I really enjoyed Clancy’s debut, Shoulder Season, and I might have liked this one even more. Despite a couple of quibbles, I found the characters to be complicated yet endearing and I liked following a relationship that endured over the years and was working through challenges. A couple flees the midwest for Palm Springs, so if you find yourself craving warmer weather, this is a good one to pick up. And it was great on audio (narrated by two of my favorites, Karissa Vacker and Graham Halstead).

This book is about survival on several fronts - the survival of a relationship over decades, the survival of self within a relationship, and actual survival in the wilderness. Kim and Grant are long time partners who have moved to Palm Springs from Wisconsin for the winter. When Grant doesn’t return from a hike in the San Jacinto mountains, the search for him raises questions about their relationship and their past.

The story is more character driven than plot driven, but I had trouble connecting with the main couple. Their relationship is toxic and they seem incapable of addressing some glaring problems, including a strange attachment to each of their exes. I grew weary with their cyclical issues, but maybe that was the point. I think more of the present storyline about Grant being missing would have improved the flow.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio #MacAudio2025 for the advance copy of this audiobook 📚 🎧

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 Stars

Midwest couple Kim and Grant have escaped the snowy winter to the sunshine of Palm Springs. The have started to live the snowbird life as Kim enjoys exploring the small neighborhoods and Grant has become an avid hiker. He heads out one day but disappears on the mountain leaving Kim and the authorities searching for answers. Kim starts to reminisces about their 30 year relationship and realizes Grant's disappearance might have been on purpose, he's done it before.

I really enjoyed Christina Clancy's previous work, Shoulder Season, so I was very excited to read her newest novel but this one did not have the same connection or depth. This is a very slow walk through the history of this boring couple who should have left each other years ago. I found all of the characters to be shallow leaning on stereotypes instead of real development. About midway through the novel I did not care what the outcome was. I forced myself to finish the book but was so annoyed with Kim and her grating opinions on people that I was ready to disappear in the mountains myself. Skip this book and read Clancy's previous work.

I had the audio version read by Graham Halstead and Karissa Vacker. Vacker is one of my favorites she delivers another great performance but could not save the novel for me. Halstead was enjoyable to listen to as well.

This is one of those winter reads where the couple heads to the sunny California area of Palm Springs to avoid their home state's harsh winter. Unlike other vacationers, Kim and Grant aren't wealthy, but they are wealthy adjacent. Renting out their family home they make the trek to California to stay in Kim's Ex Husbands condo. While in Palm Springs the couple, of 30 years, has to decide what their future will look like. As they make new friends they reflect on their past. Grant goes missing and Kim remembers all of the other times that Grant walked out and disappeared.
This book was a hard one for me to get into, simply because I wasn't a fan of the characters. Kim was alright I suppose but Grant was just awful. However, both characters were selfish, I don't think we are supposed to think that but I didn't find the characters to have many redeeming qualities. I do like the setting and the characters that the couple comes across in Palm Springs, how the locals are more open and honest than the tourists and just tell it like it is. The setting of the desert and the memories of Old Hollywood in Palm Springs were the highlight for me. The picture was painted so well that I could truly envision being there. The hunt for Grant was interesting and though important just kind of touched upon. I think Grant's journal entries gave a better portrait of Grant than Kim's POV did. Again though I couldn't sympathize with the characters they were both so toxic as a couple that wanting them to succeed was the opposite of my inner goal. The narrators did a fabulous job with the audio narration!

I listened to Snowbirds via Audiobook with thanks to Net Galley. To start, I loved the narration and felt that the narrator really connected to the main character’s energy. The story of Wisconsinites going to Palm Springs for the winter inspires the title, but the story of how the seasons of life change you are at the forefront of this novel that explores a complicated love story which hits a mid-life crisis. The characters are quirky and enjoyable and the story is compelling .

A realistic story of an empty nester couple trying to navigate life and find their way back to each other, find themselves, and for the male - find his way home from a hiking trip gone wrong!

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and MacMillan Audio for an eARC and ACL

The Snowbirds is a beautifully crafted, more character-driven story about Kim and Grant, a couple navigating the complex terrain of middle age and the emotional crossroads of their long relationship. Set against the backdrop of Palm Springs, the novel explores their journey as they attempt to reinvent themselves after years of "separate but together" living.

What I loved most about this book was Clancy’s incredible character development. Kim and Grant's relationship felt very real. The way Clancy writes the complicated nature of their relationship is realistic yet tender, and made me think about my relationship a little differently.

I enjoyed the narrative, characters, and especially loved reading a book about the pursuit of happiness in midlife. The pacing did feel a bit uneven at times, and I would’ve liked a deeper dive into some of the secondary characters. However, The Snowbirds was wonderful, as usual for Christina Clancy. She is a truly talented writer and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next. A solid 4-star read.

The narration was also fantastic. This was a great one to listen to.

I couldn't connect with this. I didn't care for the main characters and their weird family dynamic, so I think I'm not the right audience.

The Snowbirds, Kim and Grant, were a couple who had 2 daughters, been together for over 30 years, and seemed to know very little about one another. They are now empty nesters and Grant's job has disappeared as the college he worked for shut their doors. Kim decides they need to get away, and her ex-husband lets her use his condo in Palm Springs for the winter. Kim seems to fit in well with the quirky community, but Grant struggles. He finds a friend who is a hiker and they often go off for the day on hikes, while Kim spends time with her new friends. Is this a relationship that is going to survive? When Grant goes off on a hike alone one day, he doesn't return. It seems he is lost in the mountains, or has he left her?

