Snowbound

The romance novel Snowbound (2007) by Janice Kay Johnson is split into two parts, exploring the growing love between a teacher stranded by a snowstorm and the war veteran who is forced out of his shell while getting to know her. In the first part, which takes place over four days, the teacher and veteran meet, experiencing an initial attraction; in the second part, which covers a period of months, we see whether the physical connection can develop into something more lasting.

Fiona MacPherson is a teacher who coaches her high school’s trivia team. On their way back to Portland, Oregon, from an October tournament in Redmond, she and her eight-person team are surprised by a freak early blizzard. Trying to escape the incoming snow, Fiona takes the advice of the radio meteorologist, deciding to drive through a pass in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. However, this turns into a disastrous mistake, as the weather forecast proves incorrect. Luckily, one of Fiona’s students notices a sign for the Thunder Mountain Lodge, a small inn nearby.

They arrive and are met by the inn’s owner, John Fallon, an Iraqi war veteran who is both helpful and aloof. He is wounded both bodily – with scars on his face, hip, and leg from shrapnel wounds – and psychologically. John has nightmares and flashbacks to his time in the war, suffers from untreated PTSD related to the attack that wounded him, and feels guilt over his involvement in the incident, which left several nearby children dead. Instead of getting treatment for his condition, John has decided to tough it out on his own, isolating himself from his parents and sisters. John has moved out to this lodge to recover in peace and solitude – something that he has a lot of since the lodge doesn’t get many visitors.



The lodge doesn’t have a phone or internet service, its shortwave radio is on the fritz after a coffee accident, and cell phone reception is slim to none. Still, Fiona manages to contact her high school’s principal to let him know that she and the team are staying put until the snowplows dig them out.

Over the next four days, Fiona and John circle around each other and their mutual attraction. Finding himself coming out of his shell, John is afraid to examine what that might mean. Fiona resolves not to act on her feelings because it seems inappropriate to do so in front of her students. Still, the two manage to share a passionate kiss in the laundry room. The students, meanwhile, all hormonal teenagers themselves, are involved in a variety of romantic entanglements of their own and are invested in getting their teacher together with the hot lodge owner.

Four days later, the snowplows dig out the road, and Fiona takes the trivia team back to Seattle. She and John keep in touch via email, which for John means driving to the library in the next town in order to access a computer. After a few weeks, he invites her back the lodge – alone this time – to celebrate Christmas with him.



At first, their reunion seems wonderful, and their physical attraction is stronger than ever, to the point that Fiona thinks she is falling in love with John. He too is falling in love. Nevertheless, quickly, she grows disenchanted with his unwillingness to open up to her emotionally in any way. On his end, John is scared that if he tells her the truth about what happened in Iraq, Fiona will see him differently and leave him. After a few tries to get John to trust her, Fiona realizes that even though she is compassionate and wants to help, nothing she can do will really “fix” him until he wants to get help on his own.

Fiona breaks up with John and returns to her normal life, where over the course of the next several months, she thinks about dating another man who is interested in her and concentrates on her career aspirations by working on her advanced degree.

Struck by Fiona’s decision, John reevaluates the choices he has made in his life. As time goes by, he understands that he has reached a point where he sees the value in seeking out a therapist to deal with his trauma rather than losing out on the woman of his dreams.



The novel ends with Fiona and John reuniting to live happily ever after, as Fiona decides to move to the lodge, leaving her teaching career behind for the time being in order to help John recover.