This particular Rec League request came to use from not one, but two readers who wanted some forced proximity romances on account of bad weather. Bonus points for snowed in plots with cozy cabins. Here are the requests:
Sarah: The recent Shalvis novella –Â One Snowy Night.From Reader Emily:
This is quite a specific request, but could you recommend some books that involve scenes where the two main characters are stuck in a cabin or inn together, either due to inclement weather or some other plot twist? Examples include She Went All the Way by Meg Cabot, the first story in the Baby It’s Cold Outside anthology, Nocturne by Syrie James, and Ransom My Heart by Meg Cabot.
From Reader Curlygirl:
I’m looking for something along the lines of a stranded trope…you know, like forced proximity (and doesn’t that just sound absolutely wretched? We couldn’t have come up with better wording?). Then again I am a huge Beauty and the Beast fan (which could probably be it’s own Rec League if it isn’t already). Anyway back to stranded… I just revisited Laura Kaye’s North of Need, and with winter looming in my home Land of Ice and Snow, I like that woods/cozy/cabin sort of feel, and was thinking others might as well. Any and all suggestions appreciated!
Radio Silence by Alyssa Cole ( A | BN | K | AB ), but that’s dystopia and not snow.
Sylvester by Georgette Heyer! ( A | BN | K | AB )
Elyse: I reviewed and enjoyed A Pirate for Christmas by Anna Campbell ( A | BN | K | AB ).
Sarah: Snowbound with the CEO by Shannon Stacey ( A ).
Snowbound with a Stranger by Rebecca Rogers Maher ( A | BN | K | AB ).
To Scotland, With Love by Karen Hawkins.
There’s a Balogh too – Simply Unforgettable ( A | BN | K | AB )
Amanda: Elyse and I reviewed and mostly enjoyed At Wolf Ranch by Jennifer Ryan ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au ).
I haven’t read it, but I’ve heard good things by Coming in from the Cold by Sarina Bowen ( A | BN | K | AB ), which has an athlete hero.
Plus Miracle on 5th Avenue by Sarah Morgan ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). No cabin, but a penthouse with an enigmatic writer.
What books would you recommend to Emily and Curlygirl? Any genres will do, but cabin scenes seem to be preferred!
The Fern Michaels/Brenda Joyce anthology was A Gift of Joy first published in 1995–I must have had a re-issue.
Also, Snowbound Heart by Jennifer Blake. It took some searching for me to find this–it was originally published by Signet in 1979 (which was when I read it), but repubbed by Steel Magnolia Press in 2012. Clare is stranded at famous actor Logan’s mountain home (blizzard + car trouble = magic). He thinks she’s a stalker-fan, and antics ensue when she has to pose as his fiancee once a producer and wife show up. It stuck with me, obviously, but I’m afraid to go back and read it again in case it doesn’t live up to the memories.
The first book in Mary Margaret Daughtridge’s SEALed series has forced proximity due to a hurricane. I thought the initial set up re how they came to ride out a hurricane together required suspension of disbelief but iirc it was a lovely romance.
Anne McCaffrey wrote a contemporary (1980s) “Stitch in Snow” about two people who meet at Denver’s airport when their flights are cancelled and share a room (maybe?). One of the first, but not the last, Anne McCaffrey I read. No dragons, but there is knitting!
‘Survive the Night’, by Marilyn Pappano. (Silhouette Intimate Moments #703, from 1996.)
The hero is wounded and on the run from some bad guys. The heroine is good at making home remedies and mending injuries, and has a cabin in the woods. I can’t remember if there was snow or not, but they were stuck there for a good portion of the story.
While following the recommendations, I discovered that some Betty Neels is available in graphic novel form – Harlequin Comics. I have to check this out!
My favorite use of the forced proximity trope is actually the elegant and heartrending final book in the Jessica Darling series by Megan McCafferty. The series follows a young girl from age sixteen to I think twenty-five and Perfect Fifths has her reunited with her first love at an airport and they end up stranded at a motel together when a flight is cancelled. It’s beautiful and the device of stranding them was used to make them confront their unresolved feelings. My favorite moment–I teared up!–was when they are on the airport bus to the motel and they pass notes to each other and carry on a conversation in writing about what went wrong between them, the words they couldn’t bring themselves to say aloud.
