Title: Tangled up in Ice
Author:  Charlotte Byrd
Publisher/Year:  Byrd Books 2/14/19
Length:  168 Pages
Series: Tangled #1

Overview

I have debts to pay and secrets to keep. When someone threatens my life, I crash into him: Jackson Ludlow

The recluse billionaire of New York
Once, he had everything a man could want. Then, he lost the only thing that he ever loved.

So, he spent four years holed up in his mansion doing the only thing he knew how to do: make money. 

We are all wrong for each other. He’s cold, uninterested and demanding. 
I’m impatient and inexperienced. 

The only thing we have in common is that we both have secrets. 
And the closer we get, the more they threaten to destroy us.

My Thoughts

What we have is the beginning of the typical story of a girl who’s been struggling to survive in a new life because of the traumas of her past. There’s a powerful man who’s got money, looks and gravity and yet there are ghosts in his past that make him just as damaged as our lady. What happens when they meet is one thing and the path that they go down is another.

So let’s back up and learn a bit more about Harley. We jump into the story with her as she’s been trying to reinvent herself in New York. She grew up in Montana, from a family that struggled to have the nicer things in life. Her parents were ambitious and they wanted the dream of land and a house to retire on. Harley shares the journey that her family goes on to get this house and how they put everything they had into it. She shares a bit about her brother and how life was better because she had someone to take the light off her since she’s a bit more shy than most. What happens though is that their happy bubble bursts – a wild fire takes their land, their house and the life of her brother. They have no money and her family falls apart. The only thing she can do is get a student loan and go to college in New York. A city she can get lost in, and that she can create new memories.

Then there’s Jackson – a self made successful man, who we learn created a business from nothing, but who has the heart and empathy to be praised. We know that he used his money to buy one of the last mansions in New York so that he could create the right environment for his family. We don’t learn much but we know that there is no longer a family – and honestly that’s the biggest mystery that we get in this story. At least for now.

Their paths cross one fateful night. Harley needs to earn more money faster than her job allows as a freelance writer so she goes with her roommate to cocktail waitress one night. She fails at that, just as she expected she would and leaves to go home. She unfortunately gets into the wrong ride-share. Driven by a man who’s been stalking her and we fear for her safety. It’s only when she escapes, knocks on Jackson’s door in the hope of getting help that they meet. He has been a recluse for years as the summary notes – and he has no interest in getting involved. It’s only when she’s attacked again on his doorstep that he intervenes, and this is the moment that changes them both forever.

Harley can’t get Jackson out of her mind

Jackson can’t stop thinking about Harley.

From this point on, we see how a few pointed actions bring them back together and how that opens up the possibility for so much more for the two of them. The challenge is that what you see on the surface isn’t at all what’s on the inside and that means that our story is just about to get dicey.

There’s attraction and chemistry, but we don’t know if it’ll go anywhere. Harley is inexperienced, and Jackson has scars and burns that he wants to hide. They figure out how to exist and then the unthinkable happens. The past comes to haunt them and we are left on a cliff. So…that means that i’m off to book 2 to see what’s coming up next. Hopefully it’s a roller coaster in a small package. Enjoy!