Darkness by Karen Robards

My author buddy Stacy Finz told me about this book months ago when I was thinking through a romantic suspense set in the woods of northern Michigan. But, like many books, I mentally filed it away under the “someday” tab, when I actually got around to writing that romantic suspense. Well, that’s not happening yet, but I stumbled on Darkness at the library this week, so I decided to give it a try.

I started this book yesterday evening and read straight through, into the late night. It has all the elements I love in romantic suspense:

A remote location. In this case, it’s an island on the Alaskan coast.
Two very different people, both experts in their own ways. He’s an ex-military contractor, and she’s an ornithologist. They both have great survival skills for different reasons.
A heavy dose of the elements: snow, sleet, a surly ocean and a rocky, mountainous landscape. A good portion of the story is them figuring out how to stay warm. Just let your mind wander on that one. :)
Lots of forced time together. This is not a love-at-first-sight book, but these two have lots of time to get to know each other as they battle the elements as well as outside forces in a struggle to get off the island.

Oh, yeah—and the hero is super-hot in that ex-military, bad-ass way. Stacy warned me that he was an alpha-hole, but I liked him like that because, um, he’s being hunted. Of course he wouldn’t trust her at first, just because she’s a woman. In fact, I wouldn’t have been able to buy into the book if he did.