Three brothers who retire from the United States Special Forces are featured in the Men of Valor series by Irene Hannon.  Astute readers will recognize them from previous series written by Hannon.  Irene Hannon continues her Men of Valor series with Thin Ice.  Readers can easily pick this up as a standalone, but they will find the experience enriched by reading the previous book, Buried Secrets.  There are some really creepy elements to this story and although it has a religious undertone, Hannon delivers a plot revolving around a twisted, evil person.  Don’t expect this to be a cuddly romance.

There are a couple of things which cause minor irritation in this story.  One is overuse of the terms Olympic skater and skater.  Hannon uses synonyms to describe the main female character Christy, but she used the aforementioned words a few too many times. Secondly, the romance aspect seemed over-emphasized too early in the book.  At first it distracted from the story, but then the plot started moving the characters forward and there was less room for the overtly romantic tone.

The relationship of the McGregor brothers is enjoyable to follow.  It is nice to see families who truly care about one another.  An additional plus is having all those connections which help solve mysteries.  Enjoy finding out how things go for the middle brother, Lance McGregor.  Also look forward to romance, mystery, and intense emotional scenes.  Another thing to eagerly anticipate is the third book, which will follow Finn McGregor.

This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Revell

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  None

Violence/Gore:  Reports of people hitting others with fists; character kills animals by torturing them; reports of boys shot by soldiers; report of a military assault in which many are killed by gunshot and a man’s head is shot off, no blood; report of a person killed by a bus; report of a character found hung and suicide is implied; report of thousands slaughtered in genocide; person is grabbed and restrained with duct tape; person threatens another with a gun and threatens to kill her; blood flows from a head injury.

Sex/Nudity:  Report that women were violated publicly by soldiers; one use of word sexy; one character is a prostitute; mention of a character’s pimp; reference to customers of a prostitute; report that a prostitute spent a night at a motel with a client; a corpse is reported as nude, no details.

Mature Subject Matter:

Death of family members, murder, war, post-traumatic stress disorder, kidnapping.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Adult character consumes beer; report of character having a drinking problem and being drunk; report of a teen drinking and smoking pot.