Whiteout (Seasons of Love, Book 1)

Whiteout (Seasons of Love, Book 1)
Elyse Springer, 2017

Premise: Noah wakes up in a cabin decorated for Christmas, snowbound with a man who says he's Noah's boyfriend. But he can't remember what's true, and something feels very wrong. 

First I need to say that I read this book because I was hoping to feature it for Mainlining Christmas, but I think it ended up not quite being Christmassy enough, and that itself was disappointing to me. 

My larger problem with this book is that it falls neatly into two halves: one is an intriguing and fascinating mystery, the other is a somewhat bland romance. Is it a coincidence that the book goes rapidly downhill after Christmas? Maybe. 

The first half of the book is unique for a romance. Noah had an accident and has temporary amnesia. On the surface, Jason does all the right things for a loving partner to do, but something's off. Noah doesn't know whether it's something Jason's currently hiding or something else hiding in his memories. Spoiler alert: the twist is that Noah started the whole relationship under false pretenses with the intention of eventually betraying Jason, but then fell for him. (Reasons for this are complicated and not really worth going into.)

I suspected something close to the truth fairly early on, but I was really hoping for a double-twist, where you discover Noah's lies but Jason is ALSO lying about something major. But no, Jason is nothing more than a bland rich dude with just enough self-respect to break it off with Noah after he comes clean. 

Then the second half of the book is spent with Noah rediscovering who he is without Jason. (And getting a job acting in a production of Rent, because this is a series with minor characters later getting their own books.) Of course, this is a romance, so Noah's ultimate goal is to convince Jason that enough of what they had was real and they deserve a second chance. 

It's not a bad romance, it's just that the romance is only fine. And that's disappointing after how strong the mystery section was. 

2 Stars - an Okay Book