciologist Ford Cooper.

Ford Cooper just tried to avoid Angel—and everyone else at the research station—but after the attack, he knows it’s up to him and Angel to get themselves to safety—and keep their attackers from getting their hands on the virus. But the odds—and the elements—are against them, and he’s not sure even he and Angel’s newfound bond is strong enough to survive.

Whiteout is a solid suspense read—and, frankly, made me cold (not a fan of cold weather)! The setting comes to eerie, frigid life, and I was never quite sure what would happen next. Just enough suspense to keep me turning the pages to find out what happens—and I’m interested in reading the next book in the series, too!
Adriana Anders is an award-winning author. Whiteout is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Sourcebooks Casablanca in exchange for an honest review.)

Angel Smith's life was at sixes and sevens. So she took on a very unusual assignment in Antarctica. She is an excellent cook and she fed the unique group of scientists and researchers. Her time has come to an end and she must get back to her life.

However, the research station is attacked and she has missed her flight. Left to freeze to death she is rescued by glaciologist Ford Cooper. When Ford realizes why the station was attacked, he knows that he and Angel are not safe. They must make a dangerous trek in order to find safety. It is not just the attackers they are in danger from. It is the elements. It can get as cold as 43 degrees below zero and colder. Angel and Ford must travel hundreds of miles to safety.

Back to the attackers. What were they after? Well, I will leave that much to the reader. What I will say is that the story shifts back to the masterminds as they devise a plan to locate Ford and Angel and whatever it is that they are after.

Ford and Angel trek dangerously ahead, protecting dangerous cargo and food. Meanwhile, during times of rest they both finally get to address feelings they have had for all the months Angel was working at the station.

Nonstop action! That is what Whiteout delivers to the reader. I will never travel to the Antarctic, but the beauty of this frozen desert felt real to my eyes. Imagining the pair staying warm and avoiding frostbite. Brrrr. Then the fact that the chase never ends. Oh, and the romance. Yum. The fact that this chilling, thrilling book is the first in a new series almost made me jump up and down with joy. I cannot wait to see what else is going to happen there, and I hope we will be seeing much more of Ford and Angel.

Many thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Loved the suspense from the beginning till the end. Books set in dangerous places, killers chasing the lovers, and having forced proximity trope are my Kryptonite. The ending dragged a bit which is why I’m gonna give this four stars. Otherwise, I’ll definitely be reading more of the author’s works and more of this series.

Thanks to Net galley and the publisher for providing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book starts out with suspense and keeps it going all the way through. An adventure from page one! I absolutely loved the stark differences between sunny Angel and grouchy Coop (Ford, because Coop rhymes with poop!) and his own internal fight with an attraction that scares hm. This is very much a forced proximity trope (sharing a sleeping bag!!), but their attraction is obvious from the very beginning. Loved the romance. Loved the danger. I'm not giving it five stars because it gets super drawn-out at the end and there's just too much back-and-forth. Still a great read!

When I first saw the cover and read the book description of ‘Whiteout’ I knew this was a book I needed to read. I mean.. Have you seen that cover? Isn’t gorgeous? I love that cover. And that book description really made me want to start reading this book as soon as I could. So when I got approved to get an ARC I was super excited.

In ‘Whiteout’ we meet cook Angel Smith on her last days as a cook on a research station in Antarctica. After months of seeing glaciologist Ford Cooper from a distance, Angel takes one last chance of getting him to talk to her. But when that fails she knows she just have to take her loss and go back home. But right when Angel is about to leave, people start to go missing, and before she knows what is happening, Angel and Ford are the only two survivors isolated in one of the most brutal places of the world.

Well, this book was something else. From the moment I started reading ‘Whiteout’ I was hooked to the pages. Not because of the chemistry between, Ford and Angel, but because this book is so thrilling and it keeps you sitting on the edge of the seat. From the beginning till the very end there is so much going on in this book that I simple needed to know what would happen next.