Perhaps I should have read the description a bit closer before requesting this book, because it wasn't what I was thinking it would be. This story was more about a relationship unraveling, two people who lived together but separate lives, and weren't very agreeable to compromise. I found them both hard to like, but I think I preferred Grant. I did love the setting. I have never been to Palm Springs, and I felt like I was seeing it through the eyes of the characters. Both the quirkiness of the condo community and the beautiful surroundings made me want to visit sooner rather than later. The main plot of them reevaluating their lives and what was important to them, was hard to get into when I didn't really like the characters. There is a back and forth as we learn about their past through flashbacks, so I could see how they ended up where they were. The mystery of what happened to Grant was there, but didn't seem as much of an emergency as I thought it should. There you go, not my cup of tea, but solid writing. The audiobook was narrated by Graham Halstead, & Karissa Vacker. I liked that there were two narrators as the book is told from both Kim's and Grant's POV. After all that, I say that this is only my opinion and if you enjoy a relationship story with a mystery thrown in, they you might love this one, so give it a try.

Kim and Grant, have never married, but have spent decades together, raising twin daughter and sticking by each other through the ups and downs of their relationship. When Kim gets an opportunity to use her ex-husband's (a fabulous gay man named Basil but pronounced BASEL) abode in Palm Beach. Kim convinces Grant to leave their Wisconsin winter behind after the college Grant taught at closed, and so did his dreams of a tenure track position. Grant is reluctant at first but finds a love for hiking in the desert -- until he goes missing. Kim is left to wonder whether Grant is actually missing, or whether he left for good this time. Interspersed with present day and their timeline getting to Palm Springs, The Snowbirds will keep you asking until the very last chapter -- is love enough to sustain a lasting relationship?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher. 3.5 stars.

4.5/5 Stars, rounded up.

Kim and Grant have been together 30 years, and as they make their way to Palm Springs for the winter they find themselves at a crossroads. They are empty nesters, and seemingly both want different things from life. Can they continue moving forward together? Or will this winter split them apart?

I was expecting a more light-hearted read, but this one has some serious undertones. The narrative flips back and forth between telling the story of Kim and Grant’s winter in Palm Springs - and their individual transformations - and the present. As they winter, Kim is trying to figure out if she still wants to be married to Grant. And in the present, Grant is missing in the mountains. Don't get me wrong, there are light-hearted moments throughout, but just heavier than I expected.

This one spoke to me at a personal level - my husband and I will soon be empty nesters. (I can’t believe it!) When my youngest leaves for college, we will be in a new phase of life. The last 21 years have been full of our children’s needs, events and celebrations. As they move on to college and their next phase, we will be navigating what’s next for us. Do you find new hobbies? A new career? What do you do when you finally have time for you?

The Snowbirds explores just what happens in this new chapter of life, finding yourself, and finding purpose.

Many thanks to @macmillan.audio for letting me listen to this one, I really enjoyed it.

[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.

I adored this! It was very cute and fun. The narration was wonderful. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this audiobook.

(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.

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.

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.

Karissa Vacker's narration was a highlight of this book. She always does a fantastic job bringing characters to life. Graham Halstead was also great!

Decent book but wasn’t my favorite. I struggled a bit to stay interested in listening to it. I think it was a good thought for a book but it was lacking something for me to really get into it.
Narrated well. I did like the main character as well.

I enjoyed this take on the nitty gritty of the relationship of a couple, Grant and Kim, who have been together for thirty years through life's ups and downs. The novel starts with the couple as middle aged empty nesters, who decide to shake things up by spending a season in Palm Springs. Kim is quickly enthralled by the quirky residents, who make great supporting characters, while Grant was reluctant to leave their home in the Midwest, but he develops a love of hiking the desert.

Things take a drastic turn when Grant goes missing in the wilderness while on a hike. However, it turns out that he has a habit of leaving Kim and his family when things get tough, so she initially assumes this is another one of his "ghosting" episodes. When Grant still doesn't return and no one can contact him, this leads to a search party and the police getting involved, which presents us readers with the opportunity to learn the backstory of Kim and Grant's relationship, from their initial courtship to the unplanned pregnancy that tethered them together.

I think the author had a very realistic portrayal of the struggles of a long-term couple, including juggling career goals and parenthood, as well as the identity crisis that occurs once the kids are grown and a new phase of life begins. Although I'm younger than the main characters, I could still relate to some of their struggles given that I'm a married working mother. I'm not sure I would have valued this book as much as I did if I had read it when I was even younger/single. Overall, I really enjoyed this story and would recommend it to those who appreciate family drama with a dash of mystery. I felt compelled to keep reading to find out what happened to Grant and what would become of his and Kim's relationship!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced audiobook for my review.

3.5 stars

It seems appropriate to share a review of The Snowbirds by Christina Clancy when it’s below zero with 6 inches of snow on the ground in the Midwest. Thank you to Macmillan Audio for advanced access to the audiobook narrated by Karissa Vacker with Graham Halstead.

While Kim and Grant have been a couple for 30 years, they never married and their partnership has a lot of ‘space’ in it. She’s a humanitarian working in non-profits and he’s an academic/professor who just lost his teaching position. When they have an opportunity to spend winter in sunny Palm Springs and escape the brutal cold and snow of Wisconsin, Kim is thrilled, but Grant is completely reluctant. Will a change in setting impact them as individuals and their relationship?

This plot - mostly character-driven with some action - was not what I expected, and it continually surprised me. It’s told in a Then and Now format, and Grant doesn’t appear in real time until the final chapters. I had some issues tracking the large cast of quirky Palm Springs characters but enjoyed most of them. It was interesting to see how both Kim and Grant grew and changed throughout the story. The ending ties up all the loose ends which was a bit annoying.

This wasn't my favorite but it wasn't bad either. The mystery element is very low compared to the contemporary life aspect of the book. Great for seeing a couple who's been together for 30 plus years and their struggles. Definitely shows how relationships always need work and effort put in.