A review by lelo_d
Cold Cold Heart by Laura Jordan

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Engaging, witty, tense and mysterious. Cold Cold heart grips you from the very first page and doesn’t seem to want to let you go. It sits with you, whispering in your ear until you ultimately decide to read it all again, just to see if you can catch all the clues you might have missed the first time around. This Epic Gay Murder Mystery is a thrilling romance/whodunit with engaging and hilarious characters, steamy romance and a good ol’ detective story that will knock your socks off. 

Lincoln Bennet and Milo Rose are the most perfect, yet flawed, hilarious, lovely characters. They had me giggling at their banter, gasping in shock and yes, tearing up at one point, don’t judge me. Their relationship twists and turns and ties itself into knots and untangles itself again, all while they navigate grief, trauma, a literal murder mystery. And boy, did they have me blushing. 

Trying to describe how good a murder mystery is without giving away the mystery is a tough one, but I’ll try. The clues given in the beginning are fun and familiar, luring you into a false sense of security. You don't know anything, you fool. 

And the twist. The twist. Utter magic. I was furious I hadn’t figured it out earlier but also was glad that I hadn’t. Getting to gasp in shock alongside the character, letting it all fall into place was so so satisfying.

Cold Cold heart, at its core, is about death. It navigates some pretty upsetting themes  unbelievably well. You don’t get to avoid them, but they are not forced upon you. Laura guides you through them gently, letting you acknowledge and feel them with the characters and move on with the story feeling like you know them better. I think I felt more seen, reading through Lincoln's grief, than I ever have before. There are trigger warnings, at the beginning, if you are someone affected by particular sensitive topics. And while the topics of grief and death tend to cause me to get upset, I felt a sense of comfort in how it was addressed. It’s nice to know I’m not alone in how I feel. 

Watching Laura flourish as a writer has truly been an utter joy to experience and a Cold Cold Heart goes above and beyond expectations. While I don’t necessarily know how she's going to top this one, I know that she will.