Although I haven’t read anything other than romance novels lately, and this book is much more a suspense novel than romance, but there’s still a fun and very additive romance going on too. Angel and Ford are forced to try to survive a cold winter in Antarctica on the run of people who are endangering the world. It was hard to imagine how there could be any romance in this environment, but there was and it was really good.

Adriana Anders writing kept me anxious to keep on reading. She was able to create a world that I simple couldn’t imagine before, but can now see clearly. And I loved that. I also loved the fact that she was able to create these characters that had so much depth that I really found myself thinking of them as ‘real’ people.

Yes, this book was definitely a great romantic suspense novel. It had everything I could hope for in a romantic suspense novel. And I really hope this book will be part of a series, because I just can’t get enough of Angel and Ford.

‘Whiteout’ definitely is a book I’d recommend.

Wow! I like suspense with my romance and this story had heartstopping suspense and heartwarming romance that kept me turning pages to see what could possibly happen next.

I loved both Angel and Ford. I've got a soft spot for the grumpy hero. Ford takes grumpy to a new level. He's also excellent at hiding his feelings for Angel. Not hard I suppose when you never speak. Angel sees something in Ford that really touches her. Ford liking her back isn't even conceivable. She's been wounded emotionally enough to drive her to take a job in one of the world's most isolated and hostile environments. She's made good friends during her stay but she's not been able to get through to Ford so it's better she's leaving even though the future is uncertain back in the states.

Before Angel can leave though she's witness to a horrific murder and while hiding from the murderers her ride home leaves without her. The action starts early and is so intense! After heart pounding and terrifying hours alone Angel and Ford find each other. What ensures is a race against time and the elements to get to another station as winter starts to fall on the continent where summers are harsh and cold. The question becomes will the weather kill them before the bad guys can? In this Angel learns a lot about her own inner strength and the only thing thawing is Ford's seeming indifference to her. The ice and cold take their "slow simmer" to a new level!

I wasn't sure about the Director of Chronos. Her motives, while compelling, didn't seem to match her actions and a loving mother to worst villain was a bit hard for me to believe.

I loved the intensity, the characters, the HEA and the entire book had be hooked from start to finish.

Rating: 5
My thoughts:
Would I recommend it? Yes
Would I read more of this series? Yes
Would I read more by this author? Yes
WOW what a great start to a new series, its nonstop action all the way though from begging to end, and not only is it action- packed,but it's also filled full of twist and tuens,danger, adventure along with a steamy romance packed with enough suspense that it'll keep you setting on your edge of your seat.And the plot of this story was perfect because I don't think I've ever read a dance suspense set Antarctica before and some how it worked, as well as being the story more to life .
With that said I want to thank Sourcebooks Casablanca as well as NetGalley for letting me read and review it exchange for my honest opinion .

Fabulous book! Full of suspense and very well written. There is a wonderful slow burn romance between Angel and Coop/Ford, that morphs into sizzling attraction, which includes very tastefully written and romantic sex scenes. The romance does not overtake the main back-story which is compelling and addictive to read. Our H/h are forced to run from their Antarctic research station when bad guys infiltrate and start murdering scientists to get their hands on Coop's ice samples that contain a virus. This is the story of their arduous trek to escape imminent death as they make their way through snow, ice, blizzards and numerous other dangers, as winter rapidly descends across the South Pole.

There's lots of action, suspense and thrills - plus some gruesome scenes amidst our H/h's desperate attempts to survive. I loved the description of the frigid environment and felt I was actually there in the snow and ice with them. I had no problem picturing the scenes in great clarity in my mind. I recommend this book to lovers of romantic suspense and also those readers who just enjoy suspense! It would make a great movie. Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the opportunity to read the e-ARC. I intend to read this author's back list as well. 5 stars for Whiteout. 😍

I ended up really enjoying this romantic suspense. I'm a fan of snow, but after reading this, I know I would not want to be out in THAT much snow. The author did a great job of creating a cold and claustrophobic atmosphere. I liked the characters and the espionage part. This is a the start of a new series and the epilogue ends in a cliffhanger, so I definitely want to read the next book.

