"I gave myself over to this story and felt as though I had inhabited these characters."- Benjamin Percy, author of The Dark Net Melanie Henderson's life is a lie. Scandal surrounds her birth, her life, her identity. A scandal that could rock her small, conservative Colorado town. Her birth mother was just 14, unmarried to her father, a local boy who drowned when he tried to take a shortcut across an icy river. Will she learn the truth...? Thirty-five years later, in Denver, Melanie dabbles in affairs with married men while clinging to a corporate job that gives her life order even as her tenuous relationships fall apart. She still hasn't learned that the woman who raised her is actually her aunt--or that her birth mother visits her almost every day.  This fiercely-guarded secret bonds the two most important women in her life, who hatched a plan to trade places and give Melanie a life unmarred by shame. Yet, as a forest fire rages through the Rocky Mountains and a car accident shakes the family, Melanie finds herself at the center of an unraveling tangle of tragedy and heartbreak. "If the Ice Had Held is a stunning novel. From its very first pages, I was captivated by the vivid intimacy of Wendy J. Fox's prose and her generous sense of character. Indelible, insightful, and deeply moving, If the Ice Had Held illustrates the complex bonds of family--the terrible ways we hurt one another, the sacrifices we make to save one other." - Jillian Medoff, bestselling author of This Could Hurt " If the Ice Had Held , at its heart a story about second chances, is both haunting and luminous. Fox has crafted an intricate mosaic shimmering with gorgeous prose." - Heather Bell Adams, author of Maranatha Road "The layering of diverse stories and perceptions, a key feature of the novel, results in nuanced portrayals of characters and circumstances, making it impossible to categorize anyone as purely good or bad. This complexity feels true to life, and it makes for a gratifying read."- Small Press Picks "Fox delivers finely observed, lyrical, storytelling, persuasive in its depiction of everyday unions and choices ... this is eloquent tale-spinning lit by unshowy portraiture. A small world, but a perceptible talent." - Kirkus Reviews "Fox's story explores the fragility of life and the ways people find to accommodate and survive. Families are fractured by divorce or death, but family is still at the heart of what home should be." - Booklist "Razor-sharp...written with incredible grace and assurance. I gave myself over to this story and felt as though I had inhabited these characters." - Benjamin Percy, author of The Dark Net " If the Ice Had Held is a stunning novel. From its very first pages, I was captivated by the vivid intimacy of Wendy J. Fox's prose and her generous sense of character. Indelible, insightful, and deeply moving, If the Ice Had Held illustrates the complex bonds of family--the terrible ways we hurt one another, the sacrifices we make to save one other." - Jillian Medoff, bestselling author of This Could Hurt " If the Ice Had Held , at its heart a story about second chances, is both haunting and luminous. Fox has crafted an intricate mosaic shimmering with gorgeous prose." - Heather Bell Adams, author of Maranatha Road "Wendy J. Fox's prose is both haunting and full of bright spirit. Her latch on language is akin to an insect in amber:tight and solid and sparkling, and in the case of If the Ice had Held , houses perfect, vivid characters awash in the most timeless of troubles, namely, the bearing and rearing of unplanned children and the sleep of unchartered lives. The various perspectives leave us scratching our heads, wondering why we've never before possessed the ability to see the world--and life--in quite this same way." - Paula Coomer, author of Jagged Edge of the Sky and Somebody Should Have Scolded the Girl "An intricate and artfully drawn novel of broken families and tangled relationships between characters who carry secrets over decades, binding them together with both love and lies." - Virginia Pye, author of Dreams of the Red Phoenix , River of Dust , and Shelf Life of Happiness "Wendy J. Fox's If the Ice Had Held is a wonderful novel founded on the sexual union of a lonely girl and a high school boy. Told without recrimination, in brilliantly crafted and telling snippets that plumb the ordinaries of these lives, this novel veers toward the metaphysical." - John Keeble, author of Broken Ground and The Shadows of Owls "In If the Ice Had Held , Wendy J. Fox gives us an array of characters we come to know well, characters who often embody our best selves. Most of them make decisions that change their lives,and those decisions are based often on what someone else needs, on situations others find themselves in, sometimes on love. Fox's characters are the opposite of selfish, the opposite of self-centered. Refreshingly so.And though If the Ice