Artist Melanie Sharp doesn’t need trouble right now. She has a very important art show coming up that could make or break her career. Finding out she is being investigated for arson, again, is not good news. Melanie didn’t start any fire and she’s going to prove it to Knox no matter what she has to do. Unfortunately, she wants to avoid the hunky fire investigator with every fiber of her being, but she is continually drawn back to his side and to the smoldering passion that exists between them.

Knox and Melanie have their work cut out for them to determine who really set the fire. They also have to deal with their attraction. Knox is intrigued and is falling quickly for the kind Melanie, and Melanie can’t help but respond to Knox, even when he is being gruff about the investigation. Will these two get their happily-ever-after?

While the romance is a pleasant read, once you skim below the surface of this story, many problems cropped up that really inhibited me from truly enjoying this story. Not only was Knox quick to accuse Melanie, but he drew many conclusions about her based on very little evidence. He continually thought the worst of her and it wasn’t until the end when he finally let up on his internal accusations and doubts that I saw him as truly being a soul mate for Melanie. Unfortunately, in the character stakes, Melanie is little better. For someone who has been accused of arson once before, she pulls several stunts throughout this book that had my jaw dropping at her extreme irrationality. Some of those stunts truly coined the phrase for me, too stupid to live. She should have used Knox and the law to better advantage, but instead, Melanie and her best friend went their own way, and not for the betterment of the plot. The mystery of who started the fire is simple to solve yet continually, and sometimes obnoxiously, gets in the way of the love story.

For its good points though, there is a genuine attraction and caring between Knox and Melanie. They both have many hardships to face together but I think they do come out stronger in the end. Also, I really liked how Knox was willing to own up to his feelings for Melanie early on in the story. He had doubts about her, but once he committed, he committed one hundred percent. In the end, Fire & Ice turned out to be an average read for me. However, I think Jerri Drennen has a lot of potential as a writer and I’m very interested in seeing if she develops some of the secondary characters that were involved in this story.

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Very sensual

Reviewer: Sarah W
November 8, 2006