ONE SNOWY NIGHT by Patience Griffin

 

Publisher:      Berkley
Published:      February 23, 2021
ISBN:      978-0593101476Genre:     Contemporary Romance
Print from Publisher
Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  myreviewbooks@aol.com

THREE HEARTS

 

                                                                    

Hope McKnight hasn’t had an easy life. Then again, the residents of Sweet Home, Alaska haven’t had the easiest time of it either.  With people moving away and a generally bad economy, the town has lost business—the famed Sweet Home Lodge has fallen into disrepair as has the Stone’s Throw Hardware & Haberdashery. Things in town are bleak but the remaining residents are hearty and doing their best. When native son, Donavan Stone returns to town after seventeen years it is only to restore the lodge and hardware store in preparation for selling than then he will be once and for all done with Sweet Home.

 

Donavan left after the death of his younger brother, Beau and Hope’s sister, Izzie. He and Hope were madly in love and marriage was in their future, but with their siblings’ deaths, Donavan wanted nothing more to do with Hope. He left, intending to never forgive Hope for her part in their deaths. Now, back in Sweet Home, memories return including his love for the girl Hope was. But Hope has a secret, one she has kept from him for seventeen years. When he learns her secret, what will happen to their growing affection?  

 

I hadn’t read a sweet romance in a long time and when I saw Patience Griffin’s ONE SNOWY NIGHT I knew it was time to pick one up.  I vacationed in Alaska in the early 1990’s and have always wanted to go back.  The way Griffin describes Sweet Home reminds me of where we stayed and how much I loved it there.  The people we met were very much like those in the book. I’d heard over the years from various sources that there are some problems with alcohol in Alaska and teenaged drinking is an issue pretty much all over.  Alcoholism is one of the book’s themes and part of how Donavan and Ella connect. For me, it got a little old when it kept coming up. I wondered a few times about the relationship between Rick and Donovan because they seemed more gay than two guys who found the women of their dreams. And while we know Sparkle had some kind of surgery, we don’t know what and why she’s still recovering. I’m all in favour of HIPPA protections, but this is fiction.  I wondered if there had been a prior novella that introduced her and what happened to her.

 

I LOVED Bommer!  Who can doesn’t love a puppy in a story?  And the quilting scenes were terrific.  Those sections got me interested in starting to quilt.  If you’re looking for a feel good, happy ever after read, this is the one to pick up.

 

 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.