I liked it well enough, the setting was good and the characters were well developed I just didn't really like them that much or identify with them very much, but that's not the authors fault.

The Snowbirds by Christina Clancy has more emotional depth than one might assume by the cover as readers meet Grant and Kim - a couple that has been together for thirty years and are now coming to terms with what their commitment to each other means. Told in alternating timelines, this book explores the bounds of their relationship and what it means to truly stay with a person through one's own evolution of self.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me.

Romance with some thriller and some dark and heavy topics. I really dig that! Not all romance has to be light and fluffy!

Thank you @netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of The Snowbirds by Christina Clancy. Kim and Grant have been married for 30 years, and the magic is gone. They are trying to figure out their next steps, when they get an offer to spend the winter in a friend’s condo in Palm Springs and get away from winter in the cold Midwest. It turns out to be rejuvenating for them individually, and maybe for their relationship? Then Grant goes on a hike and doesn’t come back. The novel is about their lives, and the search. The thing I liked best about this was the coverage of Palm Springs, an area I don’t know much about. The story was okay. #thesnowbirds #christinaclancy #netgalley #advancedreadercopy #bookstagram #booklover #reader #bookblog #lovetoread #fictionreader #bookreview #bookrecommendation #readersofinstagram #bookloversofinstagram #takeapagefrommybook #readallthebooks #booksbooksbooks #booksofinstagram #bookwormproblems #bookaholic #booknerd #whattoread #readingtime #bookaddict #ilovetoread #ilovebooks #needtoread #readallday #palmsprings

Finished this heartwarming story of Grant and Kim and their lives. The messy, adventurous, dramatic, funny, sad, but persistents. Not only persistent in figuring themselves out but persistents in finding their way back to each other. This book had all the feels. Humor, drama, thriller, mystery and over all just amazing story telling. Loved this book! Thank you netgalley and St. Martins press for this copy!!

The Snowbirds by Christina Clancy is a beautifully crafted story set in the sunny, vibrant world of Palm Springs. The novel follows Kim and Grant, a couple navigating the complexities of their relationship and personal desires while grappling with the passage of time. Clancy's writing is engaging and insightful, capturing the nuances of their lives with both humor and heart. As a first-time reader of this author, I was impressed by her ability to create relatable, flawed characters whose journey feels authentic. It's a thoughtful exploration of love, self-discovery, and the challenges that come with change.

I absolutely loved this novel -- Kim and Grant have been together for 30 years and are at a crossroads in life and their relationship when they decide to leave their homes in Wisconsin and go to Palm Springs for the winter. Once there Grant takes up hiking, and goes missing one day during a hike. Told in alternating timelines, I found this book hard to put down as I wanted to read about what lead them to Palm Springs and what was going to happen to Grant.

Palm Springs is one of my very favorite places, and I loved reading all the descriptions of it - it made me feel like I was there.

I loved both Kim and Grant, and really enjoyed all the side characters -- especially the friends they make in Palm Springs. They are all hilarious and added so much to the book.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys books about relationships -- ultimately this is a look at the relationship between Kim and Grant. The characters are so endearing and compelling. I am so excited to read more by Christina Clancy!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

Do not be fooled by this cover. This is not a cozy winter beach read. This is a family drama in a very non-traditional sense with the major theme being about committment. Or lack of.
Kim and Grant have been together forever - Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell style. Early in their relationship, they became pregnant with twins and decided to make it work. But making it work for them also meant living seperate lives while still being a family. He had a job an hour away and rented an apartment where he stayed during the week and she kept up the family house. Then came the Palm Beach opportunity. What was supposed to mean a fresh reset for a couple of months turned into a very serious and life changing event.
The story takes us through Kim and Grant's current situation as they attempt to settle into empty nesters lifestyle, verging on retirement and need for something new. The chapters take us through Kim's perception of their life together currently and then as she reminsces back to when they first met, along with entries of Grant's journal.
Because I went into this book without knowing what it was really about, I was pleasantly surprised with the story. Although there is discussion on different political and philosophical views, I did not let that deter me but it may have lowered my star score just a little bit.

Good, not great. For a shorter novel, it took me a while to get through. I think this was due in part to the main male character - I couldn’t get on board with him and while the main storyline has to do with him going missing on a hike. I couldn’t bring myself to root for him to end up dead or alive.

