Snowed In: A Novel [Hardcover]

Christina Bartolomeo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2004

No job. No heat. The wrong shoes. The wrong clothes. Discover if true love can be far behind.

Imagine having always lived in Washington, D.C., and suddenly being stuck in Portland, Maine, for a year. With the pipes freezing---inside the house. And a husband who seems to have his eye on a hiking-booted L.L.Bean femme fatale rather than you. Not to mention the mother-in-law from hell who never fails to let you know that you leave much to be desired.
That's Sophie Quinn's life. Lucky for Sophie (an unassertive type who's always favored daydreams over day planners), her new life is about to throw in her lap some weird and valuable opportunities to trample down her fears and transform her prospects for happiness. And true love just might come knocking on her door....

For any woman who has ever had to confront the landlord about the heat, for any woman who has ever longed for impractical shoes instead of sturdy winter boots, for any woman who has ever been in the wrong place at the right time, Snowed In will have you laughing, crying, and rooting for Sophie Quinn.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Three months after moving to Portland, Maine, for her husband Paul's job, Sophie begins worrying about her quiet life, her "safe" marriage and, particularly, Natalie, the snappy new assistant in her husband's office. Calls to her happily married sister, Delia, and her long-time friend, Marta, don't assuage her concerns, but Sophie, a freelance artist and proofreader with time on her hands, finds companionship by joining a local walking club. In a captivating tale, Bartolomeo (Cupid and Diana) combines Anne Tyler's brand of trenchant domestic observation with a comic flair all her own (Sophie's know-it-all mother-in-law, Pepper, is "good for twenty more years. She wasn't the sort who succumbed early to cancer or heart attacks—she was the sort who caused them in those around her"). Sophie finds a kindred spirit in Ned, another member of the walking group, who offers to give her driving lessons, and Bartolomeo delicately charts the course of their developing rapport amid Sophie's troubled marriage and Ned's long-distance relationship with a girlfriend. Bartolomeo offers rare insight into friendship and romance in this sweetly poignant page-turner, leaving readers rooting for Sophie, her newfound confidence and the future that awaits her around the next bend.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Warm-blooded Sophie Quinn has moved from temperate Washington, D.C., to the great white north of Portland, Maine, where her husband, Paul, has a new job. A freelancer, she is stuck in their freezing apartment while her husband goes to work singing the praises of his female colleague. Sophie has made a to-do list of self-improvements because her life and marriage are at a standstill, and it includes "get more exercise," so she joins a walking group started by Stephen, a gregarious gay man she meets at the local coffee shop. The reticent Sophie enjoys the group, especially Ned, with whom she grows close. As Sophie's marriage deteriorates, her appreciation for Portland and the people she meets increases, which helps her gain confidence in herself and gives direction in her life, much to the relief of her highly amusing family and friends. Readers will be drawn to the entertaining characters in this heartwarming story about self-discovery and the triumph of the meek over the aggressively ambitious. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (October 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312320884
• ISBN-13: 978-0312320881
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,222,194 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book!, November 25, 2004

By 

Ratmammy "The Ratmammy" (Ratmammy's Town, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Snowed In: A Novel (Hardcover)

SNOWED IN by Christina Bartolomeo
November 25, 2004

Here is a book that will be on my top 20 list for 2004. SNOWED IN by Christina Bartolomeo is one of those novels that will sneak up on you. You will fall in love with the main character, Sophie Quinn, while the book itself (at least for me) will be hard to forget. There aren't too many books that come around that I feel "special" about, and SNOWED IN is one of those few.

Sophie Quinn has been married to Paul Stoddard for a number of years, and now she finds herself living in the cold world of Portland, Maine, because of Paul's job relocation. He's very busy with work and she rarely sees him, and when he's home, he's not the same. She's noticed that the man she fell in love with does not exist anymore. She's lonely and feels trapped.

Sophie's days consist of dealing with the landlord, Donald, who she has a hard time confronting. Paul asks her to talk to Donald about their heater, and other things that are not working in their apartment, but she is not the confrontational type. But, October in Maine dictates the use of a heater, and with theirs not working at all and Sophie being homebound most of the day, she has to do something or she'll freeze to death.

One day Sophie meets Stephen, a gay man who happened to bang his leg (which was in a cast) against her stool at her favorite coffee house, Java Net. They strike up a conversation, something that Sophie does not do with strangers, and soon she has made a new friend. He invites her to join a walking group he belongs to, and so she courageously joins. Paul is ecstatic that she's found an interest outside her own work, which is doing pamphlets for various non-profit groups and helping a college friend create artwork for greeting cards.

Soon, Sophie is making new friends, and finds herself attracted in a platonic way to Ned, Stephen's brother. She's married and does not feel a need for a romantic interest outside the marriage, but as I continued reading, I felt that underneath everything, Sophie does not feel married at all. And therefore, because she did not feel married, she also felt subconsciously that she was not doing anything wrong by feeling somewhat attracted to Ned, confiding with him about almost everything, and becoming as close to him as she wished she were with her own husband.

Along with Ned, there is also an ex-boyfriend who was the love of her life, Rory. He also becomes a distraction, as she becomes further confused about her marriage and what she really wants out of a relationship.

Despite the heavy themes, the tone of the book is light. I found myself chuckling quite often while reading about Sophie's exploits. The book is witty and funny and I was quite amazed that I discovered such a gem of a book. The characters are all rather quirky, which adds to the charm of this book, and the author has a definite gift of story telling.

I am definitely recommending SNOWED IN, and am going to be hunting down her previous novels, CUPID AND DIANA and THE SIDE OF THE ANGELS.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chick lit.... but better, August 9, 2006

By 

L. Cunningham (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Snowed In: A Novel (Hardcover)

OK. I'll admit it. I like chick lit. Some of it anyway. And this is one of them. I know chick lit gets a bad name, but read this book and you'll also see how it can be funny, intelligent and compelling. While I was reading the book, I couldn't put it down and now that I've finished it, I actually find myself missing the characters. All of the characters are written with such details that they seem real to me. I'm betting they will to you too. Check this chick out; I'm betting you won't be disappointed.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real winner in all facets -- highly recommended, November 1, 2004

By 

Bill Lerner (Memphis, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Snowed In: A Novel (Hardcover)

I must admit -- being from the South, I don't know much about the Northeast, let alone Maine. I've always just pictured beautiful fishing villages and/or really cold, depressing winters. So what I really loved about this book was the vivid and complex portrait that the author paints of Maine, particularly Portland, the state's largest city. It's easy to discern that Bartolomeo knows the city intimately, and that helps ground the story in reality. In Bartolomeo's novel, Maine is not reduced to simply being a beautiful vacation destination or the home of freakish Stephen King-style murder mysteries, but it is portrayed as a real place, with real people facing real-life struggles (job, marriage, family, in-laws, etc.). Hats off to the author on this. In addition, "Snowed In" is simply a riveting page-turner. Driving the action is Sophie, the novel's eminently likeable and engaging lead character. She carries the book through her deep humanity, witty (often hilarious) observations, and unrelenting desire to change her ho-hum life against difficult odds. This is an inspiring, poignant, and heartfelt book -- and one that will also make you laugh uproariously. I highly, highly recommend it.