CHASING FROST by Isabel Jolie alternates between the delightfully different points of view of genial BB&E playboy Chase Maitlin and no-nonsense new company employee Sydney Frost. While both are young and attractive, they couldn’t be less similar. At least on the surface. Especially since Sydney Frost — who just transferred to the FBI’s New York field office and took on her first undercover gig which entails sussing out whoever’s responsible for the funny business going on in BB&E accounting — is now going by a name that’s not actually her own.
Until meeting Sydney, Chase has never had a problem charming the ladies into his life or his bed, and falling in love is the last thing on his mind. But there’s something about this dark-haired, enigmatic vixen who runs hot and cold. Sometimes she seems a bit interested. Other times she makes it perfectly clear that she is not. Even after they’ve kissed. More than once. The problem is: falling in love should also be the last thing on Sydney’s mind because she has a job to do and Chase Maitlin, like everyone else at BB&E, is a suspect. Even if he turns out to be innocent, getting involved while working a case is just completely unprofessional, especially for someone who is trying to advance her career.
CHASING FROST is an easy, breezy page-turner filled with will-they-or-won’t-they romantic anticipation along with corporate crime drama suspense, and conclusions to both of these plot threads don’t come to a stop right where readers may expect. One unique aspect to the story is its look at establishments that traffic in the sexual degradation of women while being utilized as a form of all-in-good-fun corporate networking/bonding time and how such activities might impact someone’s newly budding relationship. Another added bonus is the book’s ability to make the vagaries of manipulated bookkeeping plus charity fraud fascinatingly almost understandable instead of totally obscure, since in the real world these kinds of illegal/unethical shenanigans under the guise of benevolent philanthropy have been coming more frequently to light as activities that are often engaged in by wealthy individuals along with corporations which have, until now, been trusted household names.
Falling for each other is just not a good idea in Isabel Jolie’s fast paced, witty, contemporarily relevant romance novel CHASING FROST, even if for each of these likeable characters, Chase and Sydney might be The One.
~C.S. Holmes for IndieReader