This is a wonderfully written story about a mother and daughter who have a fractured relationship with each other. Their relationship ends up even worse after ending up stuck in a youth hostel in Switzerland with no way to get out due to an avalanche. Is there any possibility that they can regain their earlier relationship or are they just too different now to become a mother daughter duo again?

Claudine Potts is an Olympic skier with several gold medals. Many consider her to be one of the greatest skiers in history. She's retired and living with her husband in Oregon. Her skiing days are behind her due to a knee injury. She wishes that she could have a better relationship - or any contact with her daughter Wylie. She spent Wylie's younger years trying to train her to be an Olympic skier like her father taught her but Wylie didn't have the confidence in herself to want to be an competitive skier. She felt like her mother believed her to be a failure and knew she was better off staying away from her mother. As the story begins, they haven't talked to each in two years. Wylie is desperate and asks her mom to go to Berlin with her to take part in an athletic challenge. On the way there, they stop in a small town in Switzerland despite the fact that they are really in a rush to get to Berlin. While they are in Switzerland, there is an avalanche that stops all trains from leaving town. Along with Wylie being upset with her mother about their inability to get out of town, Claudine had booked their overnight stay in a ratty youth hostel because there was no room available at any of the hotels in town. The youth hostel would have been bad enough overnight but it was unbelievable for a week or however long it took to get out of town. Is there any way that they can learn to communicate with each other and learn to like each other again while they are in this less than ideal situation?

Some of the people that they meet in the youth hostel are really quirky and there are a lot of laughs from these people. There is also an acapella singing group there and the lead singer and Wylie are attracted to each other. So we have anger, potential romance and the chance of reconciliation between mother and daughter in a snowy setting in Switzerland. This was a great book and it will be a perfect book to read on a snowy afternoon sitting in front of a big fire. I really enjoyed this one and plan to go back and read the author's previous book that several reviewers raved about. ( )