Jenny Loudon joined me before Christmas and shared a guest post about the importance of setting in her novel Finding Verity and this one, Snow Angels. It had the wonderful title of ‘Winter is Wearing a White Ball Gown’ and you can read that here. I said at the time that I had both the books on my Kindle and planned to share my reviews in the new year. January seemed a good time to read Snow Angels and having read it, I am so looking forward to reading Finding Verity. I’m very pleased to share my review of this beautiful book today.
About the Book
An accident. That’s all it was.
Amelie Tierney is working hard, furthering her nursing career in Oxford. She has a loving husband and a small son, who is not yet two. She jogs through the streets of her beloved city most days, does not see enough of her lonely mother, and misses her grandmother who lives in a remote wooden house, beside a lake in Sweden.
And then, one sunny October morning, it happens—the accident that changes everything and leaves Amelie fighting to survive.
Set amid the gleaming spires of Oxford and the wild beauty of a Swedish forest, this is a story about one woman’s hope and her courage in the face of the unthinkable.
My Thoughts
You read the first chapter of Snow Angels with a sense of foreboding. You know from the blurb that something terrible is going to happen and you quickly begin to guess what it might be, though desperately hope you’re wrong. It’s an incredibly emotional read and someone who has experienced a recent death or a similar situation might find it too distressing.
I cannot imagine coping with the kind of loss Amelie has to face. It’s just unthinkable. The author really shows how Amelie swings between the numbness of shock and disbelief and the unbearable pain of the truth. Just as vivid was the distress of friends around her who wanted to help but didn’t know where to begin.
However, for all this is a vivid and palpable description of loss and grief, it’s by no means a bleak book. As Amelie goes to live with her grandmother in a remote part of Sweden, Jenny Loudon writes evocatively of the beauty and challenges of Swedish winter. These two grieving women find new ways to live and ways to strengthen and uphold each other. There is a strong focus on nature, the seasons, the continuing patterns and rhythms of the natural world. It’s a striking reminder that life goes on no matter what tragedies have occurred.
Amelie of course is looking for answers and reasons where there are none, a natural human response. I’m sure that everyone will be able to empathise with Amelie’s fury, sadness and sense of helplessness. Some of her actions were difficult to read but understandable given they were borne out of grief.
Nobody would ever ‘get over’ a tragedy as experienced in this book. What we have in Snow Angels is an eloquent and poignant account of someone gradually coming to peace with what happened and finding new ways to live life as fully as they could. As one of the characters says, “all things change, all things pass“. Snow Angels is beautifully written, moving and life-affirming and I highly recommend this book.
Snow Angels is independently published. I bought and reviewed my own copy from Amazon.
Buying link – SNOW ANGELS
About the Author
Jenny Loudon is a novelist and poet who has published two Amazon best-selling books FINDING VERITY and SNOW ANGELS. She has worked as an editor, researcher and proof-reader. She read English and American Literature at the University of Kent at Canterbury, and gained a Masters in The Modern Movement. She currently lives with her family in the English countryside
Social media links
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/jennyloudonauthor/
Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/jennyloudonauthor/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/jenloudonauthor
Website – www.jennyloudon.com
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