North of Need

Written by Laura Kay

Narrated by Laura Jennings

When a widow's tears summon a snow god named Owen, Megan must let go of her grief and learn to trust love again before the snow melts and she loses him forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media
• Release date: Oct 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9781666556407

Laura Kay

Laura Kaye is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author who has written over thirty-five contemporary romance and romantic suspense novels. She grew up in a family that told stories about angels, ghosts, and evil-eye curses, cementing her life-long fascination with storytelling and the supernatural.

Reviews for North of Need

[darkand27 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I won a copy of this book from First Reads, and let me just say, Wow! - what a wonderful gift. Laura Kaye has woven a beautiful tapestry of snowy goodness. The story of Megan Snow's journey from lonely and guilt ridden widow to happily ever after illustrates the amazing healing power of love. Owen's childlike joy with simple things we all take for granted like ice cream, a really delicious sounding snow cone, or even just a smile was contagious and reminded me to stop, look around, and enjoy the beauty around me. Of course, I can't leave out the fact that this was one smokin' hot snowman with some incredibly steamy sex scenes (almost literally - heh!). At this point, I can't wait for the next big snowfall so I can go outside and try my hand at making my own version of a snow god, all for myself!!

[Nneamaka M. Payne · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Megan Snow, was still grieving the loss of her husband two years ago (on Christmas day) in a car accident, heads to the mountain cabin she and John shared to spend the anniversary of his death in solitude. She heads outside, deciding she needs the physical activity to stop her mind from remembering John and how his death was her fault.
In the middle of a blizzard, she builds a snow family. A snowman with mismatched eyes, a black knit cap and John's old flannel shirt. Next she builds a snow woman and the child. But it's the snowman that calls to her broken heart. Seeing John's things on the snowman, she breaks down clinging to the snowman.
It's Megan's grief that sends Snow God, Owen, to help her. But she also is his chance at humanity. If he can get Megan to admit her love for him, before the snow melts, then he'll be able to stay with her forever. But for Owen, winning over Megan must be done is days instead of the weeks he thought he had. He'll charm her, woo her and worship her body like it's never been worshiped before. But can he show Megan that she should give up her grief and start living life again?
Laura Kaye is fast becoming one of those authors that I will immediately buy. Why? Because she creates characters that you can immediately connect with.
Megan was a broken woman. Her grief seemed to leap off the electronic pages at you. She blamed herself for her husband's death (since he ran out to get her the missing eggnog) and couldn't seem to get past the fact that he was gone. So it was a little surprising when she immediately reacted to Owen. Sure he had the body of a Greek God, but I think innately her soul was drawn to it's match in our her the Snow God.
Owen knew his soul purpose with Megan was to get her to love him in order to obtain is humanity. But he was drawn to Megan and almost immediately realized that she was the one for him. He choose the harder path in winning her heart. He made her laugh, he put her first and made sure she knew that she was the most important to him and she always would be.
A heartwarming story that will remind you how important it is to say "I love you" to those you love

