Thin Air by Bette Nordberg

Beth Cheng is a respected wildlife biologist who has left her husband and three children behind in order to examine wildlife on a certain mountain. None of her training prepares her for her plane to crash on the mountain, leaving the pilot and her fellow biologist dead. She suffers severe injuries from the crash yet manages push through and salvage what she can from the wreck. But she is definitely not prepared when blizzard conditions come upon the mountain, bringing arctic-cold air. This blizzard keeps the rescue teams from finding her as soon as they would've without it and force her to fend for herself in the wild. But there is something she does not know-she is not alone on the mountain. Someone is watching her every move. That someone wants her dead. Beth must brave the thin air in order to see those she loves again.

Bette Nordberg knows how to write an interesting plot and how to develop imperfect characters. Unfortunately, a survival plot is not the best plot an author can write. Not many authors can write such a plot the correct way because it can easily be ruined. In some ways, she handled the plot correctly, and in some ways she did not. In the end, the book is average at best.

Characters have always been a problem for Bette Nordberg. While she knows how to craft imperfect characters, she does not go any further than that. All the characters lack personality and therefore do not seem real. Characters with personalities would have done wonders for this book. In a nearly impossible plot like this one, good characters would have helped it get onto the Elite List.

The best thing Bette did with the plot was write in the two expendable character deaths at the beginning. There is a lot of realistic peril throughout the plot, yet there is a lot of unrealistic rescues. There are few too many hear death experiences as well. The person on the mountain with her is based on a realistic idea. Thank God it was not some serial killer or terrorist.

There is nothing truly wrong with Beth being found alive, the problem comes in when Bette goes to extra lengths to fix extracurricular things. There were a handful of unfixed issues that she had no business meddling in. If anything is the biggest downfall of this book, it is this end. The book could have been better without such useless meddling.

It seems as though Bette Nordberg has deteriorated as an author since Serenity Bay. I can only hope that she returns to the trend she started with her debut novel. She has a lot of potential as an author; she is simply not using it correctly.

2.5 stars