Book Review: Snowed In, or, The One in Which the Actual Names Sneaux and Wynter Appear

Snowed In by Rachel Hawthorne
Pages: 261
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: November 27th, 2007
Cover Comments: An adorable, snowy cover that perfectly matches the story within.
First Lines: "It'll be fun!" Those were my mom's words. It'll be fun. At the time, I'd thought so too.
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Well, apparently I live here now—my mom just bought the place. And named it after me, Ashleigh, which was nice. But did she know how cold it is here??

Um, it's a tiny island with not much to do, unless you really like sleigh rides. But I gotta say there are quite a few hot guys on this cold island . . .

Review

"You can either dab or swirl," he said, leaning forward to show me. Which put him even closer, close enough that it was almost an embrace. So close that my mouth went dry. "Personally," - he cleared his throat - "I like the swirl."

I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for seasonal novels. I want the book scenery to reflect my own - there's nothing more cozy than a winter read when it's cold outside. As such, this book was exactly what I wanted, and probably makes my review a little kinder because there were definitely some elements of this book that were less than ideal.

First, the protagonist, Ashleigh, is one of those "not like other girls" girls. She's never had a boyfriend and never wanted one, loves horror films and watches them with her eyes open (gasp), and needs her coffee in the morning to be a functioning person (can't argue with that one). This is all well and good, except every time something different came up about Ashleigh, it was usually preceded or followed by something alluding to the fact that she's not like other girls. This is one of my personal pet peeves. Girls are human, and different from on another. Her differences don't make her superior to other girls, and I object to the idea that being "ungirly" or "not like other girls" makes you better. There's nothing wrong with being a girl, and not all girls act the same, so you may as well say she's "different from other humans". Well, duh. We all are. Kay? Kay. *rant over*

That pet peeve aside, I really enjoyed Snowed In. It's exactly what it seems: a cute, fluffy, winter romance. Our love interests Josh and Ashleigh have that love/hate relationship in the beginning, which is always fun. Some of the side characters were a little ridiculously immature, such as the girl who calls her boyfriend only "my boyfriend" instead of his name and starts snowball fights to get out grievances. But, all in all, its's a great read for a snow day and if you want to feel warm and fuzzy and embarrassed to be seen with it in public.

Josh Wynter and Ashleigh Sneax. Smooshy and a vomit-inducing level of cuteness and I LOVE IT.

3/5