Last week I brought to you my thoughts about Castle and the first two books written by the one and only, Richard Castle. As you may or may not remember I was halfway through the third book and by Monday I was reading the acknowledgements. Today’s post is obviously a review (you can tell by the title) and before I go far on this is something I need to point out immediately: the original book cover is soo much prettier than the Portuguese one – this time Portugal you failed –  and I know, I know, don’t judge a book by its cover but came on… you did such a good job with the French Gardener cover! Back to the review… I leave here the Goodreader synopsis of the book:

Heat rises in the coldest New York winter of a century. The bizarre murder of a parish priest at a bondage club pits NYPD Nikki Heat against a vicious drug lord, an arrogant CIA contractor, and a shadowy death squad. The conspiracy reaches the top of the NYPD. When she gets too near the truth, Nikki is disgraced, stripped of her badge, and on her own as a target for killers. She can only trust reporter Jameson Rook.

The first thing I have to talk about is how the synopsis was written. It should be and is a résumé of the story and what you should expect by reading the book and believe me everything was written is in the book but what I dislike is when you are expecting it to happen in the firsts chapters and only half way through the book is when her badge is taken away. So basically you are reading the book and at some point, you already know she will do some side work as Beckett did. Instead of having 2/3 of the book with no clue what is going to occur and the synopsis be all covered by the first two chapters, you are in the middle of the book and know what is still to come. I would do my own synopsis and let you know my opinion to what you should know before reading the book, to what the book for me is about, but I needed to say this which annoys me soo much.

Continuing the negative aspects of it, the chapters were too long, so for someone who is not (yet) a bookworm can be quite demotivating. I don’t know about you but to have an extra pump of energy to read “one more page” sometimes I count how many pages are left to the end (of the chapter), unfortunately, this book is not designed for that type of people. Just so you can compare I am now reading Insurgent by Veronica Roth and both books have a similar number of pages but while in Heat Rises they needed 21 pages to write the first chapter with the same amount Veronica wrote three chapters, THREE! And it was so much easier for me to read them. Probably some of you like long chapters but for me, I prefer when the book itself screams to me for read “just one more chapter”.

A little heads up! Is advised this book to be read in the Autumn or Winter! Because all the book happens in the winter is delightful to read the scenes – of the snow falling, the cold air Nikki feels and all the winter charming – cosy at home drinking a hot tea or a hot cocoa. It tastes like heaven when I read those little snippets about winter and now I really need Christmas ASAP! Also, the Halloween is coming and it maybe because of the season but the book is more violent than any episode of Castle – due to the tv rating – and for some creepy reason I enjoyed the brutality of the scenes instead of a soft and non-shocking version and I don’t even like horror.

Unfortunately (for me) I don’t believe I’ll have the opportunity to buy the fourth book translated. Although my curiosity to know what come out next is going to be too much and will make me go search for the original. This time, they really let me a bit anxious and I don’t want you to think is like a season finally they indeed ended the book but there are some things that didn’t get sorted out. Besides, I am excited to know when their relationship will go to a next level and how is it going to be if it goes parallel with the show or takes a different direction. OMG, so many questions!

Despite all the “negative” parts, I think you should read it if you are a true Castle fan. Don’t get intimidated by the chapter’s length and embrace yourself in another thrilling Nikki and Rook adventure.