I found this author and this book via the Friends and Fiction Facebook group, which has been a fun way to discuss and share books with other avid readers. I kept seeing this one pop up with many, many exclamations about how good it was, so I thought, ok fine, I will give it a whirl even though I just know it is going to be a very light, predictable chick lit read. Meh.
I wasn't wrong, but I wasn't exactly right either. I was actually very pleasantly surprised by how much I really enjoyed this one!! Yes, it was predictable and slightly preachy, but like the weather our protagonist Sonny Dunes (born Amberrose Murphy) predicts and studies, things are always up for change, even when it is changing our minds.
I loved that the main character was over 50, single and a meteorologist. This led to some fun discussions about working for a TV station, predicting storms, and clouds. And yes, lots of SNOW! You don't often see novels about meteorologists (spoiler alert, there are TWO in this book!) And Shipman tackles the societal expectations of women, especially female journalists on TV, head on. ("When will society learn it's not our looks that make women such powerful creatures, it's our minds, hearts and souls?") Sonny is popular with the viewers but suddenly is told she is being replaced - by an Artificial Intelligence weathergirl - and promptly burns her bridges in a spectacular and very public manner. The only way forward is back - back home, that is, to a job offered in sympathy and maybe some revenge by a former classmate once spurned by Sonny herself. And she has to move back in with her MOM, Polly Rose. Can she get any lower?????
While the love interest side of course had to be there, we also have a family back story that builds and explains why Sonny left her small (snowy) Michigan hometown for sunny Palm Springs, why she is still single, and why she really does not want to go back home, even with her mom still there. There are a lot of Mother-Daughter stories out there, but this one is extremely well done. I want to be friends with Sonny's mom, she was a great character!!! And Icicle is so wise - love the scenes with him! She tries to reconnect with old friends Tammy Lynn, Becky Jo and Jenny, but it just doesn't really click.
The beginning felt a bit forced, and I did not really like how she eventually solved the Polly Sue situation. And since when do so many women in Michigan have double names, anyway??? HAHA!
This is definitely a book about second chances and actively wanting what you already have. I read it as if I was watching the Hallmark Movie I am sure this will become, but I also loved the multiple little references to A Christmas Carol, Game of Thrones, and the idea that a cardinal is a messenger from beyond (Hi, Papa!). The snowman building scene goes a little overboard in its preachiness, as does Mason in most of his monologues, but I was actually ok with it. Obviously the author used these scenes as the vehicle to tell the readers to ENJOY LIFE!! Live unfrozen!! Make the snow angel!!!!!
And yes, read the book. ;-)
And yes, go look up who the author REALLY is. His name is not Viola.
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