Review: Love in the eye of a storm
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 5, 2013
When a storm strikes, Laura is trapped in the library basement with her crush Aiden. Will the time spent together make them both admit their feelings for each other or will it destroy them like the storm consuming their town?When asked to review this, I must admit I was rather excited. I have been looking at this author for a while and she has been on my `to read' list for too long!The plot is rather simple, but is all the more excellent for this as there are no complications that could add unnecessary waffle to the plot. Two lovers, both too shy to admit their love for the other, are trapped in the basement of the campus library during a storm. A big storm which, on leaving their shelter, they discover has left a trail of destruction that will take months to repair. Like something you could read about in a newspaper, Logan then weaves in this delightful and incredibly powerful love story, with the most perfect gentleman I've read in text for a long time!I'm at a loss really with how to describe what I like about this book, because it really was so much of a pleasure to read that for once I am quite speechless. One wonderful thing I feel needs mentioning is the skill of Logan to tell such a brilliant and developed story in such a small amount of pages. Straight away the reader knows the key information that is necessary to engage with the story, there's no waffle, Logan packs a punch from the start, which is why I think I find it so engaging. I loathe books that could spend the entire first 50 pages setting the scene, but Logan does that, in plenty of detail, in the first 50 words! Rarely have a encountered an author with such talent for hooking a reader into the story so quickly, and so completely.The characters are also fantastically written. Although we only meet Chloe very briefly, I found myself, without prompting from the story, concerned for her safety out there in the storm. But the real focus is Laura and Aiden, and boy are they well written. Similar on the surface, but oh so different underneath, the perfect (to me at least!) combination for a literary couple. They're very engaging as well, you instantly associate with Laura and feel that you know her like you know some of your friends, even though you only met her a few minutes ago. It's another testament to Logan's story telling ability that she makes you invest so much in characters that you encounter for such a short time. It's really quite remarkable. When you add to that mix her wonderful grasp of the balance between intimacy and the development of the story, I am left speechless by the skill she possesses!Another aspect of this book that most definitely deserves a mention is the atmosphere Logan creates during the storm. Being an English woman through and through, extreme weather is pretty hard to come by. I love a good storm, but for us that is just a few loud bangs of thunder, one (or two if we're very lucky) big flashes of lightning and a whole load of flash flooding. So for me, the concept of storm shelters, tornadoes and towns being levelled in seconds is very hard to grasp. However, Logan writes the atmosphere of this event so wonderfully that even I, with no experience of this weather, felt like I could understand the terror and panic that would possess you in that situation. I was biting my nails just like Laura and curling up into a tiny ball (much to my mother's amusement might I add!) so that the storm wouldn't see me. Stupid, I know, but it was so well written I actually felt like I was there in the basement and I needed to hide from this big, bad storm overhead. I felt totally in the moment, which is yet another testament to the skill that Logan possesses!In conclusion, I suppose there's nothing more to say. This story was a delight to read, thoroughly enjoyable and one I will most definitely, whole heartedly be recommending to my friends. There really is nothing more to say than to tell you to go get a copy and get reading!