Snow Queen by @lindawisdom #Romance (#Fave #Book #Spotlight)

SHE WAS A WOMAN WITH A REPUTATION.

Men called her the Snow

Queen; she was unapproachable,
untouchable. But inside
Samantha Danvers was as vulnerable
as anyone, and Mike Trent was
the man who had made her that way.

The handsome novelist had once
broken Samantha's heart and
she had vowed never to love again.
That vow had been easy to
keep—until the day he came back,
determined to crack her shell
of ice. Only one question terrified
Samantha then: Which would
break first, her shell...or her heart?
****

This book is one that I have cherished since the first time I ever read it. Published in 1983, I'm honestly not sure when I read it, but what I do know is that the original copy I owned is not the one in my possession now. Somehow my copy got misplaced (I think my mom might have found it later, tucked away in my sister's closet) but the one I own now came to me in the strange and wonderful way things sometimes do.

I moved to where I now live in 2001, got married, had a baby and for a long time, taking care of an infant made reading nearly impossible. It made doing most anything outside of motherhood impossible because I stayed tired between taking care of my 4-5 year old stepson and our infant to toddling daughter, life stayed hectic... but around 2003 I found I had more time again to enjoy things like movies and reading, so I searched through my bookcase for some of my favorite time-tested books and I couldn't find Snow Queen anywhere. This absolutely broke my heart.

I called my mom, but she didn't know if I'd left it behind either and said she'd have to look for it because there were some books tucked in a closet. In the meantime, I had started checking around online, trying to find it, thinking perhaps I could find a used copy to buy. That search didn't really find much, but searching for Linda Wisdom did. I found her email address, or at least I hoped it was hers, and wrote to ask if she was the author of a book by that title.

Sure enough, I heard back from her and she was and she couldn't believe I remembered that book. We emailed a few times and I told her I'd lost my copy and was just trying to find one I could possibly buy. Instead, she found a copy she still had on her bookshelf, autographed it and mailed it to me. That was a big SQUEE moment for me. It's silly I know, but I still get teary about it. As soon as I received it, I carefully opened it and read the inscription-

"8/28/03 For Holly, Who truly has a long memory for a book. Thank you! Linda Wisdom"

I read the book within a day of receiving it and relived one of my favorite stories all over again. I felt inspired again, felt like I found a piece of me I had lost somewhere along the way to becoming a grown woman, a wife, a mother. And in the process, I started finding my way as an author myself. It was still 3 years before I started taking myself seriously as a writer, but making that connection with Linda was like finding the first tiny jewel of a treasure and it reminded me that I had stories I wanted to tell, too. Stories hidden away that I needed to dig up and share.

Nowadays Linda Wisdom writes very sexy, hexy witches and demons and she's recently re-released some of her old titles with fresh new covers. Check out her books on her website. You might just find something enchanting to cast a spell on you!