Reviewed by Marta Tandori for Readers' Favorite

Snow Job by Debbie Brown is an entertaining read that nicely combines suspense, romance and action. New York City divorce lawyer, Sarah Lindquist, wakes up in a state park in Colorado with two park rangers hovering over her in concern. Disoriented, suffering from obvious trauma, a concussion and covered in bruises, Sarah has no idea how she ended up in the middle of a Colorado state park when her last memory consisted of her taking a break from her intense trial preparations by walking out of her office in New York City to get some fresh air. With a serious snow storm imminent, the two rangers, Mike and Jim, take Sarah back to the ranger station where Jim lives. Mike leaves to return to his family before the storm hits and Sarah is left alone with Jim who solicitously tends to her injuries. The next day, as the storm rages around them and Sarah starts to feel stronger, Jim begins asking her probing questions about her work and her cases which Sarah finds somewhat strange. However, it isn’t until she learns that Jim has assembled a ‘team’ working on gathering ‘intel’ into the circumstances precipitating her unorthodox appearance in Colorado that Sarah realizes that Jim is more than just a simple park ranger. Convinced that someone is trying to kill Sarah, Jim sends her back to her job in New York, hoping to flush out the person responsible, but even Jim isn’t prepared for what’s waiting for Sarah when she returns to her office.

Brown’s prose mirrors the no-nonsense attitude of her two main protagonists with little in the way of gushing adjectives or overly long soliloquies. Sarah is intelligent and resourceful. Jim, being ex-military, faces each challenge head on with intelligence and a healthy dose of caution. They are both portrayed as convincing three-dimensional characters who have been affected by the curve balls life has thrown their way and this is nicely reflected in both characters’ subtle flaws and vulnerabilities which the author uses to shade the story line. Although there are no words wasted on ‘fluff’ dialogue, Snow Job is nevertheless resplendent with rich descriptions which invade the reader’s senses to the point where it’s almost possible to envision the snow-capped Rockies and the white-blanketed fir and spruce trees.

While Jim’s military background was made obvious from almost the very beginning, the author might have been better served to fully explain the mitigating circumstances which had led Jim and Mike to their present jobs in Colorado, but this minor point didn’t detract from the story in any way. Sarah’s change in feelings for Jim, from savior to something far more significant, was handled with just the right amount of emotional subtlety. Snow Job is a feast for the heart and the senses which will almost certainly leave readers pining for a special state park in Colorado.