Dashing Through the Snow, Week 3

Welcome to the final discussion for Dashing Through the Snow by Debbie Macomber. 

Did you enjoy the end of the book this week? I couldn't believe how fast I was turning pages this week. The reading just flew by! 

Could you believe that the pair had such a hard time getting going on the trip? They just ran into impediment after impediment. Snow, puppies, lost cell phones--they just couldn't get going! They start this section by staying over in a hotel due to the weather. They share a fun karaoke experience. What did you think when the dog brought her bra to the performance?  I already thought the scene was embarrassing because Ashley thought she could win over Dash with her singing. Doing something like that is totally outside of my comfort zone, so I could not identify with Ashley at all when she wanted to sing for Dash. But, the mortification factor was multiplied by 1,000 when the dog dragged her bra through the room. How do you think you would have reacted in that scenario? 

We knew the two boys who switched the license plates would be followed by the FBI, but I didn't expect the scene to go down like it did. The helicopter flying behind them was unexpected, and all of the cars following them were very intense. I half expected the FBI officers to shoot at the car since they were so convinced that they were tracking down a criminal mastermind. What do you think ended up happening to the boys? I think the punishment for having expired plates would have been a lot easier to handle than all of the attention they brought to themselves after they switched the plates!

What did you think of the section with Stan the Man, the man who was able to touch cars and figure out what was wrong with them? I was confused by that whole section. He just seemed like an extra weird character. I guess he was an outside character that told Ashley and Dash that they should be together, but other than that, I'm not really sure what his purpose was. Do you think he served more of a purpose in the story? Do you feel like the story would have lost anything if he weren't in it? 

When the FBI eventually catches up to Ashley and Dash, they move quickly to arrest her. I thought that Dash would be able to clear up the misunderstanding about Ashley's identity immediately, so I was surprised when she actually had to go into custody. Agent Wilkes was absolutely out of control. He didn't listen to reason about Ashley at all. He didn't believe anything Dash told him about Ashley, and at one point, he thought Dash had Stockholm syndrome and was falling in love with a person who had kidnapped him. Wasn't it almost unbelievable the way that Wilkes didn't listen to anyone else? I can't imagine that a professional FBI agent would act that way. Then, when Ashley is finally released, she hears that it only took a couple of minutes to verify who she was. How were they not able to do that before they found her? It just seemed like everything cleared up so easily and quickly. I just found it hard to believe that the people chasing Ashley were really the FBI. They did not seem like professional people at all throughout the entire book. Did you feel like the FBI acted in a way that made sense? Did you find the FBI agents to be believable characters? How would you have changed the story to make the FBI fit in more realistically? 

At the end, Dash and Ashley are excited about their future together. I thought they moved quickly in their relationship. Do you think they will continue to like each other as time goes on? Do you think they will eventually have a happily ever after? It would be interesting to see where Macomber would take the characters if she ever wrote a sequel to this book. 

Do you have any other thoughts about the book? What were some of your favorite parts? Did this book make you want to read more by Macomber? If you're interested in getting some writing advice from Macomber, check out the video below. Let me know what you think of her advice in the comments!

If you enjoyed reading this book and would like similar titles, check out this list I made. I also created a list of Christmas movies that our library staff thought were similar to Dashing Through the Snow. Check out that list here. 

I hope you'll leave a comment below to let me know what you thought of the story. I can't wait to hear your thoughts. And, I hope you'll join us next month as we read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.