Blue Ice by Carolina Soto
Romance Contemporary
E book,
October 29, 2013
Self Published

Reviewed by Tori

Katherine Bianchi is a rich debutante princess with a foul mouth, anger issues, and a ball busting attitude. Affectionately known as the “ice princess,” she knows she’s not the nicest person but she can’t help but be true to herself and her inner bitch. Her low self esteem concerning her body makes her shy away from men and any type of relationship that isn’t regulated to friendship only status.

Dylan Berkeley, billionaire and CEO of BKY enterprises, doesn’t do “relationships” either. He’s a love’em and leave’em kind of guy whose arrogance is only matched by his net worth. When he meets Katherine, he sees a challenge in that she refuses to fall at his feet in a puddle of lust. She says the dreaded no and the chase is on. He wants everything she has to give and more but Katherine doesn’t even like Dylan…or does she?

As Katherine and Dylan match wits and insults, it becomes apparent that the King and Queen of commitment issues have begun to commit to one another. But what happens when one wants more than the other other one can give?

Carolina Soto’s debut romance contemporary, Blue Ice, reads remarkably similar to E.L. James Fifty Shades Of Grey. In fact, the parallels between the storylines are so remarkable, I’m very surprised I haven’t heard anything about that mentioned. Blue Ice isn’t a terrible book but it reads like a first draft. The basic premise is the same as James’s book. Innocent meets broody closed off billionaire. He chases and slowly tries to bend her to his will. I really felt like this was more a version of what may have happened if Katherine (Ana’s friend in FSoG) had met Christian and they had developed a relationship. Unfortunately, the emotions, storyline, and characterization stay at a singular level and the fire never catches for me. The structure is weak and we never get to the meat of the issues concerning our protagonists.

Katherine Bianchi is a bitch. She’ll tell you she’s a bitch and we see many examples of this. And at times, she’s a funny bitch. I actually saw a lot of my younger self in her. But we never really learn why she is like this. We get hints to her having severe anger management problems as a child and being teased in school but there are no specific scenes that really dig deep into her psyche and reveal the pivotal moment that started it all.

Dylan Berkeley is a one dimensional character. He’s built as a dominant alpha but he’s rather cardboard.  As this is told from Katherine’s point of view, we really only scratch the surface of Dylan’s seemingly MANY idiocies and what we are privy too aren’t new or even very interesting. I can’t really say if I liked him or not because we really don’t get to know him. He’s pushy, arrogant, doesn’t respect personal space or boundaries, super jealous, and seem to be clueless when it comes to the emotional aspects of a relationship. The ending proves without a doubt he is a very spoiled, childish man.

Both characters exhibit juvenile tendencies in their, ”You stop it…no, YOU stop it,” dialogue. I expected slappy hands to emerge at times. Katherine addressing Dylan as asshole or bastard grew tedious after awhile. The woman is twenty-five and an executive in an advertising firm. Her dialogue and attitude though most of the book was much better suited for a teenager. I did like that towards the end, when she began to admit she was falling for him, she exhibits signs of maturing both mentally and emotionally. She sees their relationship has the potential to grow and acts accordingly.

The secondary characters are interesting in that they are used to help prop up and add depth to our protagonists. Katherine, for all her supposed faults, has a rather large base on which to fall back on. We have mommy and daddy, her bestie Michelle, her room mate Kevin, and the people she works with. For being such a hard arse, her words not mine, she is quite well liked. The dialogue and interaction between her friends is humorous at times. The one liners and play on words was entertaining. Especially with Michelle and Kevin. Dylan seems more a loner. We really don’t interact with his friends too much as he only seems to have two and they are seen infrequently. I think that was a large part of the problem I had with this story. No one really seems to interact with Dylan. When there is no Dylan, the story flows smoothly and the dialogue is engaging. When Dylan is added, everything seems to grind to a halt. He literally sucks the life out of the story.

The sex scenes were awkward and redundant. I would have preferred them off scene so I could just use my imagination.There is no build up, no tension, no real chemistry. It read like a random hook up every time they were together. Their first time together reads as if she is a virgin but nothing is said about it beyond Dylan asking if she is sore. The scene confused me.

There are times when the story looks like it’s growing and becoming more steady but then it stops and backs off, leaving this reader frustrated. I will admit I did enjoy how independent and strong Katherine was. She questions everything, tells you exactly how she feels, and has no issues with telling Dylan when he’s being a jerk. There is a cliffhanger ending which aggravated me because no indication was given this wasn’t a complete novel.

Below I have listed some the similarities I found between Blue Ice and FSoG

• Dylan creates a file on Katherine and does a background check after meeting her.
• He doesn’t date woman, only uses them for sex.
• He demands she use one of his bodyguards and places a car at her disposal.
• He is a billionaire of his own company.
• His parents have passed BUT they died in a helicopter accident.
• He has a bitchy controlling woman in his life who hates Katherine. In here though, she is younger than him.
• He hates Katherine’s potty mouth.
• He tries to feed Katherine.
• There is a charity ball scene.
• There is a scene where Dylan admits to sleeping with a client’s wife and the client is angry with him.
• He repeatedly tells Katherine he doesn’t do relationships but they can’t just be friends.
• He will ONLY call her Katherine.
• Dylan extremely jealous of any man who Katherine talks too.
• Hates for her to wear revealing clothes.
• Dylan’s brother-like best friend starts dating Katherine’s best friend.
• Flirty texting scenes.

• Katherine is a clothes horse
• Katherine has an inner voice though her’s is more like a parole officer then an “goddess”
• Katherine get’s sick and needs to be taken care of by Dylan
• Katherine loves Dylan in a three piece suits and is especially turned on by his ties
• Katherine is a virgin (Still on fence about this. All clues lead to this being factual but Dylan gives no clues to knowing this beyond asking her if she’s still sore after they have sex for the first time and Katherine nevers says either way.)

Rating: D

Recent Reviews:
Bookie Nookie Book Reviews– B

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