The secret of snow

When Sonny Dunes, a SoCal meteorologist whose job is all sunshine and seventy-two-degree days, is replaced by a virtual meteorologist that will never age, gain weight or renegotiate its contract, the only station willing to give the fifty-year-old another shot is the very place Sonny's been avoiding since the day she left for college, her northern Michigan hometown ... To distract herself from the memories she's spent her life trying to outrun, Sonny throws herself headfirst into covering every small-town winter event to woo a new audience, made more bearable by a handsome widower with optimism to spare.

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Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Status
Adult Fiction	33382001460875	FIC Shipm	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

The forecast is calling for a reluctant homecoming and regrettable decisions with a strong chance of romance...

When Sonny Dunes, a SoCal meteorologist whose job is all sunshine and seventy-two-degree days, is replaced by a virtual meteorologist that will never age, gain weight or renegotiate its contract, the only station willing to give the fifty-year-old another shot is the very place Sonny's been avoiding since the day she left for college--her northern Michigan hometown.

Sonny grudgingly returns to the long, cold, snowy winters of her childhood...with the added humiliation of moving back in with her mother. Not quite an outsider but no longer a local, Sonny finds her past blindsiding her everywhere: from the high school friends she ghosted, to the former journalism classmate and mortal frenemy who's now her boss, to, most keenly, the death years ago of her younger sister, who loved the snow.

To distract herself from the memories she's spent her life trying to outrun, Sonny throws herself headfirst into covering every small-town winter event to woo a new audience, made more bearable by a handsome widower with optimism to spare. But with someone trying to undermine her efforts to rebuild her career, Sonny must make peace with who she used to be and allow her heart to thaw if she's ever going to find a place she can truly call home.

Don't miss bestselling author Viola Shipman's charming new novel, THE WISHING BRIDGE--where an ambitious executive rediscovers the magic of family, friendship, home...and Christmas!

Other books by Viola Shipman:

Famous in a Small Town A Wish for Winter The Edge of Summer The Summer Cottage The Heirloom Garden The Clover Girls

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Shipman (Clover Girls) delivers a beautifully written story about second chances. After 50-year-old meteorologist Sonny Dunes is fired from her Palm Springs, Calif., TV station and replaced by an artificial intelligence system, she gets drunk with a former colleague, then heads back to the station to voice her opinions, live and uncensored. In the aftermath, she agrees to return to her northern Michigan hometown and serve as chief meteorologist for the local station. In addition to working for a college acquaintance, Sonny is immediately targeted by local mean girl Polly Sue Van Kampen, who makes it clear that she blames Sonny for taking the job she expected to get and does everything she can to sabotage her. Sonny also finds love with a local man, Mason Carrier, and when an unprecedented career opportunity arises, Sonny is confronted with the choice of whether to stay with Mason or take the job. The author adds emotional gravitas with a subplot about Sonny's deceased younger sister, and perfectly sketches Sonny's mother, while also sensitively handling the topic of mental health, with one character having obsessive-compulsive disorder and another having lost a loved one to suicide. Fans of women's fiction won't be able to put this down. Agent: Wendy Sherman, Wendy Sherman Assoc. (Oct.)

Library Journal Review

In Shipman's first holiday novel, 50-year-old Southern California-based meteorologist Sonny Dunes throws an on-air tantrum when she learns that she is about to be replaced by an AI meteorologist, and the only job she can now land is in her very chilly northern Michigan hometown. Despite painful family memories and a fake-friendly boss from her past, Sonny commits herself wholly to Michigan winters, and meeting the director of the Winter Ice Sculpture Contest could deliver the love and warmth she needs. With a 100,000-copy first printing.