It's been a while since I read the first book, but Signs of Spring did a very good job stirring my memory of it. It picks up pretty much where Long Winter left off—the tiny gap is negligible—and for the most part, I would describe it as "securing that happy ending." There's a lot less tension here, and what the summary presents as the central part of the plot is only a part of it, and it doesn't even happen until a good way into the book. For the most part, this is a quiet, slice-of-life story about family and belonging and picking which parts of the past to leave behind and which to preserve. I very much loved it.

Even though there were some worries on both Lance's and Robbie's part about the longevity of their relationship, somehow I never had a doubt that they'd pull it through, and not just because of the HEA promise baked into the genre. It's more like, I felt they'd already done all the work to secure that HEAD, and this book was more about figuring out the specifics and tying up the loose ends of what came before. I liked the presence of Lance's Chicago friends in the plot, and how he was growing closer to Nora and Alice, and the more active inclusion of Robbie's brothers. The non-linear storytelling sometimes got a bit hard to parce—there were occasions when the jumps between timelines felt unnecessary and not quite fluid. But that didn't really detract from my overall enjoyment of the story.

Oh, and one more thing I just have to commend: the strong sense of setting. Whether it was the ranch with all the animals and the snowy roads around it or the Chicago scene, I always felt present wherever the characters were. That's always a cool feeling.