Into The Storm
By Melanie Moreland

Book Description
She is a woman on the run. Pain, loneliness and terror are what she is leaving. Where she is headed doesn’t matter as long as it’s away from the hell her
life has become.
Joshua Bennett is trapped in a prison of his own making by the memories of his past. Traumatized and isolated, he is a reclusive writer, living a quiet,
lonely life, his only companion his dog, Bear. It is what he knows, what he has accepted to be his life.
One dark night, one huge storm, and one ice patch brings them together. He finds himself with an unexpected houseguest with no memory. She wakes up a stranger
to herself and the man watching her. Even more mysterious is the lack of any sort of identification with her or in her car. She is an enigma to both of
them.
Trapped by the storm and isolated from the outside world, they slowly open up, learning to trust and love, until the world once again shows up, threatening
the fragile peace of their newly discovered world, and tearing them apart.
There are many twists and turns as they struggle to find each other, overcoming both the mental and physical elements that keep them apart.
A story about overcoming our fears, finding love and learning to live again.

My thoughts
The description sums up the basic plot very well without giving away too much and without touching on some of the finer details, things I loved so much about this novel. First of all, it is written mostly in Joshua’s point of view. I found this refreshing, because we didn’t get much of the typical female romance novel character attitude of low self-worth or not being good enough or jumping to the absolute worst conclusion before she’s heard the whole truth, things that always raise my hackles in most romance novels. But in this book, even though Rabbit—Joshua’s name for his mysterious house guest—has reason to fear, reason to have low self-worth, reason to jump to the all the wrong conclusions, what we see through his eyes is a woman of true inner strength, who grows through the story from the scared rabbit into a confident happy woman. And her strength is believable and realistic to me. Joshua’s phobia about leaving his property is touching, and the ways he works to overcome it made me want to cheer him, every bit as much as I wanted to cheer when Rabbit stands up to the one who had sent her running for her life in the first place.
And then there’s Bear, the wonderful, goofy dog, possibly my favorite character! He’s silly and protective and loving, just as a good dog should be. I’d like to introduce him to my own two dogs.
Joshua and Rabbit have some secondary characters that I came to adore, true friends who unwavering support was one of the strengths of this story for me.
The journey both main characters take into growing, into healing, into love, kept me reading straight through. I wanted them to succeed. I cared about what happened to them. I loved their little world and wished I could find them and say hello.
Overall, it was a great book, and I enjoyed every minute as I read. There was one thing that really surprised me, and that was delightful, being surprised in a romance. I applaud Melanie Moreland for giving us a story that is fresh, not overdone with angst, but with flawed characters, both male and female, neither being the super tough all-confident being that no real person is. I will certainly buy any future books this author may write, and I highly recommend this.