Winter Kissed Review

A Kiss of Frost is Michele Hauf’s version of the famous Jack Frost story about a killer snowman who comes to life to kill people who don’t treat the environment right. Kate Wilson spends her days photographing snowflakes, hoping to one day find two that are alike so she can collect a million dollars from the scientist who bet her that there was no such thing as two identical snowflakes.

Jal Frost is the God of Frost and has come to Earth to assassinate Kate for supposedly being cruel to the environment. But after seeing his victim, Jal becomes fascinated and oddly attracted to her. In human form, Jal forms a friendship with Kate and starts to fall in love with her. But her warm heart and these warm feelings are starting to make Jal melt and that’s not a good thing for the God of Frost. Will Jal complete his task or will his love for Kate interfere with his mission? How will Kate feel if she finds out what Jal really is?

Ice Bound is Vivi Anna’s take on the old myth of Yuki-Onna the snow woman who freezes travelers with just a kiss. Dr. Darien Calder has traveled to Japan to record and observe the transformation of the environment. But he is also there in the hopes of finding out more about the story of Yuki-Onna since he hasn’t been able to stop dreaming about the myth of ever since he first learned the story.

While traveling, Darien’s car becomes stuck in the snow and he is forced to get out of his car to try to fix the problem. When he sees a ghostly woman in a kimono, he feels her call to him and ends up yet another victim of the Ice Maiden’s deathly kiss. But Darien doesn’t end up dead like all of the other travelers. He’s different and has somehow broken some of the ice around the Ice Maiden’s heart. After learning about her banishment and the story of what happened, Darien can’t help but start to fall in love with Koori, the Ice Maiden. Will one of her kisses end up killing him or will they get their happily ever after?

The Winter Kissed Anthology by Michele Hauf and Vivi Anna is an interesting take on two legends, one of which I never heard of before, the Yuki-Onna story. After having read all of Vivi Anna’s Valorian Chronicles Nocturnes I was hoping for the same type of intensity and excitement in this Nocturne story as her others. However, I was disappointed with Ice Bound and expected more from one of my favorite authors. I will still hungrily eat up Vivi Anna’s fabulous Valorian Chronicles Series but I am wary to stray away from them again since that is what I truly enjoy from this talented writer.

As for Michele Hauf’s story A Kiss of Frost, this was the first that I’ve read by her and I’ve heard many wonderful things about her writing. It’s sometimes hard to judge an author’s work in such a short story at only 150 pages. I didn’t enjoy A Kiss of Frost not because of the author’s writing but because of the storyline, it was just not interesting to me. I will try future books by Michele Hauf in the hopes of enjoying it more then this one.