Romantic suspense can be something of a mixed bag for me. Some of the tropes seem very silly to me (“We’re in immediate peril! Let’s stop to make out!”) but every once in a while I’ll find some that are, well, absolutely amazing, and Whiteout definitely deserves that praise.

“Cooking’s like making music.” She threw him a smile. “It’s the perfect storm of smell and touch and taste and even sound, you know? That sizzle in the pan, the pop of spices. The moment you turn the heat off and there, right there, the ingredients let off a warm, enveloping steam.”


One of my absolute favorite things is the grumpy/sunny opposites attract trope, and in this case the hero is literally an Ice Man with a sunshiney cook heroine. At the start of the book, Angel is convinced that Coop hates her due to his gruff treatment of her, while Coop acts that way because he’s overwhelmed by Angel’s excessively everythingness, to paraphrase the book. Both are trying to deal with an unwanted attraction to the other, and it looks like nothing will come with it on the day Angel is due to leave the Antarctic research station with the rest of the summer hires. But a last-minute trip to the storage room leads to her witnessing a murder, and soon she and Coop are the only people at the abandoned base. Forced to trek across the unforgiving Antarctic landscape, they must face not only pursuit from the murderers but the dangers of the Antarctic winter as well.

“And suddenly, he understood why he couldn’t have her back then, or now. Or ever.
He was a starving man and she was an oasis, a hallucination, a single sparkling drop of water in his desiccated world. And the problem with giving in, drinking that water, getting just one little taste, was that he’d know exactly what he’d been missing. And he’d never, ever be able to go back.”


A reoccurring theme throughout the book is control. Coop is an absolute control freak, happiest out on the ice where he can avoid any of those pesky emotions. Part of it is that Coop has a sensory processing disorder and hyperfocuses on things, part of it stems from some childhood trauma. Angel, on the other hand, jokes that she never had any control to begin with, and that she jumps into things headfirst without thinking. Those rash decisions – and their consequences – ended up with her taking the post as cook at the research station as a way to escape her past and rebuild herself. Even the main villain is searching to regain control after a devastating loss. Beyond the characters, though, there’s also the very “high school English class”-esque man versus nature going on. One of my favorite touches was the chapter headings listing how many miles remained to their destination and the amount of food left. It’s such a minor thing, but it highlighted exactly how little control Angel and Coop had over their journey.

Despite the fact that most of the book takes place in an environment where taking your clothes off for a little making out would kill you, the sexual tension is ridiculous. From being forced to link their sleeping bags together to share body heat, to each character’s insistence on not leaving the other behind, it paired perfectly with the thriller plot’s tension. And this book was so suspenseful that I had to put the book down because I was too worried about the characters! One of my main gripes with suspense/thrillers is the villain’s POV: I’m usually completely uninterested by them and find that they take away from the building suspense rather than add to it. In this case, however, I honestly enjoyed them, especially the female villain’s, and thought it added to the suspense.

Overall this was an extremely enjoyable read, and I’ve already grabbed the anthology with the series prequel. I will definitely be looking for the next book in the series! 4.5 stars!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

As the summer workers at an Antarctic Science Station prepare to leave, cook Angel discovers that something whilst doing her final check. There is a body down in the stores & there are people loading up things on a sledge- she knows that the ice cores are important. Reclusive Ford Cooper also believes something is very wrong when he can't find one of the scientists. When there is an explosion at the site Angel & Coop are stranded. In order to escape from those after the ice cores they must hike across the barren wastes of Antarctica to another science base.

Great premise for a book. The ice-core story is good, the trek across the ice is good but the 'steamy romance' element was just so painful to read! That was a shame. These are two adults not a couple of teenagers on their first romance & I found myself skimming past a lot of it in embarrassment for them!This is my personal take on it, others may totally disagree.

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book. Somehow I don't think I'll bother with any more in the series.