In The Land of Winter – Margaret Sarah Bechtel

Kate wants to forget her past.

Lex wants to begin his future.

The strangers meet on an ill fated flight to Scotland, their lives and secrets collide when the plane crashes into the North Sea.

Only known survivors; Kate and Lex are stranded on an island with an old lighthouse they are forced to use for shelter.

Lex is desperate to get them both rescued.

Kate is desperate to stop him. After witnessing her fiancée murder her best friend two days before her wedding, Aimee decides to immediately flee from the life she only knows. Lost in a foreign city, Aimee comes in contact with a mysteriously handsome Italian stranger, who seems to know more about Aimee, than Aimee knows about herself. Quickly discovering that the last six years of her life have been a ...moreKate Kkdmmdo

I absolutely loved “In The Land of Winter”. It was beautiful and a heart touching story, on that I found to be a  mesmerising story of love and survival. The story only took me two days to read as I could not put it down.

Kate was a really interesting character and she was a big influence for me to keep reading. Her past drew me in. The nightmares only revealed so much but enough to keep me hanging and wanting more. Another thing I liked about Kate was the way she reacted to certain things that happened to her with Lex while they were isolated on the island.

Watching Kate opening up to Lex was touching as I could feel her hurt and confusion. After Lex’s accident she had to change her way of thinking for Lex’s sake. She was a hard person, one whom I would struggle to get along with, and I honestly wonder how Lex put up with her for as long as he did.

The setting after the plane crash had a sombre feel which really made the relationship between Kate and Lex stand out. They may have been the only people on the island, but their relationship was one that contained life, which was a huge contrast to that of the island.

Both Lex and Kate had a struggle to live on the island. Through their time together they had to trust each other and in time they fell in love. It was a bond that really took time to grow but a bond that can never be broken after all they went through together just to survive on the island but also to survive each other.

It really struck me once they were rescued at how the roles Kate and Lex always reversed while stuck on the island. It started with Lex looking after Kate after the crash then Kate looking after Lex once the old bulling collapsed on him. They took in turns looking after each other and by gathering water and caching them food to eat.

A must read for anyone who loves a good story of survival and the healing of old hurts.

5/5