[NNEAMAKA PAYNE · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

North of Need is an exciting and fresh new paranormal romance that captured my heart and kept me glued to the pages!
It has been exactly two years since Megan Snow suffered the loss of her husband on that cold Christmas night; guilt ridden and grief stricken she escapes to their snowy cabin to celebrate this year’s Christmas alone. When she’s overcome by painful memories though, Megan ventures into the coming blizzard to make a snow family, a family she believes she will never have now. Using two mismatched button eyes and her husband’s old shirt she dresses the snowman and breaks down for all she’s lost, her tears becoming lost in the snowman’s icy body. But with her tears, Megan unknowingly creates life giving the snow God, Owen Winters, form.
Made corporal by Megan’s pain, Owen is given the chance to bring happiness into her life and teach Megan to live again. After centuries of being in only his elemental form, he craves the love and comfort that only Megan and her humanity can provide. But Owen must woo her into loving him by the end of winter or he’ll be sent back to the Godly realm and loose her forever, and when one elemental God’s temper lets loose Owens time grows even shorter. Can Owen teach Megan to trust in love again before the snow melts, or will her grief blind her to the possibility of second chances?
Wow, I don’t think that I can put my feelings on this magical novel into proper words! When North of Need first came to my attention I didn’t put too much interest into it, thinking it was just a different and somewhat corny twist on an old childhood favorite, Frosty the Snowman. But after seeing several of my book blogging buddies rave about it and then checking out Laura Kaye and some of her posts on North of Need my interest was piqued. Now I’m mad at myself for waiting so long to grab it up, fiddlesticks! lol
The mythical aspects of North of Need made for a unique and enchanting storyline that instantly intrigued; and with Laura Kaye’s smooth writing style I quickly became immersed within her characters’ worlds, forgetting the outside. Too good to put down for more than a moment, I resented every interruption and am still thinking about it days later! Heart wrenching emotion and devastating loss was neatly balanced with a soul consuming love, sensuality and life altering decisions. The characters of Owen and Megan though are what will leave a lasting impression on readers. These two are easy to connect with and will capture your heart right from the beginning. Separately they’re amazing but together they are phenomenal; each well developed with a passion that is palpable from the pages. They connect well and their chemistry is believable, not just lovers they are supportive friends as well. Their relationship is highly sensual and compelling; I just can’t say enough good things about this couple. And Owen himself; sweet, sexy and those mismatched eyes *shiver* I’m wishing I lived somewhere where it snows so I can make a snowman! Maybe if I visualize it and hope enough, he’ll turn into my very own fetching snow God! A girl can fantasize, right? ;)
I know it may seem like North of Need is just one big tear-jerking rollercoaster but it was fun as well, with lots of laughter and life to it. It really reminds the reader to appreciate every day and hold tight to those you love.

I’m very interested in the mythology Laura has created here and the elemental Gods fighting for power over the seasons. In the beginning the foreign terms confused me but it didn’t take away from the story and now I’d like to learn more about the rest of the ‘Anemoi’, Gods, and demi-gods, featured. I’m counting down the days until the second book now, West of Want, March can’t come soon enough!
Don’t let the Christmas/Winter setting fool you; any time of year is the perfect time to lose yourself in this fantastic romance. A superb start to a promising new series!
Moreover, Megan is still struggling to cope after the death of her husband so rather than face Christmas with her family and friends she follows their tradition and heads off to the isolated cabin they own in the mountains. Trying to take her mind off her grief she builds a snow family but the reminder of what will never be just makes her feel worse. When Owen appears on her doorstep in the middle of a blizzard, she isn't able to leave him outside to freeze and reluctantly allows him into her cabin. What she doesn't realize is that Owen is a snow god who was brought to life by her tears and wants to help mend her broken heart. Can own win her love before the snow melts and he is forced to leave her forever?
OK I'll admit it - the main reason I wanted to read this story was the cover. Come on, I dare any woman to look at that cover and not want to get to know Owen! I hadn't read anything by Laura Kaye before but North of Need was a fantastic paranormal romance and I'll definitely be picking up the rest of this series (and I'm planning on working my way through her back list too). If you're looking for a steamy read to chase away the winter blues then North of Need is perfect but I'll warn you now it will leave you wanting to build a snowman in the hope of nabbing your very own snow god. You might want to stock up on ice cream before you get started too because I doubt, you'll make it through the whole book without caving in and eating a tub full!
I'm not always a big fan of stories that only really have two characters (Megan does speak on the phone to a few people and we are introduced to a couple of others towards the end of the book for most of the book it is just Megan and Owen). It can be difficult to keep my interest without the interactions that friends and family can bring to the story and I have to really like the leads to want to spend so much time with them. In this case it worked really well though and it really allowed us to get to know Megan and Owen. Owen swept me off my feet right alongside Megan and I was desperate to see them both get a happy ending.
Megan was a great character; she is heartbroken and misses her husband desperately but at the same time she is still going about her life just getting through one day at a time. She could have been quite a depressing character to spend time with but I didn't find that at all, I felt for her but I respected her too and I wanted to see her move forwards in her life. I don't even have the words to describe Owen - he is gorgeous but also such a sweetheart, strong, sexy, dynamite in bed but at the same time a little bit innocent and infectiously enthusiastic about everyday things. He was definitely one of my favorite heroes for a while!

