A worthy meet cute ✔️

Secondary characters that bring the story to life ✔️

The title lived up to the heartwarming theme ✔️

Those are just a few reasons I enjoyed Lacey Barker’s Snow Place Like Home, a small-town Christmas romance with a faith foundation. The new-to-me author created a sweet tension between the main characters, Ella and Seth. Gotta love a cute meet-cute, both types. The first one caused Ella to act like a tart when Seth crossed paths with her after many years away.

Enough about the main characters. I simply loved Auntie Addie, especially when she mentioned Ella’s “sharp” suit! “Sharp” appears in the vocabulary of every seasoned black woman when giving a compliment, and I could just about hear her saying it. Auntie Addie gave great words of wisdom and was a strong pillar of faith when Ella needed it. Kudos, Ms. Baker, for creating such a vivid supporting cast.

This author also brought music to life in a way that each piece played a role in the story. Maybe I’m going overboard, but I have a thing for Christmas, and the music was a mood.

My only criticism is that I am hungry for 7up Pound cake and all the other goodies mentioned in Snow Place Like Home, but Lord, I don’t need them. Someone, reach out to the Hallmark Movie channel! This one is warm and fuzzy on all accounts.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for giving me an ARC copy of this book to read and review. All of these thoughts and comments are my own.

In this heartwarming Christmas tale, Ella Wilson, a city-dwelling art curator, reluctantly returns to her hometown after years of avoiding the holidays and painful memories. Tasked with organizing the town's Christmas tree auction alongside her first love, Seth Hamil, Ella's big-city ideas clash with Seth's traditional approach. As they find common ground, the story explores themes of love, loss, and the true meaning of Christmas. While some readers may enjoy the relatable characters and unexpected situations, others may find the writing style and slow pacing less engaging. Nevertheless, this charming Christmas novel offers a delightful read for the holiday season. I appreciate Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for allowing me to read and review.

I received this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion and review. When Ella loses her job and goes back home to be with her Aunt over the holidays, she’s convinced that she is part of a “Christmas Jinx”. Over the next few weeks she discovers if she truly does have a “Christmas Jinx”. If you love cheesy Hallmark movies you will love this one. It’s got all the things in it that make Hallmark Holiday movies so adorable and sweet.

A grief shared often helps to relieve some of the burden. In this story, Ella and Seth are loaded down with a lot of grief. Ella seems to deal more negatively with her grief and Seth appears to be more healthy. The book was a little slow for me. My favorite character was Aunt Addie. She loved Ella so much and dedicated her life to raising her.



Thanks so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc. The opinions are my own.

Snow Place Like Home is a Hallmark movie in your hand. Such a beautifully written story about coming back home when you feel defeated, and leaning on family to help you. Such an enjoyable read with all the Christmas feels.

Absolutely fantastic plot! Could not put the book down once I began reading it. Cannot wait for it to be released. I will recommend it to everyone I know!

This was a Hallmark movie in a book!

Really enjoyed it. I connected with all the characters and really loved the small town setting. It made me feel like it was Christmas time in June.

I'd like to read the story following Seth's sister.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC. All views are my own.

Such a fun, atmospheric read! Reminded me of a cute Hallmark movie and got me all in my feels. Definitely recommend!

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely ADORED this book. If you love Hallmark movies, Christmas, and sweet, fluffy romance novels, this one is for you.

Ella is such a beautiful character. She is an art lover with a kind streak that runs deep, but plenty of feisty banter and attitude. She is dealing with a lot of grief based trauma and over the course of the book she begins to heal.

Seth is also dealing with grief after he loses his wife…he also deals with the guilt of wanting to move on without betraying the memory of his wife.

The relationship is beautifully written, I love the focus on family and small town values and honestly, who doesn’t love a fluffy Christmas romance?! Beautiful.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC copy of this book to read and review. All of these thoughts and comments are my own.

I love a good romance Christmas novel. This was a cute and quick pace holiday read and enjoyable for the most part. I will say though that the first good bit that Ella and Seth interacted was hard to get through because of the constant bickering that Ella and Seth did. It honestly threw me off the book a bit and made it a little less enjoyable.

All in all though it was a cute Christmas book and I loved the plot and most of the characters. I think it would be a great read for anyone who loves these type of novels.

3 stars!

This is such a warm and comforting Christmas read for me. It is the perfect second chance small-town holiday romance that I crave. So good.
I just reviewed Snow Place Like Home by Lacey Baker. #SnowPlaceLikeHome #NetGalley
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I tried reading this novel twice before deciding it was a DNF for me. The combination of the author’s writing style, including excessive use of descriptive details extraneous to the storyline, stilted, superficial dialogue and slow pacing, did not engage my interest. This was just not a match for me.

My thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the privilege of reviewing this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This review is being posted immediately to my GoodReads account and will be posted on Amazon upon publication.

Ella was raised by her aunt after the death of her mother when she was ten years old. After Ella left for college, graduated, and had her own home in Philadelphia, a couple hours away, her aunt encouraged her to come home for a visit, and now ten years has gone by, and Ella had not yet gone home.

Ella is the Curator at an art gallery in Philadelphia that is closing, resulting in the loss of her job. When Aunt Addie called this time inviting her to come home for Christmas Ella agreed to come. Until recently, Ella had also been engaged to Ben, who announced he accepted a job in another county, broke their engagement and left. Ella had put away, what she considered to be childish things, such as Christmas and never celebrated the holiday again, as an adult. She was also avoiding any kind of a relationship with men.

Once again settled into her childhood room, Aunt Addie convinced Ella to come to a meeting at church with her. Ella had also avoided church for the past ten years. The meeting happened to be about planning a Christmas fund-raiser. Seth, her former high school crush, was in the meeting. Seth was a widower, whose wife had died the previous year. Ella and Seth wholeheartedly disagreed on how to proceed with the fund-raising efforts so they were quickly assigned to be a team of two of take charge of this important Christmas season activity. Seth was determined to bring back a love of Christmas into Ella’s life. From there it was a bit of a roller coaster for both Ella and Seth as they learned to work together.

This heartfelt, delightful story has an interesting cast of relatable characters, as well as numerous unexpected situations. It is perfect for the Christmas season.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was a different kind of read for me, but I enjoyed it. It wasn't a storyline that would usually draw me in but I absolutely loved the way the author wrote. I definitely had such cozy winter vibes while reading this.

I really enjoyed Ella's journey throughout the book and Seth is the real deal ❤️ A quick, feel-good Christmas novel