Well, I've had Corinne's books sitting around for about a year. I'm sad to say she just didn't interest me much.
Corinne is a bit of a frustrating character because her key problem in both books is communication. So you see that she learned nothing from the events of the first book if she's once again not communicating her feelings in the second.
Corinne lives in Aspen with her younger sister Gwynn and their mom. Their mom is shortly going to get married to Arne, who's a wealthy businessman of some kind. He's Swedish. Corinne's mom wants to open a Chinese restaurant in Aspen. Corinne's dad is a skin instructor at a nearby resort. They're divorced.
Some of the tension in the book involves this weird idea of Corinne's that she's not supposed to talk about Arne around her dad and vice versa. Her mom's clearly been dating Arne for a while, so I'm not sure how she thinks any of that is an issue. It's not like Arne is a new thing and if they've been divorced for a time, there shouldn't be an issue of hurt feelings. And there isn't. It was all in Corinne's head.
There's also tension with the girls moving into Arne's house, which was done by a professional decorator. He's not sure how to handle two kids there and there are some new rules for the girls, but everything works out well.
Gwynn wants to be an ice skater, so Arne pays for her lessons. Corinne doesn't know what she wants to do. She enjoys winter sports like skiing but doesn't want to get serious about them. Then she sees a rescue dog in action and decides she wants to train one. Arne is not pleased with the idea of a dog but gives in and they get Flurry from a shelter. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of yet another dog-training book. Ugh. Nicki was one of my least faves. But the training is actually interesting and doesn't take up too much of the book.
Corinne has a best friend named Cassidy who doesn't like the snobby rich girls who get new things all the time. One of them happens to be an ice skater so Corinne has this ridiculous idea that Cassidy will think poorly of Gwynn for getting lessons. This is another just plain stupid idea that is all in Corinne's head. As if Cassidy is going to spontaneously dislike a child that she's known for years just because he's getting lessons. Come on.
Not talking about her feelings ends up with a big blow up between Cassidy and Corinne in the stands at Gwynn's first competition. The loud noise makes Gwynn falter during her routine and a guilt-ridden Corinne runs away and proceeds to get lost on one of the mountains, trying to find a necklace Gwynn had left as part of their sister shrine. (The shrines are explained in the book. I'm not doing it here.) Flurry ends up finding her and the day is saved. Corinne finally talks about all her feelings and everything is resolved.
Now there is one thing that I thought they did really well. Corinne is Chinese-American and this is set during covid times, so she endures multiple incidents of covid-inspired racism against Chinese people. She tries telling Arne but he blows her off a couple times and she finally tells him that this is serious. He sheepishly explains that he just wants her to be happy so he tried not to dwell on it, but she solved that problem. There's also a great scene where her mom tells off a couple asshole racist adults. If Corinne was able to talk about all her issues as well as she handled this, there wouldn't have been a plot, but she would have been a better character for it.
The second book is set in summer. Corinne is still training Flurry, just not with snow-based things.
One of Corinne's problems this time is the fact that she and Gwynn were supposed to have separate rooms but decided to share instead. Corinne did it to help Gwynn adjust to living in Arne's house. But now Gwynn is pretty annoying and Corinne is about to ask for separate rooms when her mom drops a bombshell: she's pregnant. Apparently, rich Arne somehow only has three bedrooms in his house so poor Corinne is stuck and this issue is never mentioned again. Sigh.
It's replaced by a new problem: will Arne love the baby more because it's his kid? See what I mean about Corinne not learning anything? Also, both this and the "don't talk about dad in front of stepdad" feel like things a younger person would think, not someone Corinne's age.
Corinne pressures the family to do their usual summer camping trip. Arne is not much of a camper and he's worried about his pregnant wife, but she's into it, so off they go. Things are going well until a canoe trip where there's an accident. The family (and Cassidy, who's along for the trip) all make it to shore, but they lost their water, Arne injured his leg, and Mom vomited and is going to be on the road to dehydration soon. It's up to Corinne, Cassidy and Flurry to follow Arne's topographic map and make their way back to camp so they can get the rest of the family rescued. Corinne is presented as capable of stuff like this, which is why her worries seem much more immature than the rest of her character. The girls make it back, despite a rockslide and a mountain lion, get help and save the day.
Three months later, the baby is born and all is well...except they named him Blix. Like seriously? There's a scene where Arne mentions he's considering Love (pronounced the Swedish way) as a name and Corinne points out he'll be teased. She's not wrong. But she doesn't say a word about Blix? It's a goblin name! (It is. In the 80s fantasy movie Legend.) According to several pages I read looking it up, it's also primarily a feminine name. Definitely an odd choice on AG's part. There are so many Swedish names that aren't so out there.
Overall, Corinne's books aren't terrible but they're far from great. Gwynn is on the annoying side and of all the characters, I think I actually liked Cassidy, who's not even part of the family, best. Mom is pretty cool, too. Corinne's problems are in some cases handled well, but mostly they're too immature for her and she clearly learned zero lesson from the first book. Not their best work.
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