I loved the fact that North of Need is a bit different from your usual paranormal romance, the actual romance had more depth to it because of Megan's loss and the way Owen pulls her out of her grief. They are a fantastic couple who I would be happy to spend more time with and I'm sure I'll be re-reading the book again in the future. I enjoyed the mythology that the author has used around the different gods but I would have liked a bit more information about that side of things. As this is the first book in the series, I'm confident that we'll discover more later on though and I'm looking forward to that. I can't wait to get my hands on West of Want and am pleased that the release dates for the whole series are fairly close together (the next 3 books are all due for release within the year).

[treehousereader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

REVIEW: Impressive start for a series of standalone books. Megan’s palpable sense of loss is tightly woven into this beautiful story. “Want me. Need me. Love me. Your love can hold me here, with you. Forever.” Called by her tears, snow god Owen is challenged to gain her love in just a few days. His naiveté and the wisdom of the ages is combined into a truly magnificent hero. Can’t wait to read the rest of this series. A splendid holiday read offered through BookBub.DESCRIPTION, NOT REVIEW: Desperate to escape agonizing memories of Christmas past, twenty-nine-year-old widow Megan Snow builds a snow family outside the mountain cabin she once shared with her husband, realizing too late that she's recreated the very thing she'll never have. Called to life by Megan's tears, snow god Owen Winters appears unconscious on her doorstep in the midst of a raging blizzard. As she nurses him to health, Owen finds unexpected solace in her company and unimagined pleasure in the warmth of her body, and vows to win her heart for a chance at humanity. Megan is drawn to Owen's mismatched eyes, otherworldly masculinity, and enthusiasm for the littlest things. But this Christmas miracle comes with an expiration—before the snow melts and the temperature rises, Megan must let go of her widow's grief and learn to trust love again, or she'll lose Owen forever.

[abookwormshaven · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If you have followed along with my blog or reviews you have probably figured out by now that I don’t read contemporary. I just don’t like it; my everyday life is ordinary so I want my books to be extraordinary and take me somewhere else! Before all of you contemporary lovers get offended, let me just say that there is nothing wrong with the genre at all. It is just not for me. I bring this up because North of Need did have fantastical elements that I loved, but it read much like a contemporary novel would. I was hesitant going in just because I had heard that about this book, but I was happily surprised by how much I enjoyed reading North of Need. I would classify it more as a crossover book between fantasy and contemporary and it had just enough of the supernatural to keep me content.The mythology in North of Need was fascinating; I remember hearing a little bit about the Anemoi from reading Greek mythology, but I immersed myself back into the subject after reading this book. Laura peppers the mythology through the book at just the right moments so you get just enough information to follow along with who is who and how gods in this world came to be, but you are not overwhelmed with information. I appreciated the balance between the mythology and real life relationships that formed throughout this book.The main relationship we see develop is between Megan and Owen. Megan is a widow who still mourns her husband two years after his death. She has been living a half-life since he died. Filled with grief, she still carries the burden of his death on her shoulders. I cannot imagine what kind of emotional turmoil she must be feeling when she meets Owen and her heart reacts to his presence. The guilt she feels is overwhelming at times and my heart broke for her. She feels as though she is betraying her husband by wanting another man and is having a hard time moving past that lump in her throat. Laura paints Megan’s pain so well; it is hard to not empathize with her situation. I loved watching Owen learn how to help her heal and realize that she can be happy again.I knew I loved this book because whenever I picked it up to read it I had a smile on my face. It is a great book to just get lost in for a while. The best words I can use to describe this book are: warm and sexy. The male protagonist is just the sweetest man, err I mean god. He is so careful with Megan, treating her like she is the most precious being on Earth. That love seeps out of the pages and right into your heart. There was not a slow burn with Megan and Owen though; their passion was white hot from the beginning. But lust quickly turned to love, and Owen slowly mended Megan’s broken heart one piece at a time. The fact that it releases in November is perfect since Owen is a god of winter. While reading, I found myself wishing for snow to fall so I could curl up by the fireplace and sink into this world.Overall, I am in love with this book. I did not go in expecting to enjoy it half as much as I did, but Laura sucked me into the lives of Megan and Owen so fully I could not put the book down. I am so interested to see the other three stories of this series when they are released. If you are like me and don’t read a lot of contemporary but want to just test out the genre, this book would be a great opportunity to do that. Or if you mainly read contemporary but want to have a little fantasy in your life, than North of Need fits that mold as well. It has a little something for lovers of multiple genres and one I will be on the lookout for in the future. I can’t wait to see whose story the next book, West of Want, will bring us.

