Snow in September
Grade : D+

Snow in September reminded me of one of Rachel Lee's Conard County novels - only more so. And that's not a compliment, even though, as a whole, I'm quite fond of those books. The Conard Country novels are very intense series romances; their intensity becomes too much when carried over into a full-length book. Snow in September piles on problems until it finally collapses from the sheer weight of angst.

In this 384 page book, we have two pairs of mothers and daughters with a failure to communicate, a granddaughter who thinks her grandmother hates her and her mother, a runaway teen who is contemplating suicide, a battered child, date rape, an unhappy marriage, a man who has been in love with his best friend's wife, and guilt, guilt, guilt. There were enough problems in Snow in September to keep the Lifetime cable channel in movie plots for a year.

I am not going to describe the story line in much detail because that would give away too much, but the basic story is how secrets kept can surface and hurt other people. Meg Williams is the heroine. Her husband Bill has been dead for a year and the secrets that she has kept about their relationship are poisoning the relationship she has with daughter Allie and mother Vivian.

Earl Sanders is the hero. Earl is the sheriff and he and Bill had been best friends. Earl has loved Meg for years and he loves Allie as well. He is drawn into the problems that have surfaced in Meg's family and has to face the truth about his own feelings for Meg and the kind of man his good friend Bill really was.

I liked Earl very much. He reminded me a bit of Sheriff Nate Tate from Conard County. They are both good men who are filled with honesty and integrity. Earl is kind and decent and proves to be a good man and a good friend. As for Meg, I liked her too. She is the kind of woman who tends to kep things to herself until matters reach the breaking point. I understood her reasons for her reticence and I found myself sympathizing with her.

It's a pity these two good characters found themselves in such an over the top story. Rachel Lee is a very good storyteller with a real gift for creating sympathetic characters. If there had been a few less problems in Snow in September this would have been a much better book. If you like the movies on the Lifetime cable network or are fond of problem novels, you will enjoy Snow in September. As for me - I'll stay in Conard County.

Reviewed by Ellen Micheletti
Grade : D+

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : March 12, 2000

Publication Date: 2000

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Ellen Micheletti

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