Alicia Thompson is a writer, reader, and Paramore superfan (albeit not a Ticketmaster Verified Fan!). She does not know how to ice skate at all but loves to watch other people ice skate, which could be a metaphor for her entire life. She currently lives in Florida with her husband and two children and a mischievous cat named Luna. You can find her online on Twitter and Instagram @AliciaBooks. You can find more of my reviews of her work here.
Lauren Fox is the bookkeeper for Cold World, a tourist destination that's always a winter wonderland despite being located in humid Orlando, Florida. Sure, it's ranked way below any of the trademarked amusement parks, and maybe foot traffic could be better. But it's a fun place to work, even if fun isn't exactly Lauren's middle name. Her coworker Asa Williamson, on the other hand, is all about finding ways to enliven his days at Cold World—whether that means organizing the Secret Santa or teasing Lauren. When the owner asks Lauren and Asa to propose something (anything, really) to raise more revenue, their rivalry heats up as they compete to come up with the best idea. But the situation is more dire than they thought, and it might take these polar opposites working together to save the day. If Asa thought Lauren didn't know how to enjoy herself, he's surprised by how much he enjoys spending time with her. And if Lauren thought Asa wasn't serious about anything, she's surprised by how seriously he seems to take her. As Lauren and Asa work to rescue their beloved wintry spot, they realize the real attraction might be the heat generating between them.
There is so much to love about With Love, from Cold World. The very first thing is the compassionate writing. Thompson's characters have some pretty heavy backstories—check the content warning at the beginning of the book if you need!—and I always felt that Thompson was bringing Asa and Lauren to life in the most realistic, compassionate way possible. I believed in their journeys to get to this point, and also the growth they experienced over the course of the novel. That can be incredibly difficult—you only have so much page space for characters to fall in love, after all—but I completely believed in Lauren's and Asa's backgrounds and how they would have led them to each point. It made the way they were able to get together that much more believable, and because of that, that much more rewarding.
Lauren as a character will stick with me for a long time! She is super relatable from the small things, like how she stays organized in a very specific way, to the bigger things, like how she keeps herself closed off from rejection. Thompson built in both Lauren and Asa characters that I felt like readers would be able to see themselves in, whether they related very closely with either one or both. She did so in the details—the flowers Lauren mentions, the tattoos, the areas around Cold World they share moments with together—and in building off of the details she creates characters that feel like friends, or another version of ourselves. In diving so deep into the details of Lauren's and Asa's lives, we feel connected to them and invested in their story, creating for a read that's engaging from cover to cover, and one that's near-impossible to put down.
With Love, from Cold World combines some workplace romance with forced proximity and slow burn (and you could argue grumpyxsunshine with a dash of holiday romance), for the trope readers out there. And, like every fantastic romance novel utilizing familiar tropes, it does something new and fresh with the tropes we love to recognize. I mean, Christmas holiday romance in Florida—who knew! Lauren's and Asa's chemistry is so on-point, and in order for them to be together, we have to understand where each of them are coming from, and how the other's proximity affects their view of the world. Blending slow burn and forced proximity for their specific story matched the pace of the book. The slow burn, and thus slower pacing of the romance scenes, allowed Lauren and Asa to learn about the other in a way that opened their eyes in just the right way, so that they could grow.
I could probably gush about this book forever, and will continue to think about it (that ice skating scene! the last line! Kiki! how Thompson always, always closes the circle on every detail brought up!). I will 100% be rereading, possibly around Christmastime for the vibes, and already can't wait to fall in love with this story all over again.
I sincerely cannot wait for Alicia's baseball romance now—it is genuinely going to be one of my most anticipated books of the year next year. Until then, you may catch me rereading Love in the Time of Serial Killers and With Love, from Cold World. In the meantime, you can find Alicia online on Twitter and Instagram @AliciaBooks. You can find more of my reviews of her work here.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
Comments
Post a Comment