Welcome to the first BookClubbish event of 2022! We could not be any more excited to kick off this year with the one and only, Viola Shipman! 2022 is going to be a great year, I can feel it and so will you with this heartwarming read! The Secret of Snow is a beautifully written story about second chances, understanding, and of course, love.
Pick up your copy, RVSP to our Facebook event happening on January 25th, 2022, at 1:00 p.m. EST and dig in! Don’t forget to join in on all the fun by following @BookClubbish and using the hashtag #ReadWithBookClubbish on social media.
The Secret of Snow by Viola Shipman
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.
Available at:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google Play | Kobo | Apple Books | Indiebound | Indigo | Audible | Goodreads
Discussion Questions for The Secret of Snow
- Many of the memories and traditions shared in The Secret of Snow are inspired by the author’s own life. What are your favorite holiday traditions and why? What memories do they conjure?
- People either love or hate snow in the winter. What are your feelings about it? Are you a summer or a winter person? Do you have any favorite winter activities?
- Loss plays a major role in The Secret of Snow and can often amplify our feelings of loneliness and sadness. Has the loss of someone in your life affected the way you celebrate the holidays?
- How have you coped (or not coped) with the loss of a loved one?
- Sonny and her mother have a wonderfully complicated relationship. They love one another deeply, but the pain they’ve experienced has made Sonny build a wall around her heart. What is or was your relationship with your mother like? What made it that way?
- Sonny and Lisa are what we might refer to as frenemies.
Have you ever had a frenemy? How did they hurt you? Or
how did you hurt them? Did you ever repair your friendship? - Some of the author’s dear friends are meteorologists, and he always thought if he wasn’t an author, he might have been be a meteorologist like Sonny! What career or lifestyle might you have chosen if you weren’t doing what you’re doing now?
- Do you believe women are treated differently than men in the workplace, especially women “of a certain age” like Sonny? Do you have any personal experiences to draw from?
- Society often treats women in the media (celebrities, TV personalities) differently than it treats men. Do you agree that we judge women more harshly based solely on their appearance? Discuss.
- In the novel, Mason lost his wife to depression. Have you known anyone with depression? How did you try to help? How did their illness impact you?
- Have you or a friend ever experienced a later-in-life romance like Sonny and Mason?
- Have you ever been to Michigan or Palm Springs? What are your impressions of these two beautiful locations that are so special to Sonny (and to the author!)?
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Do you have any questions for Viola Shipman? Post them in the comments and we’ll do our best to answer them live on Facebook!