Review: The Secret of Snow

The Secret of Snow by Viola Shipman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

1.5 stars 

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

When long-time meteorologist Sonny gets replaced with AI, she has a breakdown on camera that has her pasting suns on her chest and shaking them at the camera. With her career in serious trouble, she gets a call from her agent saying that a station in Michigan is offering her a job. It's Sonny's home state and she's done everything she can to run away from her memories there. With nowhere else to go, Sonny takes the job and is forced to confront why she keeps running and if she even wants to anymore. 

Now, everything is sunny, isn't it, Sonny? 

The Secret of Snow was a mixture of lit fic, women's fiction, and a thimble of romance. The focus is on Sonny's life and how hard the death of her younger sister impacted her and how that causes her to run from relationships in her life. At fifty years old, with a successful career, it was nice to see someone who outwardly has it all together, still have emotional struggles but eventually overcome them. When Sonny moves back home, she lives with her mother and we learn that her father died from cancer years ago, leaving both of them with only each other. It's not immediately revealed to the reader what happened to Sonny's younger sister but through small, quick flashbacks, it's obvious that the younger sister died in a tragic accident when she was a child and Sonny still hasn't dealt with the emotional fallout. 

All because it's easier to be alone than it is to lose someone you love. Again. 

The writing had some emotional moments but the way the characters spoke the lines felt unnatural and overly contrived to deliver pithy philosophical ideals. Instead of feeling like the characters were living or delivering the story, I could clearly see the author behind it driving everything to make their points. The second half felt very drawn out as Sonny circles around and around the same issues. I enjoyed the relationship with her mother, wish there had been more delving between the intricacies between Sonny and her boss/friend Lisa, and the romance first had the guy Mason focused too much on his wife who had passed (I don't care how open you are, when you first meet someone, you don't just unload that your wife committed suicide) and didn't spend enough time with Sonny to make me believe in their love. Mason giving Sonny his wife's necklace also felt odd and didn't land with me the way it was supposed to. My favorite relationship ended up being between Sonny and her cameraman she ends up becoming a mentor to, their relationship felt the most natural. 

The book has a gorgeous cover, the winter activities Sonny does gives it a good seasonal feel, and after you read the story, the title nicely hits but the points and lines the author obviously wanted to deliver made the story and characters feel contrived and gave this an awkward forced flow.

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