Description
by Betty R. Gubler
Valentines in the Snow is a poignant story of young romance, of lives enlarged by newfound gospel insights, and of the joy that comes from cementing eternal family ties. It’s a rich, sensitive tale that tugs the heartstrings. It leaves readers feeling good about the characters, good about themselves, and good about the eternal nature of their family relationships. In this gentle contemporary novel, Karen, adopted at birth by a loving and religious family and now an attractive college sophomore, is challenged by her influential college professor to discard her “religious crutch” and become “more sophisticated.” In the midst of her turmoil of faith, she and several friends attend a meeting to make fun of two Mormon elders who are explaining LDS doctrines, but she finds herself attracted to their beliefs. Karen reads the Book of Mormon, gains a testimony of the restored gospel, and becomes a convert to the church. The sudden death of Karen’s adoptive father sparks an intense desire for her to learn who her actual birth parents are. At this important junction she meets Curtis, who has taken over her late father’s high school teaching duties, and a romance blossoms between them. She learns that her birth mother is dead. Karen visits her mother’s gravesite with Curtis on a cold, snowy Valentine’s Day, and on impulse sketches a heart in the snow, writing in it, “I love you, Mom.” When Karen’s natural grandmother, Molly Carter, visits the same gravesite a short time later, she doesn’t know of Karen or her now-ended search, but she is intrigued by the touching message in the snow, and her long-felt need to know her lost granddaughter starts to burn within her. A chain of fast-moving events begins there that profoundly changes forever the lives of Karen, Curtis, Mollie and all their loved ones.
6” x 9” paperback
143 pages
