White as Snow — Donna Westover Gallup

COLORADO TERRITORY 1864.

Charlie is all alone on the ranch that sits between the empty prairie and the Rocky Mountains. As the orphaned boy cares for his dying grandpa and tries to figure out how to survive the approaching winter, he keeps remembering the old man's words: 'Failure's not an option, son.' As the first storm of the season hits, a mysterious mountain man shows up at the isolated ranch and good things start to happen. But to get free of his one gnawing secret, Charlie must learn to trust the giant stranger. On Christmas day he learns that trusting means he'll never have to be alone again.