Orphaned at a young age and witness to her brother's decline into addiction, Nora Martinez has every excuse to question the fairness of life. Instead, the openhearted librarian in the small Colorado community of Silver Ridge sees only promise. She holds on to the hope that she'll be reunited with her missing brother and does what she can at the town library. It's her home away from home, but it's also a sanctuary for others who, like her brother, could use a second chance.
There's Marlene, an elderly loner who believes that, apart from her husband, there's little good left in the world; Jasmine, a troubled teen; Lewis, a homeless man with lost hope and one last wish; and Vlado, the security guard who loves a good book and, from afar, Nora. As a winter storm buries Silver Ridge, this collection of lonely hearts takes shelter in the library. They'll discover more about each other, and themselves, than they ever knew-and Nora will be forced to question her brother's disappearance in ways she never could have imagined. No matter how stranded in life they feel, this fateful night could be the new beginning they didn't think was possible.
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Nora Martinez stood in an empty parking lot on the edge of town, with its sun-burned asphalt rippled and cracked, weeds clawing up from the earth like zombified hands from a grave. CHAPTER ONE, NORA
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(Lake Union Publishing, 19 October 2021, ebook, 299 pages, bought from @AmazonKindle)
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I bought this book when it was on sale for 99p because I really enjoyed Memories in the Drift. I thought this was a terrific book, a real tear-jerker that packs an emotional punch. I fell in love with all the characters who become embroiled in each other's lives through their shared loss and loneliness. Nora is lost because her brother caused the car accident that killed their parents and his inability to cope led him into a spiral of addiction. She seeks to help those who remind her of her brother and are lost souls as well. When the characters are stuck I the library during a storm this could have been cheesy but the author makes it work. This is well worth a read.
