Chains of Ice: The Chosen Ones [Mass Market Paperback]

The back of the book is a little misleading. There's not a lot of capturing going on here. I liked the story. It moved pretty fast and kept my interest. I do think that I should have read the other books in this series first. About 2/3rds of the way through the book all of the sudden we were reading about characters who I had no idea who were. If I had read the others in order, this might not have seemed so out of left field. Also if some scenes with them had been included earlier in the book sprinkled in then it might not have been so hard to accustom myself to. I liked the hero, pretty tortured guy and a bit different from your average alpha hero. The heroine was a bit wimpy at first but she grew on me and she grew up a bit. I will probably go back and read the first two books since I am fond of this author even though at the time the blurbs on those two didn't pull me in.

The world building seems pretty solid. I found the hero's name to be odd in that he had a totally English speaking world based name and was from Russia. Can't be many John Powells in Russia. Some of the magical elements were very intriguing. I really liked the Rasputye that was a magical land out of time. Like a holding area, you never knew where or when you would be when you came out of it. Nifty idea.

This book wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed reading it.

Have you ever went to drink a coke... and then realized it was actually root beer? Or maybe took a sip of what you thought was water, but was actually sprite?

This is how I felt while reading this book. Now root beer and sprite are just fine... but if you're expecting something different somehow they don't taste quite so good. I have a feeling many people have bought this book because of the cover and description, but have come away from it disappointed.

Which is a pity, because the book itself is wonderful in many ways. For instance, the world building is very solid and really makes you feel as though you are in a tiny town on the fringes of Russia. The characters are very interesting and the main characters are very likeable. Dodd's writing is excellent in my opinion, which is also a plus. My only complaint there is that I do not (at all) like the brusque skip in time that she sometimes does with other books, and has done in this one as well. But if you like legends and fairy tales and the type of paranormal that can blend in easily with reality (and can feel real) then you will like this book.

Also, it is a stand alone book until about halfway through -then, if you haven't read at least the first book in the series you won't really understand what's going on.

Also, another note, if you are looking for a good paranormal romance and have not read Dodd's Darkness Chosen series, you MUST must must MUST pick up those books instead... that series is amazing. It's like the Da Vinci Code and a grown up Twilight all rolled into one; you will not be able to put them down!

But back to this book. I am giving it only 3 stars because I am disappointed. I am almost finished with the book, but by now I realize that I will never ever know why it's called 'Chains of Ice.' The title has nothing to do with the actual story, at all. I have also realized I will never know why they designed the cover they did. It too does not belong with the actual book. More than once I wondered if someone had ripped the cover off another book and glued it to the text I was reading (I very literally thought this could be a possibility more than once).

The description of the story is very misleading. It is a discription of a story that does not exist.

Again, the book itself, for what it is, is good. The romance however, did almost nothing for me. I kept waiting for it to get better... but then it never did... it only got worse.

If this was marketed for what it actually IS, it would be a much, much better read. (Because then you wouldn't be waiting so long for your root beer to start tasting like coke; it's very annoying waiting so long and then realizing you're close enough to the end of the glass that it's never going to happen. VERY annoying).

I have not read many romance novels, so if I'm going to spend any free time reading a 'guilty book' it had better be good. This for me, however, was not a guilty book at all. (The most guilty thing about this book is the COVER). I thought I was getting coke, but ended up with something completely different. Shame on the publisher/editor/whomever decided to name it and market it the way they did.

I will continue to read Dodd however, just because her Darkness Chosen books were so amazing. Perhaps one day she will come out with another book just as satisfying as her four Darkness Chosen books are. :)

Dodd's latest entry in the CHOSEN ONES series aspires to be both a prequel and sequel to the first two books in the series (STORM OF VISIONS & STORM OF SHADOWS), as we follow telekentic John Powell through his first, doomed, stint as a member of team Chosen, his exhile in Russia where he falls for aspiring naturalist Genny Valente, and his return as the Chosen team leader.

The book did have its virtues: John and Genny had great chemistry; Genny was a very likeable character (at least, for most of the book); and the backstory behind the Gypsy Travel Agency as it was before VISIONS was illuminating. However, the book's flaws overwhelmed its virtues: it skipped through time so much and so dramatically that the narrative was fractured and distracting; Dodd also failed to develop the characters naturally, instead forcing new qualities on the main characters with each shift in time; and the apparent focus on the study of the Ural Lynx, while potentially fascinating, was abandoned mid-novel.

The most serious of these flaws, the lack of natural character development, led to some jarring changes. For instance, John began the book as a beta male, morphed into embittered-wilderness-man, then crazed-alpha-sex-fiend, then guilt-stricken hero and, finally, a settled family man. Genny bounced from passive victim, to eager-but-innocent naturalist, to wronged woman, to kick-ass female (fought in a revolution? excuse me?!). The villains, likewise, seemed to change into new people with every scene.

In sum, I would only give this book a 2.5, and would not recommend it to other readers - Dodd has better work. However, I haven't been impressed with this series to date - so if you enjoyed the other CHOSEN ONES books, you might like this one. For those who, like me, moderately enjoyed Dodd's DARKNESS CHOSEN series, I would recommend you skip CHAINS OF ICE, and hope the series improves.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 25 reviews  4.3 out of 5 stars