~ Review: Snowbound With Love ~

Okay, maybe it’s because I grew up in Michigan.  Maybe it’s because of that stupid greenhouse effect which has made our winters so temperate.  And maybe it’s the residual effect of al those mushy romantic comedies from the 30’s and 40’s where the couple goes skiing and falls in love or something…the bottom line is, I love a snow story!  Even if this wasn’t a stunning debut novel, I would have the thank Alice Wootson for SNOWBOUND WITH LOVE.

And this is a lovely story, make no mistake.  Charlotte Thompson, a journalist, has an accident on a winter road and her head injuries give her amnesia.  Fortunately, she managed to have the accident on the property of the handsome, talented and reclusive musician Tyler Fleming.  He takes care of Charlotte and in an odd way; she takes care of him, too.

Tyler is not completely recovered from the death of his wife three years before.  He cannot rid himself of the rage that he feels against the one person he feels is responsible for his wife’s death.  In point of fact, he is suing the newspaper that ran the story that he feels caused his wife to die in an accident.  Nothing but rage and guilt over the loss of his wife have sustained him until now.  Now that the lovely but memory-impaired Charlotte has come into his life, he begins to feel alive again.

Their mutual attraction causes a passion to rise up that can only be assuaged in each other’s arms.  For a few days they are perfectly, blissfully happy until the snow is cleared away from Charlotte’s car and her identity is revealed.  When Tyler realizes that she is the one person in the world he hates more than anyone else, their brief snowbound love is over.

Now is the time to confess that I, like my partner in romance, Wayne, have a few crochets as far as plot is concerned.  He’s not fond of secret babies and Westerns, and revenge-type books do not thrill me.  There is a fine, fine line in most of them.  If someone feels they have a grudge against another person, how realistic is it for them to fall in love?  And how much love is there to make someone set aside a legitimate wrong that has been done to them?  These books are often overwrought, in my opinion.  Which is why SNOWBOUND WITH LOVE was such a pleasant surprise.

Ms Wootson handled her subject matter masterfully.  Many writers with many books under their belts could not have handled the complexities of what Tyler felt to be a betrayal of his love.  And how she dealt with Charlotte’s role in the accident that killed his beloved wife and the aftermath—I am not about to spoil this for you, all I will say is Ms Wootson knows how to pull a rabbit out of her hat when she needs to.

SNOWBOUND WITH LOVE is passionate, tender, believable and balanced.  Welcome to Arabesque, Ms Wootson, and welcome to my ‘keeper shelf’.  And thanks for the memories of what a beautiful snowfall can do the imagination…and libido!

10th August 2000