Author: Monty Jay
Series: Fury, #3
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Tropes: Best Friend’s Sibling, Sports Romance, Angsty
Trigger/Content Warnings: Sexual abuse, Parental neglect, Alzheimer’s, Drug abuse
Release Date: November 19th, 2020
Goodreads | Amazon.in (Available on KU)
Synopsis: Razor sharp between the pipes, mysterious off the ice, Malakai Petrov is the Chicago Fury’s notorious goalie.
The 6’5 Russian giant is hiding an entire world behind the bars of his mask. He thinks his secrets are buried deep enough so that no one can ever crack the ice guarding his stone heart. Until he meets a certain teammate’s sister who’s got a knack for sticking her nose in places it doesn’t belong.
Charlotte Greene met the man behind the mask years before anyone knew his name. The punk chick with calloused fingers from the strings of her violin never could shake the memory of him. When unexpected circumstances put them back in each other’s life, she’s set her sights on turning Malakai’s life upside down.
Stealing his dog, leaving her panties on his stairs, batting her silver-eyes, forcing him to question everything he ever knew. These two are skating on thin ice and it won’t be long until it shatters.
Review: My feelings are shattered. I am shattered. This book will break you, build you back up and break you again before it all comes into focus. It’s so beautiful. The story of Charlotte and Malakai will leave your breathless and wanting more from start to finish. As I was reading the book, I was thinking about how I would find the words to express my feelings and I still don’t think I have this perfected. It’s because of a whole host of things – Monty Jay’s amazing writing, the characters and their stories, and just the relationship as a whole. I’m going to do my best to put my thoughts into words and tell you why this is a book you must most definitely put on your TBR right away.
Malakai – or Kai as he’s known – grew up in Russia. His childhood was ugly, he was raised by a woman who cared nothing for him and he was part of a world that he’s been trying to escape his whole life. Kai has gone through more than anyone should ever have to deal with and to see that pain as he grows up and the struggles that come with that kind of pain is definitely hard – the prologue of the book will break you. Brace yourself. But all through that, Kai has found his releases – hockey and art. He’s got both of those things to lean on when things get really hard and it’s been doing its job. Till Charlotte.
“We had a lot in common, both of us looked threatening but underneath all of that we had just gotten unlucky and ended up with abusive owners.”
Unlike Kai, Charlotte’s life is not as tragic. Sure, her mother is unwell and her brother has a substance abuse problem, but she’s always found a way to hide away in her music and the possibility of a brighter future and bigger life for herself. She’s a free spirit, a punk rock chick who puts all of her energy into her violin and making herself the best there ever was. Charlotte is all energy, colour and life and nothing can dim that. Except Kai.
“Her moon eyes were how she was able to see the world so differently, because the truth of the matter is, the sun? It sees your skin, but the moon? She sees your soul. Whimsical eyes for a very peculiar girl.”
Their first meeting is kinda perfect, it’s the kind of meet-cute that would make me hot under the collar in real life. And neither of them knows the impact they’ll have on each other through the years. When they reconnect years later, it becomes clear that the one thing they have in common is Emerson – Charlotte’s twin brother and Kai’s teammate. All of these interactions lead you to believe that this relationship is going to be cute and fluffy, when in actuality, it’s going to be rough and hard and sometimes a little complicated.
Charlotte and Kai have the most intense build up to their relationship. Between her leaving panties on his stairs to his dog falling in love with her and her moving into his house without his knowledge – it’s almost too much for anybody to handle. I haven’t read the other books in the series, but getting to meet these characters and see their relationships develop is definitely something that I truly enjoyed. And it also gives you insight into where Kai fits into this world.
Kai keeps everyone at a distance, because he never wants anybody to know him properly or understand him at every level. But Charlotte sees him. Like she sees into his soul and wants to be around him despite all the things that he’s done and the ugliness that lives inside of him. With her Moon Eyes, she sees everything that Kai is and for him, that’s a big deal. He’s so damaged, but also redeemable and Charlotte wants to do that for him. She’s on this path to helping him fix his life, if only he would let her in.
“Malakai was a storm. A raging hurricane, a monumental wave of mystery and trouble. A thunderstorm of intelligence and darkness.”
Their relationship is a slow burn of a sort, but it’s also a pretty intense kick off from the moment they meet to that first time Kai lets his guard down around Charlotte. They’re not perfect and they don’t claim to be either. But somehow when they’re together, none of that matters. The chemistry, even when it’s as simple as conversing, is off the charts. Every time they were alone, I felt like something or someone was going to snap and the whole relationship was just going to come undone. Being two similar people, but also very different at the same time, definitely puts this relationship in the complicated bracket of things.
This might be my first Monty Jay book, but it certainly won’t be my last. Her ability to create these fantastic characters with such incredible back stories is so special. To be able to truly understand why characters make the choices they make, you need insight into their pasts. And for Kai, Monty has created this world of pain that follows him everywhere he goes. It’s hard and it’s rough and it’s painful, but by god, it turns him into the man we all get to enjoy in Shattered Ice. And to balance that pain, we have a blue haired angel who is everything that Kai needs to get through his life.
“You were already a work of art, Charlotte. But now, you’re my masterpiece.”
Their love, their drama, their pain and their relationship made me gasp, cry, laugh and almost throw my Kindle across the room. It’s so powerful. It’s so stunning. And it’s so earth shattering. Moon Eyes and her Fallen Angel have my heart and soul and I know for a fact that they’re going to stick with me for a long time to come.
In Shattered Ice, Monty has created a host of magical characters that balance each other out. Kai and Charlotte, obviously, but everyone else just fits into the mould so well. You can enjoy this book without having to read the other two in the series, but having that connection would certainly help in so many ways. But even without it, to love Charlotte and Kai would be so damn easy.
Thanks to Monty Jay and Wildfire Marketing Solutions for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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