Olivia Bowen came home to Crescent Creek, Washington to run the family hardware store after Dad's health began to fail. Shortly before her father finally passed, the body of a young girl was discovered out in the woods. As if that wasn't shocking enough for the small community, nobody knows who the girl is, how she ended up in the woods, or even how she died. It's like she just curled up outside in the snow and froze to death.
Ben Hovik is the high school principal and ever since Jane Doe's body was found, the teenagers in the community have been acting strangely - including his stepson, Carson. He raises money to give the girl a proper burial, is keeping his ear to the ground, but continues to be distracted by Olivia. He came home to Crescent Creek after gaining custody of Carson hoping to reunite with his first love - a complicated prospect since it was Ben who broke up with her after he left for college and she was stuck back in Crescent Creek because she was still in high school. Needless to say, she's not terribly anxious to let him back into her life and besides, she's got problems of her own. Her relationship with her mother has become incredibly strained since her father died, and the woman just dropped the bomb on her that she plans to sell the family home and business as soon as possible.
If you're familiar with Janice Kay Johnson's work at all, you'll know she doesn't write happy sunshine fluff books. So I can't help but think that the cozy outdoor sledding scene that screams "meet cute!" on the cover does this book a huge disservice. Also, I wouldn't go so far as to say the author "struggles" with the tone of this story - but it's easy to get whiplash going from a burgeoning reunion romance to the harsh realities of an unidentified dead teenage girl found out in the woods!
It takes a while for the conflict and plot to gain some forward momentum, and once it does we're then regaled with characters behaving in a gross manner. Look, is this the author's fault? No. I mean, how was she to know when she was writing this book that 2016-2018 was going to happen and I was going to be full-up on gross people always seeming to "fail up" in life. The high school students were bad enough - but then they're teenagers. No, it was the adults in this story - specifically Olivia's mother who made me SO VERY ANGRY to the point of seething. I was so tempted to give up on this story because it was all so unsavory and...well, gross.
But this is Janice Kay Johnson and gods bless her - she can write the hell out of some conflict. Once everything comes bursting out into the open, I couldn't tear myself away from this story. I had to keep reading to see how it would all end. Also, if romance readers are brutally honest with ourselves, we know the genre has a nasty habit of romanticizing (I mean, it's what the genre DOES!). If you're fed up with idealized small towns, yeah - this is your book. Johnson does not romanticize Crescent Creek in the slightest. She writes about all the crap that makes small towns annoying - certain small-minded citizens, everybody all up in your business, the mean-spirited gossip, the obsession with high school sports, the lack of opportunity and dying main streets. Crescent Creek is not a town with cutesy cupcake shops that somehow miraculously seem to stay in business even though the population is maybe a couple thousand.
Unfortunately, the good stuff tends to get overshadowed by the bad. While it's not blatant, I couldn't help but feel that Ben's ex-wife (Carson's Mom) was demonized for her addiction and mental health issues. Also, there's some veiled slut-shaming of a high school girl that bothered me. Does all this crap go on in small towns? Yes (heck, everywhere - small towns don't hold the monopoly) - but again: Wendy Tired of Gross People.
The ending felt lackluster. Almost like Johnson may possibly have been setting up a series (or at least a book 2) that, from what I can tell, didn't happen. There's one rather large nugget in particular that doesn't get answered and since it's a BIG DEAL for the majority of the story, it's pretty hard to swallow.
So yeah. In the end I'm left with a feeling of malaise. Is this terrible? No. I don't think Johnson is capable of writing terrible. But it's also nowhere near as good as she's capable of. The darkness of the conflict doesn't really mesh with the romance and Wendy Tired of Gross People made this one hard going in parts. If it's in your TBR? Look, you've probably got worse there and this isn't anywhere near a disaster. But if you don't own it? I'm not necessarily going to say you need to drop your life and one-click this baby either.
Final Grade = C
