nyneve 's review for:

Cold Hearted by Heather Guerre
4.25
emotional mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
The main pairing is something of a low-key enemies to loves trope. There's a psychological aspect to it I wasn't expecting and is done really well. Her depression and anxiety is realistically written and palpable. It's character-based with a few explicit scenes later in the book that augment the plot instead of interrupting it. The hurt/comfort isn't overly gratuitous, partially because the FMC bristles and feels smothered and trapped when others try to care for her. She often doesn't recognize the acceptance and found family gestures from the others in the town, interpreting them incorrectly and believing herself to be an outsider even more than they do, and if that isn't just the most relatable thing. 

Because it's written from the FMC's POV, the werewolf/wolfkin lore isn't as prominent. It's there, but a lot of her initial reeling is done internally and only some questions get answered late in the book. 

She and Caleb are biting, sarcastic, and snap at each other, which starts to go back and forth with more friendly interactions. He thinks she's just there for an Alaskan adventure and will leave and is prickly about it.
There's a bit of a battle where they start pranking each other with yarn, which is delightful.


Notes on the ex boyfriend and the psychological aspect -
She's fled to Alaska to escape her stalker ex boyfriend, and she acts like someone who's been gaslit. She starts having dreams about him outside her window at night, trying to get her to go to him. Small things start happening like misplacing her phone or a prickly sensation of being watched that's probably just anxiety.  Her truck runs out of gas just before a snow storm even though she was sure she had over a half a tank, and her phone happens to be missing and a childhood friendship bracelet's in her bag. Her childhood dog's tag appears in her desk. She sees a dark shadow that has her ex's face, but that's just her brain making things up out of paranoia and fear, even when that shadow starts abducting and hurting her friends, because there's no way for anyone to get there without the pilot Caleb knowing.

Turns out her ex is a vampire, or a strigoi, and he's a possessive jerk that wants her back at any cost.
 

One thing I have mixed feelings on is that she had to choose to be in the pack before they could tell her there even was a pack. I like the two sided coin of it having to be consensual to join, and it was a good way to illustrate her internal struggle, but it's a bit unreasonable and reads as gaslighting a victim in spots. One of them does admit they made a mistake in that choice. 
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