[bookwhisperer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a fantastic and romantic read. As I read this book, I felt so bad for Megan and how she just couldn’t let herself let go and be reborn in the beginning. She tortured herself with spending her late husband’s death anniversary at their cabin. In the midst of mourning, Megan builds a snowman family cries herself to sleep while clutching on the male snowman. This act generates Owen into a semi human form and he falls upon her doorstep. At this point, the story starts to steam up. Owen could gladly fall upon my doorstep anytime! He was the perfect character and the perfect match for Megan. He was charismatic, chivalrous, and wanted nothing more in the world than Megan to be happy, oh and a side note, he was SEXY! The two characters together just had so much fun with each other. I would find myself just smiling because in the book they were so carefree and excited about their new bond. A very sweet read with the perfect ending. ~BookWhisperer Reviewer MC~

[chrystina.williams · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved it! Very beautifully written romance filled with magic and second chances. Absolutely loved it :)

[alaskanbookie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This story starts out with Megan, who has returned to a cabin that she and her late husband shared. He was killed on Christmas and she still has not gotten over the tragic loss, so she hides away during the holiday season so she can suffer the pain of the loss alone.During her stay she built a snowman family. Once she realized she had made a man, woman, and child family she breaks down and starts crying for a life she would never have with her husband. Later that night, a man appears on her doorstep with no coat or shoes and dressed in the flannel shirt she used on her snowman. At first she is afraid he is some weird killer/stalker dude and she wants to bonk him over the head with a fire poker. Eventually she starts to feel more comfortable with the half-frozen dude.I really enjoyed this holiday snowman story. The slow building romance between Megan and Owen (The Snowman) was great! I loved all the stuff that Owen found as new and exciting. Because he had been non-corporal for so long, he found delight in the little things. Like ice cream and ice cream for breakfast. Even though this book is part of a series, it was a complete story and did not end in a cliff-hanger. (Thank you Laura Kaye!)This was a great little holiday tale but could be read year-round. If you are looking for an uplifting holiday tale, this could be for you!

[bitchie-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Probably my least favorite of hers out of the three I've read so far. I'm wavering between 3 and 3.5 stars. It wasn't bad at all, very well written and edited, and I really did like the characters.

My complaint is, considering the subject matter (woman grieving her dead husband, man is a snow god made man just for her), it was all just too easy. She accepted this new guy too quickly, she accepted what he was too easily, and other than one afternoon where she couldn't face telling him she loved him because she feared losing another man (after which he melts in a shades of Frosty the Snowman scene) , then they made it better and it was all ok.

It was more than twice the length of Hearts in Darkness, but I think it had like half the depth and heart.

[thehistorychic · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Read in August, 2012Read for Fun!Overall Rating 4.25Story Rating 4.00Character Rating 4.50First Thought when Finished: That was an interesting take on the snowman comes to life story and I really liked it!What I thought of the story: I read North of Need in one afternoon while I was on vacation. The story was really well paced, sweet, seductive, and did a great job of balancing romance/intrigue. If it had any flaws it was in the small time they had to fall in love but by the end I accepted that too! Owen and Megan were both at places where they needed to save each other. Even though Owen was sent to save Megan, I believe that she saved him as well. The ending of the story is what really got me though. I LOVED IT! We all know that the end of a book can truly make/break a story for me. This is an example of a perfect ending! It worked really well for North of Need.What I thought of the characters: This is the first time I have read Laura Kaye but I can tell she is going to be one of my favorites. Her ability to write complicated, damaged, yet inspiring characters was brilliant. Even though both Megan and Owen were damaged their perseverance and gumption shined though their actions. Owen was what leading men should be: strong, resilient, vulnerable, and willing to do what is right even if that is walking away. Megan was what leading ladies should be: independent, smart, a little insecure, and willing to, after a while, take a chance. They are the bulk of the story and they carry it well!Final Thought: I really enjoyed North of Need and look forward to West of Want.