I’m always excited to pick up another book in Toni Anderson’s excellent Cold Justice: Most Wanted series of high-stakes, action-packed romantic suspense novels, and am continually impressed with the way the author is keeping the series momentum going without things starting to feel stale – the plots are clever and intricate, the characters are well-crafted and engaging and there are always some nicely steamy moments along the way. Cold Heat is book seven, but after several overarching plotlines were tied up in the previous book (Cold Truth), new readers could approach it as a standalone, with the understanding that many of the secondary characters have either already appeared in their own books, or are going to do that at some point in the series. In some ways, it can be easier to do that than to try to remember who everyone is and how they relate to each other! (I’ve read all the books in this series and in the previous one, and sometimes I just have to accept that this character was in that book, and that I can’t remember exactly what the plot was, but I don’t need to because their role in this story is not related to it!)

Cold Heat begins with a prologue set ten years earlier in which rookie FBI agent Jordan Krychek is working undercover in Chicago, mostly as a driver and delivery guy for a big-shot Russian arms dealer. The end of the operation is just hours away when Jordan is sent on his final job – only to realise, too late, that he’s been made and sent on a wild goose chase to get him out of the way. Racing back to the city, he arrives at his family home to find it ablaze, his entire family dead. Right there, Jordan vows to find Konrad Bucharov and make him pay, no matter what he has to do to make it happen. But he doesn’t get that chance, as Bucharov dies in an explosion in Russia mere weeks later.

Daisy Montana – daughter of Kurt Montana (Cold Truth) – is a PhD student in nuclear physics and is currently in Mexico attending a symposium with some of her colleagues, professors and fellow students. It’s the last night, and they’re all relaxing over drinks and dinner, when another attendee, a handsome, older Frenchman, invites Daisy to take a walk on the beach with him. He makes no secret of his admiration, or of the direction he’d like the night to take, and for just a minute, Daisy is tempted – François Tremblay is charming and attractive and brilliant. But she returns to her room alone.

Concerned for his daughter’s safety while he’s out of the country on his honeymoon, Kurt asked Jordan to keep an eye on Daisy while she’s in Mexico. They both know it’s not something Daisy would want, but Kurt, having recently been kidnapped himself, can’t bear the thought of something similar happening to her, and Jordan, a good friend, can’t bring himself to refuse. Watching Daisy leave the bar with Tremblay definitely causes a bolt of… protectiveness (it’s absolutely not jealousy!) to zing through him; he’s here as a favour to Kurt and that’s all it is. Or can be. He can’t deny, though, that he’s relieved to see Daisy heading up to her room alone – but then, a couple of flights below her, Jordan looks over the banister to see a very familiar figure trotting down the stairs – a man whose presence there is more than unlikely, it’s impossible, because he’s dead. Following quietly, Jordan hears the man speaking softly on the phone and tells himself he’s being paranoid, that he’s wrong – but deep down, he knows he’s not. Konrad Bucharov is alive and he’s in Mexico at a conference about nuclear engineering – and he’s in Daisy’s hotel.

Jordan’s first instinct is to make sure Daisy is safe and to get her out of there; then flashing lights and sirens pull his attention to the very dead body of François Tremblay lying in the middle of the road. Daisy was probably seen walking on the beach with Tremblay – as soon as the authorities realise that, she’ll be a suspect and taken in for questioning, and Jordan isn’t going to let that happen. Daisy needs an alibi – one he can provide – and then they need to get out of there and back home so Jordan and his team can start figuring out what Bucharov was doing in Mexico, how the hell they had no idea he was still alive – and who has sold them out.

If you’ve read the last couple of books in the series, then you’ll know that Daisy and Jordan have a bit of a history – which involved Jordan mistaking her for an intruder and tying her to a bed – and the chemistry crackling between them had me eagerly anticipating their romance in this one. The sparks definitely fly as they manage to rub each other completely the wrong way, but the love story itself feels rushed, with the progression from lust to love happening pretty quickly and not completely convincingly. I also found Daisy a bit hard to warm to; she’s a spitfire who takes no crap, and knows when – and when not – to stand her ground (which I appreciated), but her screw-the-patriarchy, rage-against-the-world attitude got annoying quickly, and I really didn’t like her initial decision to use Jordan as a way of working through some of her own insecurities and relationship issues.

Jordan is probably the most ‘tortured’ hero of the series. He carries a lot of of emotional baggage due to the deaths of his family members and has thrown himself into his work, earning himself a reputation as a player. He’s just not the relationship type, and he’s fine with that – until Daisy Montana burrows her way under his skin and becomes a complication he doesn’t need and can’t help but want.

But while I was a little disappointed in the romance, the plot is compelling, and the author really ramps up the tension as we head into a nail-biting, race-against-time climax as Jordan and his teammates work to find the traitor(s) in their midst and foil a terrorist plot. Cold Heat is an action movie in book form – clever, stylish, well-paced and thoroughly entertaining – and despite my reservations I enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to the next instalment in the series.