Renee: I liked Snowbound. I gave it a B. And yeah, it’s one of the freebie Harlequins. Now the book that got Janice Kay Johnson a RITA nod this year? The Man Behind The Badge? That one blew me away. But Snowbound is good.

And maybe that’s the point of it all – to get people thinking about abuse. Or maybe she was just trying to write a good love story. Cause she had a rockin’ hero for sure. And Wendy? Completely agree. When she finally breaks through and grows her pair? That scene in the bakery? Wow. Srsly.

And Renee, Snowbound rocked. Kicked ass – I loved it. K, I think I have the same crack addiction as Wendy. HSR, SSE, and HH. LOL.

I agree about the dad and brother though, what kind of father and brother wouldn’t support their own daughter that way? But then the worst kinds of people behind closed doors can be the model citizen to the world and obviously her ex had people fooled for so long.

I do have a close family member that was in a similar abusive situation as you Holly, and while she chose the worst possible way to get out of it, she did get out of it. Her self-esteem is still shot, but she’s working for herself and to support her child now, but it’s a hard road to get past that I know.

This is terrible, but I think I was able to wrap my mind around the heroine’s inability to protect her children earlier with the idea that she was deluding herself. The old “he treats me like shit, but he’d never hurt the children” belief. I think it took her longer to figure out because he left her – which was my big stumbling block with her character. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that. Which means we do agree – we’re just coming at it from different angles. You wanted her to grow a spine sooner to protect the kids, and I wanted her to grow a spine sooner so that she would have been the one to dump the asshole husband (not the other way around).

Ultimately, this was a book that got better for me the more I read it. Obviously, since I gave it an A-. I got that emotional “punch in the gut” in the ending, and that pretty much sealed it for me. But yeah, the first few chapters I really, really, really had my doubts.

I guess the big issue for me here is that she KNEW it was affecting (effecting? I can never remember..) her children and yet still did nothing. I guess that’s why it was so hard for me to forgive her and move past her behaviors in the beginning.

I realize it takes time for a victim to overcome her situation, but she should have done it sooner for her children.

Having complained about that, however, I agree with Sybil that the writing was stellar and I’m definitely interested in reading something more from her. I’ve already purchased her first book and can’t wait to read it. Also, I have to give credit to the author for engaging my emotions so much. Isn’t that the mark of a good author?

Also, I suspect I was able to “work with her” because of the abuse. When you’ve been beaten down that much, you don’t climb out of it overnight. It’s not a light switch you flip on or off. Should she have done more to protect her children? OK, yeah. I concede that point. I also was annoyed that it was her husband who left HER, and not the other way around. But she ultimately reached her “enough is enough” point – and I could roll with it.

But yeah – Dillon was a big reason why this book worked for me. Also, the bar owner. Gawd, I LOVED her.

lots of HSR reviews tis Wendys crack of choice. I really enjoyed Snowbound. And honestly I liked Beth Andrews writing here and loved the hero. The fact that she so pushed my buttons prolly says something.

And lori makes a good point and something I do recall thinking. I am not sure what I wanted from her, she didn’t escape, leave or really even walk away. Pretty much at the point the book starts in a way she is still the ‘abused wife’ who is playing at being strong. So that is prolly how I should look at it vs seeing it from my pov and wanting to hurt her and tell her to stand up for her kids if she can’t grow a pair and do it for herself, which is what I wanted to do.

What they say about walking in other peoples shoes and all that… if the book sucked I wouldn’t have finished it since it had been reviewed, I didn’t send money on it, didn’t follow the author and didn’t read the first book. As it was I did love the writing and almost always agreee with wendy and now as soon as I find a clear spot and mark a few things off my list will pull out the box I ‘think’ the first book is in *g*.

However, I’ve really been wanting to check out a HSR, so maybe I’ll have to get Not Without Her Family, instead.

What ticked me off was that she didn’t miss the signs.

Exactly! It was so frustrating to me that she let it go on as long as she did. Grr.

The rest was well done, though.

What ticked me off was that she didn’t miss the signs. She knew, and she let them go anyway, cause she wasn’t willing to stand up to him until it became physical. That was wrong. I agree with Holly, though. I loved Dillon. And his sister. She intrigued me enough that I’ll go back and buy her book, too. Overall, I liked it. I just thought Andrews waited too long to have Nina start to stand up for herself. But I suppose if you haven’t been abused, you don’t really know. Do you?

And the bit about being a Harlequinwhore? So with you.

But dude my bookwhorishself has no shame and I can get zebra debuts for 2.99, I picked up the new Parr yesterday but I digress… so Lawson read it and liked it somewhere in the middle of your review and Wendy’s (if I recall correctly).

And gave it to me when it gave me back a bunch of ARC’s and finals she had reviewed since she knows I am poor and a Harlequinwhore. HSR isn’t even my crack of choice but Wendy is a bad influence, over last weekend I was looking (AGAIN for Rescue Me by Christy Reece since I have the whole series but the one and SWORE I did btw I gave up and have decided gwen just kept it and sucks and never mailed it and just bought the fucking thing hence while I was at wally world and ended up with the parr but again I digress).

A Not So-Perfect Past drove me nuts I wanted to slap the heroine many times. LOVED the hero, understood many things about the heroine, could-not-get-past-leaving-the-kids-with-the-bastard ex-husband.

HOW could she be THAT stupid. HOW could she miss the signs? I don’t even have kids and it was just UGH. At the same time the heroines family, her father that the top of the list with her brother right under him I wanted to beat. How dare he call her ex husband to come talk sense into her, even IF he thought she was off her nut you do not take sides against your daughter like that omg and than she just forgave him.

ugh ugh ugh

After this I read Snowbound, yes finally, and still think Wendy is the bomb LOLOLOL yes I know she was worried