A review by owlish1
Cold Cold Heart by Laura Jordan

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

 A heartbreaking tale of living with grief, processing trauma, and transitioning from surviving to living, Cold Cold Heart is a story about two people coming unstuck and learning how to move on with a little help from one another. Oh, and a murder mystery that ties them together adds some danger to up the stakes.

Linc is swallowed by guilt and grief after losing his wife to suicide 3 years ago, reluctantly attending therapy, and putting off dates with his blunt fact-sharing. Laura Jordan’s description of his grief is palpable and you can feel the vulnerability she gives here in putting her true experiences on the page. It’s uncomfortable and raw, which is what makes it so brilliant. Linc is all of us who have lost someone - lost, angry, bitter, guilty, and desperately, desperately sad. Sitting with him in his grief gave me comfort in the truths we shared and the journey to acceptance which we unwittingly walked together.

Milo needs to be protected at all costs so he can catch a break - he is a survivor who tumbles through trauma after trauma (Laura Jordan, I nearly rage quit at what you put this poor man through) and only fumbles when he gets a chance to breathe. I loved how the war with his nervous system - trying to get away from the fawn/freeze response to be able to fight - was fuelled by his drive to survive. The love story was just the icing on the cake - a survivor for someone abandoned, a protector for someone who has only known predators.

I loved the mystery aspect too. I have a pet peeve of mysteries where you can’t look back and work out the threads that lead to the conclusion, but Cold Cold Heart delivers here too. This is truly Jordan’s best work, I look forward to a reread when I have sufficiently recovered enough to do so.
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