Snow in September [Mass Market Paperback]

Rachel Lee has always been good at dealing with the darker side of life but this book was very depressing and disappointing .

Meg is a very depressed recent widow with a runaway and suicidal daughter, an emotionally abusive mother and lots of dark secrets. Earl is the local sheriff and best friend of the deceased husband who has always had feelings for Meg but could never act on them. Earl helps the family bring all of their secrets out into the open and finally his secret love for Meg is returned.

If the author is planning on using this as a launch for a new series surrounding Whisper Creek, she didn't do a very good job making me curious about other characters and happenings in the town. I also didn't have especially strong emotions toward either Meg or Earl if they are going to be the main characters to build the series on. The best character in the book was poor Matt the abused teenager.

I anxiously await her next book because I know she can do better.

Last winter, following a fight with his wife Meg, Bill Williams angrily left home, only to die when his car slid off the icy Colorado mountain road. Bill left behind a guilt-wracked Meg and a troubled teenage daughter Allie. Meg's mother Vivian moves into the household to help her kin, but she only adds to the tension and grief felt by the other occupants.

Bill's friend Sheriff Earl Sanders feels a need to help the females, but knows it is not out of loyalty to his deceased buddy. Though he hides it, Earl loves Meg and cares what happens to Allie. Everything finally comes to a head when a hurting and angry Allie runs away. Secrets that the three women have hidden from one another surface, leaving Earl unsure if he can really help the woman and family he loves.

Best-selling author of the Conard County tales, Rachel Lee writes a tense contemporary relationship drama. The lead charcaters are an interesting duo wonderfully supported by Allie and Vivian. However, the story line occasionally over heats with too many soap-like issues that are never fully developed or explored. Still, fans of relationship dramas will see Ms. Lee's vast talent and enjoy the novel.

Harriet Klausner

From the back cover:

A daughter who's run away from home. A mother who's run away from herself.

Meg Williams has had a rough time since her husband died. Leaving her burdened by tangled emotions, recriminations and guilt, the tragedy has taken its toll on both Meg and her teenage daughter, Allie. Now Allie has run away.

Sheriff Earl Saunders feels a responsibility to look after Meg and Allie. But he's determined not to let his love and desire for his best friend's widow make her life even harder.

He's doing all he can to find her daughter, though. And as days and nights pass, filled with fear, self-doubt and dark confessions, some startling secrets come to light. Truths too painful to accept have stretched a family to the breaking point, until a woman who nearly lost everything discovers what matters most.

And my review:

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this novel, since I'd read July Thunder by the same author and found it only so-so. But this book impressed me. If you're looking for a light "fluff" feel-good romance, this is definitely not the book for you. If you like emotional roller-coaster reads, then you will enjoy this one.

Rachel Lee leaves no family relationship unexplored in this novel. Mother and daughter, husband and wife, widow and best friend, even grandmother and granddaughter; all are studied in depth, and some of the scenes will tear your heart out. I was close to tears several times reading this book. And that's the mark of a good novel--if the story can engage my emotions, then the author has done her job well.

My one gripe is that the romance aspect of the book is pretty back burner for the first third of the novel. Which is understandable, given that the heroine's daughter is missing when the story begins; the heroine would hardly be in a romantic frame of mind at such a time. However, I read almost exclusively romance because I love to read about the developing relationship between hero and heroine. I had to wait a while for it, but I will say that it was worth it.

I do think this book would be better classifed as contemporary fiction, rather than romance. There is romance in it, but not as much as a typical romance novel. However, it was an absorbing and moving read, and I do recommend it.