Dashing Through the Snow by Debbie Macomber is my latest Christmas speed-read. I am obviously enjoying Macomber’s Christmas stories enough to continue reading them, although I didn’t really care for this one. The story starts with Ash and Dash, two characters whose names would have been more suitable for Santa’s reindeer (or at least a couple dogs, who always seem to show up on Macomber’s book covers), unable to secure plane tickets from San Francisco to Seattle. They decide to drive there instead, only to discover that the car rental agency has one vehicle left. Ashley and Dash, who don’t exactly hit it off right away, decide to share the ride.
What I found so unbelievable was their tug-of-war relationship and how each of them switches from flirting with the other to dropping insults. Any woman who gets into a car with a strange man should have her antennae on high alert if he starts to exhibit such bipolar behaviour. In response to Ashley’s voiced concerns that Dash might in fact be a serial killer, in order to assuage her fears he calls his mother and asks her to speak to Ashley. The two women have a conversation no one would ever have, where the mother assures Ashley that her son is a dream–as well as a perfectly eligible bachelor.
During their lengthy drive the pair are chased by a helicopter and a phalanx of police cars, who suspect Ashley is a domestic terrorist keeping Dash as a hostage. She spends one night in jail. The reason for letting her go–an unfortunate case of mistaken identity–was too convenient for Macomber to write her way out of.
By the end of their drive, where they spent two days alternately loving and loathing each other, they are in love and ready to make major life plans to be with one another.
I didn’t buy any of their dialogue but I know better than to be cynical about a Christmas story where a happy ending is par for the course.
I see from the sticker on the cover that a Hallmark movie was made so I will set my PVR in the hope that it is aired over the holidays as I’d like to see it.