Thank you Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for sending me a review audiobook copy of this short story collection. All opinions are my own.
Dashing Through the Snow - 4.5 Stars
I loved this short story so much. This follows Willow whose boyfriend dumps her before they go on a Christmas train trip together for two weeks. Determined to make the most of it, Willow decides to go by herself and finds magic along the tracks.
I loved this short story. I thought this was equal parts hilarious and adorable. I absolutely loved the train idea and the fact that this short story just screamed Christmas. I thought that Willow's friendship and relationship that was developed in this book was so well done and this was such a well written and rounded story from beginning to end. This story put me in such a Christmas mood and it made me wish this train was a real thing.
Pining for You - 4 Stars
This short story follows Theo who is a Christmas tree farm owner who finds out that the woman he dated, and might still be in love with, is back in town. Now he's determined to prove to Skye that he has changed.
I thought this story wasn't as strong as the first one but that simply might be because the author was trying to do a bit too much in one story. There was really one storyline I cared about which was Skye and Theo's relationship but I feel like this tried to focus on that, Skye's art career and Skye's dad's problem more than just focusing on one thing. Too many things were shoved into this story that needed resolving and while I think Melissa did a fantastic job wrapping this story up, I would have liked to see this be a full length book so all those storylines could be in there.
Overall, I thought this was such a sweet and fast short story collection to listen to. I listened to it over the course of two days and really enjoyed my time with it. If the premise of this sounds interesting, I highly recommend picking it up.

This audiobook is a collection of two novellas, Dashing Through the Snow and Pining For You.

I enjoyed Dashing Through the Snow! A two week train ride on The Christmas Express sounds like an amazing experience!

Pining For You was a bit boring for me and I did not enjoy it as much.

The narrators for both novella were fantastic and really brought the stories together.

This was such a sweet and cozy little novella. It has all the Hallmark vibes you want this time of year! My only complaint is that I wanted more! I would have loved these to be full length! I enjoyed the characters so much!!

Thank you for my audiobook! I loved the narrator!

Read/Listen if you love:
❄️Second-chance love
❄️Found family
❄️Christmas tree farm
❄️Christmas train (very Polar Express-like)
❄️Short-form stories
❄️Available in Digital and Audio

Snowy Serendipity is two Christmas novellas in one and I really enjoyed these festive and quick stories. 'Dashing Through the Snow' was my favorite. It was the cutest Christmas train romance story. It was adorable and put me in the holiday mood. The second story, 'Pining for You' was harder to get into. Probably because I enjoyed the first so much.

The narrators were great and I loved the cozy Christmas feelings these stories gave. It would be perfect to listen to next the fire with a cup of hot cocoa.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review!

What a joyful treat this 2 novella collection was! I really enjoyed Famous for a Living earlier this year., so when I saw Ferguson had this available for Christmas reading season, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I’m going to do a mini review for each novella below.

Dashing Through the Snow: I ADORED this cozy train setting! A two week holiday getaway on the Christmas Express sounds beyond ideal! Unfortunately Willow must embark on this romantic getaway alone after her boyfriend breaks up with her, but in a serendipitous turn of events, the man of her dreams happens to own and conduct the train! I had a bit of a hard time connecting with this audiobook narrator but that didn’t completely deter me from loving Willow and Oliver’s sweet holiday romance! (4 stars)

Pining for You: This was everything I needed in a holiday romance novella! I really fell for the small town, Christmas tree farm setting. Skye and Theo are childhood friends turned lovers with a fall out that turns into 14 years of not speaking, so when they get their second chance romance, I was positively swooning! I also really enjoyed this narrator in particular! I just adored everything about this heartwarming story and highly recommend! (4 stars)

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Thomas Nelson publishing for this #gifted audiobook!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this audiobook
two short stories in one, both have winter vibes not so much Christmas but still loved them
“Dashing Through the Snow” cross country couple trip turned solo trip which turned into new opportunities not just in love.
"Pining for you" second chance romance / rekindling a lost love,
I really loved both stories it was a quick listen but worth it and of course as a peloton fan loved the nod to them.

These are delightful stories! Heartwarming and funny. Perfect to get you in the cozy holiday mood.

The audiobook production was well done - I highly recommend.
Thank you @tnzfiction and @tlcbooktours for the gifted audiobook.

Bestselling author Melissa Ferguson offers up the gift of cozy joy and the grace of second chances in two sweet novellas for the holiday season.

𝘿𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙏𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙣𝙤𝙬 (also in 𝙊𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝘾𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙢𝙖𝙨)

Dashing through the snow will give you cheesy Hallmark Polar Express vibes. Which I personally love, however, this one was just a tad off for me. It was hard to wrap my head around a woman falling in love with an elf who had very eccentric hobbies, cringe.

𝙋𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙔𝙤𝙪 (also in 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙏𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝘼𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙)

As another reviewer stated, Pining for You is a complete 180 from the first story in this set. While taking place on a Christmas tree farm, it doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas. This story has heavy topics: gambling addiction, poverty, and cheating. I wouldn’t recommend this as a cheery Christmas read.

These two stories might work separately, but they didn’t work for me together.

This book consists of two, unrelated novellas. I love holiday novellas and I did enjoy an other book by Melissa Ferguson, “Famous For a Living”. I thought this one would be perfect for the holiday season. Sadly, I only connected to the first of the two.

🚂𝗗𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗻𝗼𝘄: ✰✰✰✰

Willow gets dumped by her boyfriend right before they are to take a romantic, Christmas getaway on a polar-express like train. Despite her broken heart, she decides to take the trip alone.

The vibes of this one sold it for me. If you like The Polar Express, I believe you might love this one! This one exuded all the Christmas vibes and left me with a warm, content heart.

