This book was slated to be one of my December/holiday reading list book, but it fit in so well with the book theme for Penance Day in the 16 Tasks of the Festive Season I read it a month early.
As the book opens, Meg has just left her parents' home in Stirling and is making her way to the train station to head back to her home in Edinburgh. Meg couldn't take another minute of her passive-aggressive family, and after reading this story I don't disagree with her action. Unfortunately, Stirling is in the midst of a serious blizzard and the train is delayed...until a minor accident in route to Edinburgh makes travel difficult. Meg is forced to walk back to Stirling and into the den of a seriously dysfunctional family.
Gordon Shaw, a Stirling native who left in disgrace, had an interview in Stirling and is already itching to leave the town after the interview finished. He was on the same train as Meg and struck up a relationship with her when the train accident left them both stranded in the town they were hoping to leave. Turns out their pasts were very much tangled and bringing "Mr. Gordon" home would take a lot of maneuvering.
This book would have been better had Meg and her family accepted Shaw's first 100 apologies and if Meg hadn't said "I'm sorry" to her abusers every time she turned around. There was some serious gas-lighting going on in Meg's family. While Shaw was truly sorry for what happened 12 years ago to Meg's brother, no one wanted to forgive him because without their anger they had nothing. Until of course dear brother's injury was revealed to be a long con. Then everything was just so water under the bridge and we always did like that Shaw fellow.....spare me. I did believe in the Meg and Gordon's relationship and hoped that when they marry, they stay out of Stirling.
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