When Snow Falls by Brenda Novak

Synopsis: After growing up in cheap motels, moving from town to town with her sister and mother, Cheyenne Christensen is grateful to be on her own. She's grateful, too, for the friends she found once her family settled in California. But she's troubled by the mystery of her earliest memories, most of which feature a smiling blonde woman. A woman who isn't her mother.

Although Cheyenne has repeatedly asked for explanations, the people who could help aren't talking. Cheyenne is set on finding answers, but without so much as a birth certificate, it won't be easy.
Things get even more complicated when her closest friend is attracted to the man Cheyenne has secretly loved for years. For Eve's sake, she decides to step aside — which lands her right in the arms of Dylan Amos, oldest and baddest of the hell-raising Amos brothers. He's the kind of guy she's sworn to avoid. She can't afford to make a mistake, not when she finally has a chance to learn who she really is and change her life for the better. But . . . maybe there's more to Dylan than she thought. Maybe letting him go would be a bigger mistake.

My Thoughts: While I maintain that I really love this series I have to admit this is my least favorite book so far.

What Worked: Oh darn, for the life of me I can't think of anything that worked in this book yet despite the issues I had with it I still enjoyed reading it. It could be Novak's way of writing. She is my new go-to comfort read author. Her style is non-taxing and very enjoyable for me. The group of friends that make up our Whiskey Creek experience is an interesting dynamic and I'm now pretty attached to them so I need to read all of their happily ever afters.

What Didn't Work: Oh darn, where do I start? Let's start with the inconsistencies of Cheyenne herself. For one, I have issues with a 31 year old virgin (Um really?) who is saving herself for someone special but has sex with a stranger for no better reason than...well, I don't even know why....because he propositioned her, I suppose. (Disclaimer: Cheyenne knew OF said stranger but didn't really KNOW said stranger.) Throughout the book, her character's virtues are shoved down our throats yet she A) does naughty things with a man she doesn't really know, B) when it becomes apparent the stranger has feelings for her and has for a long time (from afar) she uses him for sex and then basically tells him he isn't good enough for her (repeatedly) and C) covers up a potential murder. So, this girl who is supposed to be so much better than her part time prostituting mother and drug addicted sister has just as many issues as they do.

What else didn't work? The fact that Cheyenne wanted to date her friend's older brother forever and the book spends 100 pages pursuing this train of thought only to have it change course abruptly with the introduction of the hot bad boy (that Cheyenne does naughty things with).

Oh yeah, this also didn't work....The group of friends that I truly enjoy reading about has a nasty habit of exhibiting intolerance and very judgmental attitudes. In the novella, When We Touch, Gail tells Kyle he is making the biggest mistake of his life by marrying Noelle (yes it was founded but go with me on this journey anyway). In When Lightning Strikes, Callie tells Gail she is making the biggest mistake of her life (not founded since Callie had yet to meet or get to know Gail's husband). In this book it was Eve who informed Cheyenne that she was making the biggest mistake of her life (before getting to know the hot bad boy). Even Cheyenne says "Can't you just...support me even if I'm wrong?" The group of friends were even planning an intervention to stop Cheyenne from dating sexy bad boy.....With. Out. Getting. To. Know. Him. ARG!!!! (oh and by the way, I've read half of the next book and this same thing happens....again.)

One more thing that didn't work and then I'll wrap it up....Those nasty things that Cheyenne does with hot sexy bad boy that no one likes? We didn't witness any of them. Oh sure Cheyenne and her sex toy talked about the passion they had but we readers only see the old time movie "Fade to Black" scenes when they start getting busy. I'm not saying a romance has to have hot monkey sex in every book but a series really needs to be consistent. Since the first book and the novella do have sex scenes Novak really made an error to not include them in this one. It makes this book feel out of place within the series.

Ok I lied. This didn't work either....There were several different plot threads interwoven throughout this book with multiple different view points. This muddled the story quiet a bit because we were expecting Cheyenne's story to be primary, yet one of her plot threads was dangling through the whole book only to have it wrap up virtually 'off camera' while we focused on her hot mess of a sister.

In a Nutshell: Oh boy, sounds like a horrible book, doesn't it? It truly wasn't awful. However, it is a weak link in the series and I can only recommend that fans of the series read it because you can't read all the other books and leave this one unread. I ended up giving it 3.5 stars only because I actually did like hot sexy boy toy Dylan. BUT, if you are a Novak newbie steer clear of this one it will only disappoint you, which will only lead to too many Oreos and the government shutting down.