Holiday Review: Snowed In

Snowed In by Rachel Hawthorne
Genres: Holiday, Young Adult
Published by Harper Collins on October 13th 2009
Format: Paperback (272 pages) • Source: Purchased
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THANK YOU FOR STAYING AT
Chateau Ashleigh

DID YOU ENJOY YOUR STAY?

Well, apparently I live here now--my mom just bought the place. And named it after me, Ashleigh, which was nice. But did she know how cold it is here??

WOULD YOU RECOMMEND US TO A FRIEND?

Um, it's a tiny island with not much to do, unless you really like sleigh rides. But I gotta say there are quite a few hot guys on this cold island . . .

Let me start out by saying that this is a very cute winter read. I’m not sure why I chose it for my “holiday reads” this season because realistically I could have read  this in January and enjoyed it too. The holidays weren’t even mentioned, which was fine! It did a good job of putting me in the mood for snow. (Good thing, too, because the morning I finished this book I woke up to snow coming down.)

This book made me feel pretty nostalgic. I used to go to the library all the time after school, before I could drive, and read old-school paperbacks from the young adult section. You know the kind – they’re small, have pretty big font that takes up the entire page, and were more than likely broken on the spine. This book (and Love on the Lifts, which is coming up here soon) just have that old feel to them. And I loved that!

Unfortunately I had this one figured out about a quarter of the way through. I’m not entirely surprised because it felt like it would be quite predictable, but it was definitely one where I didn’t mind the predictability. It was really cute, had some nice characters, and an overall great general concept. I think that’s what I liked most about it – the setting and how that fed into the overall plot of the book. Ashleigh and her mother move from Texas to a small island up north, where they decide to run a bed and breakfast. The book goes through the whole process of her picking out the bedroom she wants, trying out sandwiches and tea, and just getting themselves settled. I was really intrigued by the B&B idea. It’s the kind of book that I want more from because you could do so much with the plot. I want to come back and visit with Ashleigh in the summer when they have their first guests! Overall just a super cute book idea set in an adorable town that I could fully picture.

The characters weren’t as fleshed out as I expected them to be but it was alright. Unfortunately there was also a kind of love square in this one, I guess you would call it. I liked Chase from the beginning because he seemed cute and funny, but Josh was more of a character you slowly grew to like. I really couldn’t figure out their attraction at first to be honest. In that regard, the book seemed insta-lovey. New girl moves into town and immediately there’s so much talk about dating, boyfriends, etc. It was kind of unrealistic, in my opinion. Ashleigh also unfortunately fell into a trope I generally don’t like (“I don’t plan on ever having a boyfriend, I’ll just date everyone”). Honestly, it was done well here. She wasn’t super annoying about it compared to other books I’ve read. I did like her voice though, overall. She was kind of funny and just seemed like your average girl.

Overall, Snowed In was cheesy at times but very enjoyable nonetheless. I loved the setting of the island and the B&B; I really wish the author wrote a follow-up to this one to show the island and “fudgies” of the summer. The romance wasn’t the swooniest but it still made me feel a little warm and fuzzy. I would recommend this one to people who like wintery books but don’t care about the holiday aspect. I want to look into some more of these “romantic comedy” books that were so popular back in the 2004-2006 timeframe.

P.S. The “snowed in” part didn’t happen until the VERY end of the book. I was pretty convinced it was never going to happen.

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