The characters were cute and quirky. The one thing that did confuse me is that Ferguson decided to kind of throw in a little love triangle aspect. Personally, I don’t think this novella was lengthy enough to develop both love interests well. That aside, this novella gave me all the good vibes and told a cute story. I would love to see this one as a full length novel.

🎄𝗣𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗬𝗼𝘂: ✰✰

Theo is a top-notch rich guy who decides to go back to his roots and help his family with their Christmas Tree farm. Skye’s dad works for the farm and moved back to the farmlands to help out her family. The issue is that Theo and Skye were once an item. Will they heal their romantic wounds from the past?

If I didn’t already know this was a holiday novella, I would have never known. This one was not “in your face Christmas” like the first. I didn’t get those Christmas vibes at all.

Skye and Theo did not have much of a romantic connection. I feel like their chemistry died a long time ago. I also don’t enjoy books in which the MMC is in a relationship prior to reuniting/uniting with the FMC. Theo had a whole girlfriend! This boarders too close to cheating (with feelings only since these books are closed door) for me. Having feelings for someone else while in a relationship is still cheating imo. This left me with a sour feeling in my stomach.

Overall rating of Snowy Serendipity: ✰✰✰

Unfortunately did not finish book #1 did not like the narrator. But i did find myself laughing a couple of times therefore i might need to read the books to give an honest review of the context.

Two books in one?! Count me in!

Both of these stories were cute, cozy, and very festive! It was the perfect little treat for this time of year. It was a bit too cheesy for my liking, but entertaining none the less.

This book includes two novellas, a fact which I wasn’t aware of until after I started reading. The cover should have some indication of this. Cute, sweet stories, not a whole lot of depth. I enjoyed the second story much more than the first.

Two cute short stories to get you in the holiday spirit. They are definitely predictable but I still enjoyed them. I felt like the first one ended so quickly and abruptly. I was enjoying it so much and then it was just over., but they were still fun to read.

Thank you NetGalley and Melissa Ferguson for the ARC of Snowy Serendipity (audio).

The first thing I have to get off my chest here is....

Why wasn't this entire book just about the first story????? This was a STRONG 4 star read for me in the first half, with the literal ONLY thing keeping it from being 5 stars was that I wanted it to be longer to get more of the love story and watch the two main characters fall in love. Instead, we got this truly devastating second story that was a 2 star at best.

The first story was a festive, polar-express vibe with a love story sprinkled in and a woman on her journey to realizing she deserves better for herself. It gave alllll the best Christmas vibes and was just overall a fun happily ever after with tons of likable characters and a great story that left you wanting more.

The second story was absolutely the opposite. Not only did it not even really feel like Christmas at all, none of the characters were likable at all, and the main male character was actually a super horrible dude who messed up the first time he had a chance with our main female character, and once seeing he had an opportunity to MAYBE get her back, ended his current relationship to shoot his shot????? There was also all this unnecessary detail about the MFCs family that didn't contribute to the story at all, and was just overall not a good story and I didn't have a single moment where I was rooting for the main characters.

Overall,
First story: 4 stars (so cute - wanted more)
Second story: 2 stars (being generous - ruined the book for me personally)

I would recommend people to read the first story and skip the second.

Snowy Serendipity offers the reader two short Christmas romances. Dashing Through the Snow is a sweet and funny story that takes place on the Christmas Express, a holiday-themed train. Pining for You gives you a peek into the world of Christmas tree farms. I liked that the author used holiday-related descriptions, i.e., gingerbread eyes; it lent some extra charm to the stories. The narrators provided cheerful voices that were appropriate to the stories.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Audio for the advanced copy.

The two stories in this book have already been released in anthologies with other authors in the last couple of years. For that reason, I was a little disappointed. Another story added in would have made me more excited. Even so, both these stories are wonderful, and the new cover is cute.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of “Snow Serendipity” by Melissa Ferguson. All opinions are my own.

This audiobook included two short stories, both all things christmas and wintery. I enjoyed the first one about the train and would recommend it.

A great way to celebrate the holiday season is to read the two cute novellas in this book. Both are short and sweet and leave you with a smile.

The first story, Dashing Through the Snow, had a Polar Express vibe that made me want to get a hot cup of cocoa and settle in for a joyful holiday story. Willow was an easy character to like and hope she finds her magical happy ending. The setting of a train was whimsical and was the perfect journey for Willow to go on to find a new romantic start in her life.

The second story, Pining for You, was a sweet second chance romance. Theo and Skye were high school sweethearts but have not been in contact for many years. Now that Skye came home to be closer to her parents, she and Theo are being put into situations together that give them a chance to get reacquainted. The setting of a tree farm gives a fun holiday place that was easy to envision.

This is a wonderful audiobook that was superbly narrated and is just the right length to listen to in one day. A great book to listen to while decorating or to just give you warm feelings on a cold snowy day.

I am extremely grateful to Thomas Nelson, Zondervan Audio and Netgalley for the opportunity to listen to an audiobook collection of these cheerful and heartwarming novellas in exchange for an honest review.

Snowy Serendipity by Melissa Ferguson
Narrated by Talon David & Kayla Jackson
Publisher: Thomas Nelson and Zondervan Audio, Thomas Nelson Fiction
Genre: Novellas & Short Stories | Romance | Women's Fiction
Published: September 26, 2023

Snowy Serendipity is a standalone novella by Melissa Ferguson. It contains two short holiday stories that were wonderful. This is a quick read (or listen) that is sure to make your holidays bright!

I loved the narration by Talon David & Kayla Jackson.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Did not realize this was two books at first. Really enjoyed the first book. A fun lighthearted holiday read. Second one was good but I enjoyed the first one more. Both very quick reads. Almost wish the first one was longer!