Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Arctic Wild
SERIES: Frozen Hearts #2
AUTHOR: Annabeth Albert
NARRATOR: Iggy Toma
PUBLISHER: Harlequin Audio
RELEASE DATE: June 3, 2019
LENGTH: 11 hours, 29 minutes
BLURB:
When a plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness, the best place to land is in the arms of a younger man…
Hotshot attorney Reuben Graham has finally agreed to take a vacation, when his plane suddenly plunges into the Alaskan wilderness.
Just his luck.
But his frustrations have only begun as he finds himself stranded with the injured, and superhot, pilot, a man who’s endearingly sociable – and much too young for Reuben to be wanting him this badly.
As the sole provider for his sisters and ailing father, Tobias Kooly is devastated to learn his injuries will prevent him from working or even making it back home. So when Reuben insists on giving him a place to recover, not even Toby’s pride can make him refuse. He’s never been tempted by a silver fox before, but something about Reuben is impossible to resist.
Recuperating in Reuben’s care is the last thing Toby expected, yet the closer they become, the more incredibly right it feels, prompting workaholic Reuben to question the life he’s been living. But when the pressure Toby’s under starts closing in, both men will have to decide if there’s room in their hearts for a love they never saw coming.
REVIEW:
I’m a huge fan of Annabeth Albert’s and have had many great moments reading and listening to her books. Unfortunately the magic that I’ve come to expect from her writing is absent in this book, this series if I’m being honest. And that’s such a bummer as I really, really wanted to love this Alaskan series. The wilderness and remoteness of the setting called to me. I mean there’s so much potential in her set-up, but she never really gets there.
For this adventure we meet Reuben a hotshot lawyer from the big city. He’s divorced with a fourteen year old daughter and nearing his fiftieth birthday – and he’s very reluctantly going on a vacation to Alaska. A vacation that’s a bit derailed when he and Toby, his wilderness guide, are involved in a plane crash. After being rescued and knowing the extent of Toby’s injuries he decides to stay in Alaska over the summer to help Toby recover. He also invites his teenage daughter to join him in hopes to connect with her again.
My favourite part about this book was to see how Reuben and Amelia, his daughter, found their way back to each other. From nearly being strangers we watched them reconnect and grow close and fall in love with the Alaskan wilderness and slower life. It warmed my heart in a big way.
Sadly, Toby got on my nerves at times and I couldn’t quite get a grip on him. I mean he was supposed to be 31 years old, but often acted like a petulant teenager. Never accepting any kind of help from anyone, and complained about it constantly. We’ve listened to endless internal monologues justifying why he couldn’t accept help from anyone, stranger or family, he had to do it all on his own. I mean there’s carrying the world on your shoulders because there’s no other option, but Toby forced that weight on himself to the extreme. And then at the end of the book he does a 180 and committing to Reuben and happily accepting help from him, even asking for it. I mean we’ve spent I don’t know how many hours listening to how Reuben was too good for him, he was too rich, too perfect and so on. So when he did let others help, it was too sudden and I just didn’t believe it.
Arctic Wild has a different narrator from the first book. Normally I’m against switching narrator in an ongoing series. For this one I don’t really mind it as we deal with different couples and the two books aren’t related in any way other than the setting. This book was narrated by Iggy Toma and he did a really great job of it, capturing the characters really well. As always he has great pacing and enunciation and it was a pleasure to listen to him.
I can see where Albert was going with this book and it had great potential, but sadly it never really took off. At this point I’m unsure if I’m going to stick with the series in hopes that the next one will have that magic that was lacking in this one. I guess time will tell.
RATING: 
Narration: 5 hearts
Story: 3 hearts
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