Felt like the book was lacking something. It was slow to start and took me awhile to get through and finish. The plot sounded interesting and I did stick it out to see what was going to happen. But, I think I might not have been the right demographic for the story. I didn’t feel attached the characters. Enjoyed the setting. But overall just wasn’t for me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️[Really liked it]

A great character driven book. The story and pace of the book worked well and kept me wanting more. The writing was amazing, as always, I love this author. The narration of the audiobook was also excellent. Highly recommend if you like character driven stories. Out now!

Thank you to the publisher and @netgalley for providing a free advanced copy of this ebook & audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

(3.75 stars)
The blurb of The Snowbirds appealed to me because that’s exactly what I am! In this story, the snowbirds are from Madison, Wisconsin and go to Palm Springs, California. In my case, it’s New Jersey and Florida. (Yep, cliché!) But this story is about Kim and Grant, not me!

Grant and Kim are in their 50s and have been together for around 30 years but never married. They have twin adult daughters who have left home and made their parents empty nesters. A crisis comes about when Grant’s liberal arts college closes its doors and he loses his tenured professorship. It’s no easy task to get a new tenure-track professorship in philosophy at his age. At the same time, Kim’s nonprofit organization offers her a sabbatical, coinciding with foot/ankle surgery. When her ex-husband offers his Palm Springs condo for the winter, Kim jumps at the chance. Grant needs more convincing but they wind up driving to California to become the titular snowbirds.

When they get to Palm Springs, they meet a quirky variety of people. One of them suggests that Grant take up hiking, which he does, and he gets quite good at it and gets in good shape that way. But on New Year’s Day, he heads out for a solo hike, after an argument with Kim, and he doesn’t come home. This forms the “action” of the book, but make no mistake, this is a character-driven book. We gradually get their backstory, with clearly labeled/dated flashbacks, which helps us understand why they are the way they are.

The Snowbirds is mainly told in the first person POV by Kim, with a few excerpts from Grant’s journal. On the audiobook, a female narrator, Karissa Vacker, does most of the book and a male narrator, Graham Halstead, does Grant’s journal entries.

I thought I’d relate to this couple more than I did, but I couldn’t wrap my head around why Kim was so opposed to marrying Grant after all those years together. Nevertheless, I quite enjoyed the journey with Kim and Grant.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a review copy of this book and to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to a review copy of the audiobook. All opinions are my own.

This was just an ok book for me. Two middle age people living together for many years. The decision to move to Palm Springs. Grant who gets lost on a hike. It all seems like a great story, but just didn’t do it for me. But I did enjoy his journal.

In Snowbirds, while spending the winter in Palm Desert, a woman’s husband goes missing while on a hike. The book includes entries from the husband’s journal while lost, along with the story told from the wife’s point of view. This was a character driven drama with plenty of comedic elements tossed in to add some levity and so emotional themes of getting lost to find out what you really want from your marriage and just from your life.

Kim and Grant have been married over 30 years, with their two daughters all grown up. Grant has just lost him teaching job at a college because it closed. Kim's ex-husband has offered them to use his condo in a quirky community in Palm Springs. As Grant is trying to figure out his new life, he takes up hiking. He ends up going missing and Kim starts to reevaluate her life as they search for Grant.

This was a fun book, with the quirky community and interesting characters.

When I read the blurb about this book, I was expecting much more of a mystery. Grant and Kim are at a crossroads in their marriage after 30 years together. Kim wants to go to Palm Springs for the winter and get away from the Midwest for a spell. She hopes this will allow them to rediscover each other and allow them to move into the next phase of their married life. Soon after they arrive, though, Grant goes missing while hiking. The rest of the story is told in alternating timelines: the past, highlighting their relationship up to the present, and the present and search for Grant.

For this novel to have fully worked for me, I would have to have fallen in love with Kim and Grant in the past storyline, but even then, they seemed ill-suited for each other. I struggled to connect to the characters even though the problems in their marriage were realistic and believable. This may have been a wrong-time read for me. I can appreciate Clancy's writing style, and I do want to read more from her in the future because even if Kim and Grant weren't for me, other characters with realistic life problems might be.

I chose to read this novel on the strength of Christina Clancy's debut, "The Second Home" which I absolutely loved.

Once again this author writes a tale of complex family dynamics and strong and unique characters. However, I'm sad to say that I did not enjoy this one near as much.

Kim and Grant were just so different. Their lifestyles, aspirations, and family dynamic were so dissimilar to mine, that I found I could not connect with the characters enough to be fully invested in their lives.

