Book Review: The Snowbirds by Christina Clancy

GOODREADS SUMMARY:

Kim and Grant are at a turning point. A couple for thirty years, their "separate but together" partnership is running up against the realities of late middle age: Grant’s mother has died, the college where he taught philosophy was shuttered, and their twin girls are grown and gone. Escaping the bitter cold of a Midwestern winter for the hot desert sun of Palm Springs seems as good a solution as any to the more intractable problems they face.

When they arrive at Le Desert, a quirky condo community where everyone knows everyone’s business, Kim immediately embraces the opportunity to make new friends and explore a more adventurous side of her personality. Meanwhile, Grant struggles to find his footing in this unfamiliar landscape, leaving Kim to wonder if their relationship can survive the snowbird season. But when Grant goes missing on a hike in the Palm Springs mountains, Kim is forced to consider two terrifying outcomes: either Grant is truly lost, or this time he’s really left her.

TEE'S THOUGHTS:

The Snowbirds was the first book I read by Christina Clancy, and I enjoyed the premise of it. The setting of Palm Springs was great, I absolutely love that area of California, the desert, the midcentury homes that line the streets, so it was very easy to fall right in to feeling at home in the story.

BUT....there is always a but right?

I felt very disconnected to the two main characters, Kim and Grant. They had a long 30 year relationship but I had trouble deciding if they were married, or if they weren't married throughout the book. The book took place during two periods of time, before, then the present when they were in Palm Springs. I felt that both characters were deep in the middle of mid life crisis. They didn't even really live together throughout the book. I feel like the only reason they were together was because of an unplanned pregnancy that resulted in twins, who were grown in the present part of the book.

Kim felt very selfish to me, she refused to move to the town that Grant was in because nothing was in the town other than the small college he worked at. The man even bought a home they both admired to get her to move there. 

On the other hand Grant was a boy man, childish and very unlikable. When he went missing in the desert around the Palm Springs area, I really didn't even care, he had come and gone many times in their relationship, so was he really missing or did he just leave again.

The book started out good, but it was the back and forth of their toxic relationship, and there is no other way to describe it, that got old. I don't know, maybe exhausting is a better word to describe it. You know , you might have friends that have been in your life a long time, and they just always have troubles, problems, or complaints, and you have to hear them anytime you see them. It has been going on for so long and then you are just over it...that was how I felt about this book.

Also, the ending. It just happened. Boom. The End. I listened to this on audio, and I rewound it several times thinking that I had missed something, but I hadn't. I think the author said... " opps I need to wrap this up " BOOM the end.

But books are subjective and I am sure this one will have its fair share of fans, I am just not really one of them. It was a decent book, but not great.