Winter Dreams # 141

With characteristic subtlety and gentleness, Barbara Conklin provides yet another beautiful and bittersweet coming-of-age tale in "Winter Dreams". Genuine conflicts, real issues, and authentic emotional responses are the driving forces behind the story, which features new kid in town Anna Willows, a refreshingly typical teen upset by being uprooted and forced to move to the tiny town of Blue Mountain to help her father and stepmother open a bed and breakfast. Anna's life becomes even more complicated when she unwittingly falls for bitter, reclusive Michael Cartwright, who has been left blind by a tragic automobile accident that killed his longtime girlfriend Lisa. The novel is able, with skillful characterizations and realistic dialogue and scenarios, to depict Michael's slow journey of mourning and denial to his eventual acceptance of his condition and reentry into society, with Anna by his side. The only element of the story that doesn't quite ring true is how quickly Michael seems to have moved on after Lisa's death, the same problem evident in Conklin's earlier companion novels #1 P.S. I Love You and #23 Falling In Love Again.