Kim and Grant reside in Wisconsin and have done for the three decades they have been together. Now, Grant has lost his job as the college he worked for has closed its doors. Kim, feeling that this is an opportunity too good to pass up, accepts her ex-husband's offer of his condo in Palm Springs to escape the winter weather.

"If you're not at home in your heart, then you're not at home anywhere."

The condo community was quite quirky and unexpected. Kim seems to embrace the warmth and community, while Grant tagged along unwillingly, at least at first. Then he makes a friend who introduces him to hiking and his new interest brightens his spirits. Then, while hiking alone, Grant goes missing in the treacherous mountains surrounding the city. Kim is unsure if he is in danger, or if he has left her. For this is not the first time Grant has run away from Kim...

Grant seemed self-absorbed and immature. I didn't even care that much whether he would be found, only that I wondered if he was actually lost or had run away. Both Grant and Kim were insufferable in their own ways.

I felt that the pacing of this novel was a tad to slow for my liking. It plodded along much like Kim and Grant's relationship. They never married. Commitment was something neither of them was keen on despite the fact that they had two children together. Their life together was in turns volatile and fragile. Now, in late middle age and empty nesters, they find themselves spending far more time together than they ever have before.

When after days of Grant being missing, and search parties out looking for him, Grant's backpack and journal are discovered. Reading this gives Kim new insight into the man she has shared her life with. It causes Kim to reevaluate her life and her hopes for the future.

This was a thought-provoking novel on what we think we 'should' do as opposed to what we 'want' to do. Selfish? Or, life-affirming? Also, it is about finding within yourself the ability to embrace change.

Does Kim have the love, commitment, obligation, and resilience needed to move on with her life? This novel was a reflective look at a long term relationship - one that I as a reader could never really become invested in. I suggest you read the previous books written by this author to fully appreciate her writing.

The Snowbirds felt raw and real throughout the story. Both MC's are struggling with their own internal struggles and problems as they move for the winter. They move to Palm Springs and meet lots of characters and add lots of vibrant color to their lives. There’s a twist of mystery at a point. A fun and easy read. I’d like to see what else Christina Clancy comes out with. This was enjoyable and different.

Grant and Kim leave the Wisconsin cold behind and spent the winter at a condo in Palm Springs. Surrounded by a bunch of quirky characters, they try to figure out what their future will look like. A dangerous situation brings everything important into focus.

Author Christina Clancy’s newest novel takes place largely in Palm Springs. But in many ways, it’s about Wisconsin, “where home is and was.”

“The Snowbirds” is about a midlife couple from Madison who, facing relationship and job troubles, decide to spend a winter in sunny Palm Springs, California.

During a recent interview about the book at Leopold’s Books Bar Caffè, a brief snow flurry came through. Clancy spoke of the harsh weather with reverence.

“Today it’s miserable outside, but also cozy,” she said. “You could just never leave.”

It sounded like something Kim or Grant might say, the couple at the heart of “The Snowbirds,” as they argue about escaping Wisconsin winter for warmer weather. Grant, a philosophy professor who recently lost his job, is reluctant to leave.

“First, I don’t golf. Second, I don’t play tennis,” he says. “Third, I burn easy.” Yet Kim, his long-term partner and co-parent, aches for a change. She gets more than she bargained for when, after they get there, Grant goes missing in the mountains.

“I wanted to write about being lost,” Clancy said. Her characters wrestle with this theme in various ways.

Hobie, an enigmatic guide, muses that “the thing about fear is it’s also a form of pleasure… The darkness becomes desire.” Kim wonders, “Are we all secretly longing to be utterly removed from the world?”

And Grant, prone to disappearing acts, embodies the push-and-pull between escape and connection. The characters weave in and out of each other’s lives as the narrative moves between their adventure in California and their history in Wisconsin.

Clancy often writes characters from Wisconsin. Her first novel, “The Second Home,” features characters from Milwaukee, and her second, “Shoulder Season,” takes place in 1980s Lake Geneva at a Playboy Club.

With the first and third book, Clancy wanted the characters to be from Evanston, Illinois, “but it wasn’t working. When I decided they were from Wisconsin, things snapped into place.

“Where I come from informs the novel.”

Really enjoyed this! Read the full interview: https://captimes.com/entertainment/books/madison-author-christina-clancy-follows-the-sun-in-the-snowbirds/article_a20ed06e-dcdd-11ef-8ba2-7be4a3165ee7.html