A debut novel. Easy read. Not a Times Book Review list contender, but kept your interest with people you care for. A bit unrealistic, especially swimming in a lake frigid from the cold and in the Rocky Mountains in November.Goodreads: An adventurous debut novel that cross cuts between a competitive college swimmer?s harrowing days in the Rocky Mountains after a major airline disaster and her recovery supported by the two men who love her¥only one of whom knows what really happened in the wilderness.Nineteen-year-old Avery Delacorte loves the water. Growing up in Brookline, Massachusetts, she took swim lessons at her community pool and captained the local team; in high school, she raced across bays and sprawling North American lakes. Now a sophomore on her university?s nationally ranked team, she struggles under the weight of new expectations but life is otherwise pretty good. Perfect, really.That all changes when Avery?s red-eye home for Thanksgiving makes a ditch landing in a mountain lake in the Colorado Rockies. She is one of only five survivors, which includes three little boys and Colin Shea, who happens to be her teammate. Colin is also the only person in Avery?s college life who challenged her to swim her own events, to be her own personÂ¥something she refused to do. Instead she?s avoided him since the first day of freshman year. But now, faced with sub-zero temperatures, minimal supplies, and the dangers of a forbidding nowhere, Avery and Colin must rely on each other in ways they never could?ve imagined.In the wilderness, the concept of survival is clear-cut. Simple. In the real world, it?s anything but.

I wrote a review for this and then it was gone. I haven't the desire to write it again--so, this was just fine for a break from serious reading. I read it for pleasure, and I enjoyed it. ( )

The narrative alternates between the fight for survival after a plane crash, & the fight for survival after the rescue. On the one hand, I couldn’t put it down. I liked the author’s writing, the plot, & the scenes out in the wilderness, but there were some large, unexplained jumps in the plot, the MC’s after rescue internal strife made me scratch my head at times, & some of it just didn’t make sense. I really enjoyed it, but it needs a good edit. ( )

I cried over this book more than I have since I read Where the Red Fern Grows. It was for emotional reasons, rather than the reason I cried over WTRFG, however.

I loved the audio---Julia Whelan was wonderful as the reader. It was just an absorbing listening experience. Yes, there may be some issues with the actual happenings in the story line---maybe a little too contrived? But it flowed and the author is a physician so that was believable medically even if it's a little astonishing to have a college student so adept at everything. And there's the wonderful Colin---I was just happy to listen. ( )