Review – The Blonde Who Came in from the Cold

Item: The Blonde Who Came In from the Cold
Rating: 4
Author: Emily

Posted December 19, 2025 by Emily in review / 0 Comments

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review – The Blonde Who Came in from the Cold

TITLE: The Blonde Who Came In from the Cold
AUTHOR: Ally Carter
SERIES: The Blonde Identity #2
Publisher: Avon
PUBLICATION DATE: August 5, 2025
Source: NetGalley
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RATING:

An action-packed, second-chance rom-com about two rival spies who must join forces in order to stay alive, from New York Times bestselling author Ally Carter.

Ten years ago, they joined the CIA.

Six years ago, he left the game.

Five years ago, they fell in love.

One year ago, she ran out into the cold with absolutely no intention of ever coming back.

And two minutes ago, they woke up, bloody and bruised and handcuffed together in the dark.

They don’t know where they are. They don’t know how they got there. And they have absolutely no idea who is after them or what this nameless, faceless villain wants.

The only thing that’s clear is that, after ten years of covers and chemistry, secrets and lies, these two rival spies have been sucked into their greatest mission yet, and now they’re going to have to team up to stay alive. (If they don’t kill each other first.)

Review

I really enjoyed The Blonde Who Came in from the Cold.

It’s a classic Ally Carter novel with a fantastic plot and well written characters. I loved the humor woven into it. It made me smile and giggle, which doesn’t happen too often. There was good tension, both between the characters, but also in terms of the level of suspense the reader had to endure. And there were so many intriguing mysteries and questions to uncover.

But, in all honestly, all the mysteries do a lot of hide some of the flaws. I just wish there was more character and relationship development. It falls into one of the main pitfalls of second chance romances where a lot of the relationship and romance happened in the past and not enough of it is written on page to offset the gap. It felt like Alex and Michael just picked up where they left off without giving a true grasp of the depth of their original relationship.

I did really enjoy the appearance of Zoe and Swayer from The Blonde Identity, though! I love a good cameo.

Overall, it was a great sequel to The Blonde Identity.