One night, when a blizzard hits her town of Silver Ridge, Colorado, this young, good-hearted librarian is trapped in the darkened, cold library with four others: a cranky widow named Marlene, a sweet-natured teenager named Jasmine, the sensitive mythology-loving security guard, Vlado, and an abrasive elderly homeless gentleman named Lewis whose favorite word is apparently “goddamn” or any of its variations, which he says ad nauseam.ĭespite what felt like an “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to serious topics, including drug addiction, chronic illness, accidental or unexpected death, loss of parents, family dysfunction and estrangement, loneliness, homelessness, and suicidality, this surprisingly isn’t a heavy book.

Furthermore, she also seems determined to help everyone else while she’s at it, hoping the good karma will bring her brother back. Nora Martinez has a serious messiah complex.Īfter losing her parents in a tragic accident as a young girl - an accident that her brother, Mario, blames himself for - she’s determined to save him from the life of drug addiction he’s been lost in for years - even if it comes at her own expense. No matter how stranded in life they feel, this fateful night could be the new beginning they didn’t think was possible. They’ll discover more about each other, and themselves, than they ever knew-and Nora will be forced to question her brother’s disappearance in ways she never could have imagined. There’s Marlene, an elderly loner who believes that, apart from her husband, there’s little good left in the world Jasmine, a troubled teen Lewis, a homeless man with lost hope and one last wish and Vlado, the security guard who loves a good book and, from afar, Nora.Īs a winter storm buries Silver Ridge, this collection of lonely hearts takes shelter in the library. It’s her home away from home, but it’s also a sanctuary for others who, like her brother, could use a second chance. She holds on to the hope that she’ll be reunited with her missing brother and does what she can at the town library.

Instead, the openhearted librarian in the small Colorado community of Silver Ridge sees only promise.

Orphaned at a young age and witness to her brother’s decline into addiction, Nora Martinez has every excuse to question the fairness of life. From Melissa Payne, bestselling author of Memories in the Drift, comes an emotionally rich, feel-good novel about hope, second chances, and seeing the world through someone else’s eyes.

Memories in the Drift by Melissa Payne