Melanie Henderson's life is a lie. The scandal of her birth and the
identity of her true parents is kept from her family's small,
conservative Colorado town. Not even she knows the truth: that her birth
mother was just 14 and unmarried to her father, a local boy who drowned
when he tried to take a shortcut across an icy river. 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 speaks with a natural lyricism,
and presents a cast of characters who quietly struggle through
complicated lives.