Book Review: Snowcroft Lost by Christi Snow

Title: Snowcroft Lost
Series: Snowcroft, Book 1
Author: Christi Snow
Genre: Romantic Suspense, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy provided by author
Published: March 19, 2014 (self-published)

Secrets and Lies…
Everyone has them. Big ones. Little ones.

For Trevor Mayne and Jamie Vaughn, secrets and lies are how they’ve made their fourteen year friendship work. Don’t talk about it. Ignore it and it won’t be real. Pretend like everything’s fine between the two of them.

Jamie can’t live like this anymore. He’s in love with Trevor, his best friend who just happens to be straight. Tired of hiding his feelings, he decides to walk away. From their friendship. From his hometown. From his business.

But before Jamie gets a chance to leave, a freak accident leaves Trevor with amnesia. A new blank perspective leaves him confused about the inconsistencies of what he’s told his life should be vs. the feelings that he knows he has. Now those secrets and lies, that should be safer than ever, are suddenly front and center and changing everything between them.

Their world is at risk because their secrets and lies aren’t the only ones at play here. There’s a bigger lie out there and it could just destroy everything as they get closer and closer to the secret hidden in depths of the Snowcroft forest.

Disclaimer: We both know Christi as a fellow reader and book blogger in addition to being an author. That said, our review is completely our honest and unbiased opinion of the book Snowcroft Lost.

Why We Read This Book:

Brianna: Jamie and Trevor were introduced in When Love Intrudes (my review), book 4 of Christi Snow’s When the Mission Ends series. There was so much tension between these two characters. I knew there was history there and I had to get the 411.

J9: The synopsis grabbed me so I had it on my list to read when it was released.

What We Liked:

J9: As an MM reader this book had exactly the kind of relationship development that I look for in my romances. To make it even better, Jamie and Trevor are best friends to lovers, which is one of my very favorite MM tropes. How the author changes Jamie and Trevor’s relationship offers delicious tension.

Brianna: I like a good friends to lovers romance too. Jamie and Trevor were thrown into a very different and unique circumstance. That right there, and the way it would eventually all come together in terms of their relationship, was either going to make it or break it for me. The way everything came together was well thought out and made sense, so it completely worked for me.

J9: I agree. The beauty of their relationship development was that as a reader I could see how Jamie and Trevor cared for each other and adding sexual intimacy to their relationship was an organic step. I admit to being slightly nervous that this is an amnesia trope but it adroitly kept my attention.

Brianna: I like how we got to find out about Jamie through Trevor’s amnesia. It’s a different way of getting to know a character, having that character talk about himself to his friend who is battling amnesia. It’s little things like this, a different way of doing something, that I appreciate it. I thought the way Trevor’s amnesia was dealt with was believable.

J9: I agree, the plot of Trevor’s recovering memory blended the action plot with the relationship progression perfectly. Both Trevor’s amnesia and the mystery plot had a progression that kept my attention but also slowed enough to allow Jamie and Trevor to have intimacy of all kinds.

Brianna: Another aspect of Trevor’s amnesia I thought was handled very well was the relationship, or rather the pacing of the relationship, between Trevor and Jamie. It was a delicate situation that had to be handled with care, otherwise it could ruin their 14-year friendship.

J9: Exactly! As a reader I could see how these two men valued each other as friends and then desired to add sexual intimacy to their already emotionally intimate relationship. I love the scenes where Jamie and Trevor talk about going slowly because of Trevor’s amnesia and their insatiable desire for each other.

What We Didn’t Like:

Brianna: I have mixed feelings about what happened with Andrew’s character. I see how another door opens here but I’m not sure I wanted that door opened.

J9: Yeah, Andrew’s character...let us not say more for fear of spoiling the plot.

I have to admit, though, that I had issues with language regarding women and homosexuality. Through out the first half of the book things were said like, “what am I gay...and a girl" or "forgive me, but I don't feel like growing a vagina for you. I'll fight my own battles.” Personally I’m uncomfortable with this kind of language in general as I see it as a sexist and homophobic way of linking femininity and homosexuality. But it did stop by mid-point and I loved the book otherwise so I overlooked it.

Brianna: Honestly, I hadn’t picked up on that until you mentioned it. But once I was aware, I did start to notice it but like you I was able to overlook it. I was a little disappointed with the way the suspenseful climatic moment in the book played out, or didn’t play out I should say. I prefer to read about crazy intense situations in the moment, rather than as a recap.

Memorable Moment:

“Fuck,” Trevor moaned. “You’re a guy. How can you cock-block me? Both of us?”

Overall Impression:

J9: I loved this story even with my criticism. The leads were great, the romance had the sexual and emotional intimacy I adore, the secondary characters and setting were lovely and it’s all wrapped up in a compelling mystery. I can’t wait for book two in this series!

J9’s Rating:

Brianna: This was a really good romantic suspense, though there was a crucial moment that played out off the page. It had a well thought out plot that pieced together really nicely.

Brianna’s Rating:

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