How about Somebody Killed His Editor and All She Wrote, the first and second books in Josh Lanyon’s Holmes & Moriarity m/m series? Both involve bad weather, trapped people, reunited lovers, and murder. What’s not to love?
Agggh, so many books just added to my TBR pile! I love this trope!
Boom by Stacy Gail makes awesome use of this trope. Some instalove, which can be annoying but I remember laughing out loud.
The ‘stranded’ and ‘forced proximity’ theme:
Tell It To The Marines by Amy J. Fetzer. I love the novella ‘Hot Target’. No snow at all.
LA witt’s Changing Plans. Snowed in at an airport and have to share a hotel room.
I feel like I’ve read so many of this trope, but of course I can’t think of them right now…
I remember back in the day, one person usually had to save the other from hypothermia by cuddling up naked with them in bed. To share body heat.
Also there was a Mary Balogh Christmas short story called “No Room at the Inn” that I liked.
Robin Covington’s RITA-nominated novella ONE LITTLE KISS (at an airport, flights cancelled by snowstorm).
And UNLAWFUL CONTACT by Pamela Clare – the escaped convict hero and the reporter heroine are stuck at a cabin in a snowstorm.
And I second the “Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong” by Cecilia Grant and the Gabriel’s Angel by Nora!
The Cockermouth Mail by Dinah Dean – absolutely wonderful historical romance story sadly only available in paperback.
The First Snowdrop by Mary Balogh
Snow Angel by Mary Balogh Balogh likes using the forced together by weather idea, a few of her short stories contain this scenario.
I would put in another mention of The Parfit Knight by Stella Riley, it’s really an excellent story and the first of a loosely connected series which is great – I strongly recommend it!
WHEE!!! Thanks all for the awesome recs- my TBR is now ripping at the seams and I’m so excited. PamG, DonnaMarie, and cbackson – loved Frozen.
PS: it’s -2 degrees outside. The timing could not have been better 🙂
Ooh, I’ve got more! “Cold Night, Warm Stranger” by Jill Gregory. It’s a Western, and the title says it all. Another Western by Linda Howard, “The Touch of Fire”, the heroine is a doctor and is stranded in a mountain cabin with a wounded gunman. I guess Howard really likes the forced proximity trope too, because in “A Game of Chance” H&h are stranded together in the wilderness after a plane crash. And in “Duncan’s Bride”, it’s an MOC, so they are already married, and snowed in on the hero’s ranch during a blizzard.
Regency historicals: “The Viscount’s Betrothal” by Louise Allen. After a carriage collision the H&h, both trying to escape their matchmaking families, are stranded in a snowstorm at the hero’s hunting lodge. And perhaps Carla Kelly’s greatest book, “Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand”, there is an elopement to Scotland during a blizzard.
Also, in the first book of Stephanie Laurens first Cynster book, “Devil’s Bride” they are stranded alone overnight but it’s a rainstorm, not snow. And the 3rd person with them is a dying man, so that might not be the romantic atmosphere you’re looking for!
“Prey” by Linda Howard. 2 reviling wilderness guides in a small town: a man and women hate each other’s guts. Women goes to a hunting trip leading a shady guy. The man wilderness guide finds out the shady guy she is leading may be a murderer and goes after her to save her. Both guides get stuck in a cabin together, and outside is a storm, the murderer and a bear! yowza!
Warrior, by Elizabeth Lowell, although be warned that the H treats the h shabbily, iirc.
Susan Mallery uses the stuck bc of the snow in “Marry Me At Christman,” I think.
OMG! @Inga, no, just no.
I’ve read so many of these and loved them! I sense a few re-reads coming on.
I follow all the posts over here but almost never venture into comments, so I don’t know… is it super gauche to rec one I wrote? I mean, I’m pretty sure almost none of you have read it, so at least it would be something new-to-you? I waited a few days for most everyone to move on, just in case I’m being unforgivably hideous.
Mine is a non-explicit (closed door) novella with a snow-bound mountain cabin theme, and also mistaken identity. Set at Christmas time, but not Christmassy. At all. It’s titled “A Place to Start,” in case that sounds interesting to anyone (only at AMZ at the moment, sorry).