Sarah Morgan on &amp;amp;quot;A Night of No Return&amp;amp;quot; + Giveaway
People usually only talk about the weather when they’ve run out of things to say (I rarely run out of things to say), but I’ve been thinking about its role in storytelling. Along with setting, the weather can influence the ‘mood’ of a book and even the plot.
In The Sound of Music the characters wouldn’t have sung ‘Raindrops on roses’ and had a cuddly, bonding moment if there hadn’t been thunder and lightening. Plenty of heroines have been caught with a tee shirt plastered to their bodies after a rainstorm.
Stephen King’s The Shining wouldn’t have been anywhere near as terrifying had it been set in the Caribbean (actually it probably would have been – he’s Stephen King after all), but the snow and the feeling of being ‘trapped’ added to the sense of menace. The weather was another character in that story – and so was the old hotel, but enough of that or I won’t sleep tonight…..
Weather can play an important part in the plot and this is true for my November release, A Night of No Return.
The story begins in a winter setting complete with crackling log fire, rug on the floor and large windows
with a view of pretty snow laden trees. But snow, although pretty, can be lethal and inconvenient as my heroine, PA Emma Gray, soon discovers. She delivers some urgent documents to her moody, ice cold boss Lucas Jackson at his home deep in the frozen countryside and then finds herself unable to leave. For Emma, a bad working day suddenly becomes a whole lot worse and what happens afterwards changes everything for both of them.
For readers who are already shivering and reaching for a warm layer I should add that the story then moves to the baking hot desert country of Zubran (also the setting for Woman in a Sheikh’s World which is out in December) so whatever your favourite reading season, you’ll find it in this book.
And, of course, even without the weather the hero and heroine produce enough heat to warm even the reader living deep in Alaska.
Can you think of books where the weather has played an important part? Which setting do you prefer when you”re reading? Hot summer or snowy winter? Leave a comment for a chance to win a signed copy of A Night of No Return.
Giveaway closes on November 4 at 11:59 pm EST. Winner will be selected by random number generation and announced on November 5.
UPDATE: The giveaway is now closed. Please check the comments to see if you won!