Books I've Loved: The Chaos of Standing Still

I love books set over very short time periods where every moment and action is explored.  This book is set over 24 hours at the Denver Airport during a blizzard.  With all the flights grounded, there is nowhere to go and nothing to do but wait until the weather clears.

Ryn has been grieving her best friend for almost a year now.  She's moved away from the place the accident happened, she's been in therapy, but nothing has helped her move on from the moment she lost her friend.  Her phone has become her lifeline and she spends hours asking Google the questions that panic her mind in an attempt to keep herself calm.

She is not expecting to spend the anniversary of Lottie's death trapped in a snowstorm at an airport.  Nor is she expecting to meet the person who will set her on the road to healing after all this time.

Yet when Ryn crashes into Xander at the end of a moving walkway, she sets in motion a series of events that will eventually hand her life back to her and allow her to move on after a year of drowning in grief.

Xander is as troubled as Ryn, but in different ways.  As the pair of them navigate the crowded airport filled with cranky trapped passengers, they talk, fight, part, and re-discover each other time and time again.

I really enjoyed this book.  Ryn and Xander are just the kind of damaged souls I enjoy discovering, and the airport setting was both banal and familiar.  That Ryn and Xander managed to find so many adventures within the airport's walls is testament to the author's imagination.  And with a whole terminal of trapped customers, there are plenty of fascinating supporting characters to get to know too.

I could have probably done with fewer flashbacks, but I agree the were necessary, even if they did paint Lottie in a less-than-rosy light.  Without getting to know Lottie, and who Ryn was while she was with Lottie, I don't think her evolution would have been nearly as satisfying as it actually is.

Definitely recommended.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Ryn has one unread text message on her phone. And it’s been there for almost a year.

She hasn’t tried to read it. She can’t. She won’t. Because that one message is the last thing her best friend ever said to her before she died.

But as Ryn finds herself trapped in the Denver International Airport on New Year’s Eve thanks to a never-ending blizzard on the one-year anniversary of her best friend’s death, fate literally runs into her.

And his name is Xander.

When the two accidentally swap phones, Ryn and Xander are thrust into the chaos of an unforgettable all-night adventure, filled with charming and mysterious strangers, a secret New Year’s Eve bash, and a possible Illuminati conspiracy hidden within the Denver airport. But as the bizarre night continues, all Ryn can think about is that one unread text message. It follows her wherever she goes, because Ryn can’t get her brialliantly wild and free-spirited best friend out of her head.

Ryn can’t move on.

But tonight, for the first time ever, she’s trying. And maybe that’s a start.