REVIEW: One Snowy Night by Jill Shalvis
Trigger Warning: sexual assault – not detailed, no description, not by hero
Dear Jill Shalvis,
I was excited to read One Snowy Night – two adults trapped in a snowstorm is classic romance novel fodder after all and I like your books. However, it was very short – on my reader it was only about 60 pages and it ended so abruptly I wondered if there was a problem with my book file for a little while.
There are some serious issues canvassed in the story but they weren’t developed at all. Rory Andrews ran away from home to San Francisco when she was 17. She was found in a park, apparently the victim of a sexual assault (at least I guess that’s what happened – it wasn’t spelled out). Rory was roofied and doesn’t remember anything about it. Willa, the lady who found Rory in the park, took Rory in, gave her a home and a job and she’s been there for seven years. Rory is going home for Christmas for the first time since she left. She’s told her family she’s coming home before but backed out before actually doing it, so her stepdad is dubious about Rory’s commitment this year. Rory has tried to reassure her stepfather that she’s really coming this time, by agreeing to deliver his Christmas gift to her mother, by dawn on Christmas day, when the family traditionally open their gifts.
Rory plans to catch the bus home but is offered a lift by Max Stranton, a private investigator who works in the building near to where Rory works as a dog groomer. Max has a dog, a doberman named Carl, and Max takes him in to be groomed by Rory at the South Bark Mutt Shop perhaps a bit more regularly than Carl actually needs. Carl adores Rory and the feeling is entirely mutual.
As for Max, he and Rory grew up in the same small town near Lake Tahoe and something happened around the time Rory left which had serious repercussions for Max. To say he harbors some resentment is an understatement. He is nevertheless attracted to Rory and annoyed at himself for it.
Rory and Max expect to be stuck in the car together for a few hours at least, but the weather worsens and they end up having to spend the night on the road instead of at home in their respective, and separate, beds. Over the course of the night, they resolve all of their issues and Christmas day brings happy surprises for Rory in other areas too.
The thing is, Rory has serious family issues and they aren’t really unpacked here. More importantly, even though she doesn’t remember what happened to her in the park seven years earlier, whatever it was, was serious and I’d have expected it to have lasting effects. But, other than a reluctance for Max to know about it, that doesn’t seem to be the case. I could have bought it perhaps, it it had been given a context but it wasn’t.
Frankly, it would have been a better story if it had kept a tight focus only on the issues between Max and Rory themselves. In only 60 (ish) pages, the other matters were just given too short a shrift. However, even if the story had stuck only to the romance, I expect it would still have been too much for me to believe the couple were at the point they were by the end of the story. Those who don’t mind instalove will probably be okay with it though.
Maybe I’m being unfair. Perhaps Rory and Max have featured in other Heartbreaker Bay novels as secondary characters and those who have read the earlier books may find that what is in the novella is enhanced by that – but I read this as a stand-alone and didn’t have the benefit of any previous backstory there may have been.
The story was entertaining when I was reading it and there were some funny, trademark Shalvis lines which made me chuckle.
“Anyone ever tell you that you’re more fun when you’re not talking?” she muttered, muffled by the pillow.
He laughed again, telling her that he was a morning person, which meant she might have to kill him.
(As a definitely-not-morning person, my sympathies were all for Rory here.) I liked the chemistry between Max and Rory and Carl was awesome. Even if I didn’t already know you have a dog it would have been obvious from the way he was portrayed in the book. It was only when the story abruptly ended and then when I thought about it later that I felt it was underdone. If it had been the 110 page novella I was expecting I think I’ve had enjoyed it more. Grade: C
Regards,
Kaetrin
The characters were featured in The Trouble with Mistletoe enough that I was excited for their novella, but not enough for the issues addressed above to be more developed. I do wish more of the limited page time had been focused on them having actual conversations about these issues. I feel like maybe we’re supposed to infer they talked during the last leg of their journey, but that’s not even spelled out. There were references to her talking on the phone with her stepdad recently, but not her mother. I really wanted to know more about what caused her to runaway and why the stepdad was so hard on her. Didn’t her mother care she was gone for so many years? Did they now know the truth about what had happened to her in high school? So many questions and so little answers. So I agree the novella was too short to explore the issues enough, but overall I enjoyed it more I think.
FWIW I read this on election night as the returns were coming in so I really appreciated the distraction it provided.
