“They’re calling for the “Storm of the Century,” and in western Maine, that means something. So Eric closes his law office early and heads to the grocery store. But when an unkempt and seemingly unstable young woman in line comes up short on cash, a kind of old-school charity takes hold of his heart—twenty bucks and a ride home; that’s the least he can do.
Trouble is, Danielle doesn’t really have a home. She’s squatting in a cabin deep in the woods: no electricity, no plumbing, no heat. Eric, with troubles—and secrets—of his own, tries to walk away but finds he can’t. She’ll need food, water, and firewood, and that’s just to get her through the storm: there’s a whole long winter ahead.
Resigned to help, fending off her violent mistrust of him, he gets her set up, departs with relief, and climbs back to the road, but—winds howling, snow mounting—he finds his car missing, phone inside. In desperation, he returns to the cabin. Danielle’s terrified, then merely enraged. And as the storm intensifies, these two lost souls are forced to ride it out together.” — Summary from Amazon
The obvious choice for me for Maine was nearly any Stephen King novel. BUT! I wanted to try something new. I don’t usually read straightforward drama/romances so, as I was looking, this one caught my eye. Being stranded in a cabin during a snow storm in Maine just seemed like the most obvious story to read for this challenge of mine!
I did actually enjoy it as well. I’m a bit of a sucker for any sort of enemies to friends/lovers type story and this basically falls into that category. It could also be seen as a sort of Stockholm Syndrome too I suppose which, if I’m honest with myself, I’m still susceptible to.
It wasn’t just their joint story that was interesting. Seeing each of their character arcs play out on their own was just as entertaining. You root for them to get together, but you also root for them separately to come into their own as individuals and loosen their grips on their painful pasts.
Overall, it was a very honest book about human interaction. I found it to be a beautiful story about how love and pain go hand in hand a lot of the time. Not because of each other per se, but in the fact that love can turn into pain and pain can turn into love fairly quickly.
For All Story Lovers! 