I usually love her stories, but this one felt short, hurried and incomplete. Plus the story stopped at 59% on my Kindle, the rest was starters for other stories. I felt cheated actually.
I forgot to add that while I loved the heroine’s boss in her own book, I think she was way out of line to tell the hero about the heroine’s secret in this book. I wish that had been addressed as well.
I read this last night and I, too, was disappointed when I reached the end. I don’t mind a romance that ends on the beginning stages of a relationship, but I didn’t like that they weren’t spending the holiday together. He was going off to his family’s and her to hers, and I wanted the novella to end with them TOGETHER, both physically and emotionally. I also thought a lot of questions were unanswered–the main being the issues she had with her family. I wanted there to be a scene or two where we saw those interactions and were reassured, as readers, that things would start improving between Rory and her family. I thought there was way toooo much blame placed on her for her past and troubles with her family. Like her family totally got a pass for not believing her and that just really angered me.
Basically I thought the story could have been about 5-10,000 words longer than it was and it would’ve had the opportunity to address the family issues and get Max and Rory at a believeable HEA.
(But mainly I was super irritated they weren’t together at the end. Even though he was like call me anytime and I’ll come get you…I wanted something way more for the ending.)
I was very disappointed in this one, too. It ended at 58% and I was thinking that it had to be a mistake.
It felt emotionless and boring.
@library addict: Yes, that part of the story was so very underdone. I wanted to know a lot more. As it was, I couldn’t decide if Rory was an unreliable narrator or whether her stepdad was just a dick.
In the first draft of this review I had a sentence about the (what I think is) sexual assault being basically used as an excuse for Max to be “gentle” with her – as if that needed an excuse – and had no other narrative work to do. But I took it out because I thought maybe I was being too harsh. But yes, very uncool of Willa to reveal such a personal story without Rory’s prior consent.
@Diane: @helen: I thought it was a mistake at first. That much back matter was a bit of a surprise (not in a good way).
@Elyssa Patrick: It was weird that they said “I love you” and then went off to their respective families for Christmas wasn’t it? It’s not just me?
I was really disappointed. I broke my no holiday books until post-turkey coma for this as a comfort read in my bathtub last night. I was through it before the water got cold. It was just … not what I expected from a Jill Shalvis read.
A bit off topic but…all the Dobermans I know are very short-coated dogs. Do they really need professional grooming? All my short coats have only ever had a quick brush every now and again, maybe a rub down…I certainly wouldn’t need a professional to do it! And any professional worth their fee would tell me not to bother bringing them in, to just give them a brush myself…
@Patricia Eimer: Yep, I hear ya.
@Jane Lovering: I think the point was that he was mainly taking in the dog so he could see Rory but I guess every dog needs a bath every now and then?
@Kaetrin: And their nails trimmed.
Not in connection to the story, but the cover. Where’s the steering wheel on that car?
I felt EXACTLY the same way about this novella. Cute enough, but largely disappointing, for all the reasons you listed.
@Cathy Pegau: Ha. That cover has been used for so many books and I have never really noticed that. In Tamara Morgan’s Off the Map it looks like they’re maybe sitting in the passenger side of the car. Maybe the stock photo is British?
@Cathy Pegau: @library addict: I’m Australian so it looked totally normal to me – our steering wheels are on the right. LOL
@Aislinn Kearns: At least I’m not alone… :P
I think, maybe then. that things are different for dogs in the UK. All my Dobey owning friends bath their own dogs and they get enough road walking that their nails never need clipping. I’ve actually never had a dog whose nails needed clipping – is dog ownership very different in the US?
@Jane Lovering: Oh I wish my dog’s nails didn’t need to be clipped. His first few experiences having his nails trimmed were somewhat traumatic (he was cut at Petsmart and then I tried one of those mobile grooming van services which came highly recommended was a complete disaster). So now I have it done at the vet’s office. Only he hates going to the vet. I tried at home, but I’m too nervous about cutting him, so I’m sure that translated to him. And those nail grinder things take way too long.
He has daily walks on the road as we have few actual sidewalks in my neighborhood. But that’s not enough to keep his nails trimmed. Maybe it depends on the breed.
@Jane Lovering: We have a Cavoodle and he needs his nails clipped. (I’m in Australia).
@Kaetrin: I had to google Cavoodle and they look adorable!
@cleo: Ours is more Cavalier than Poodle. Here’s a picture. :)