After her mother's death, Ellas was raised by her aunt. She left for college and hasn't returned in ten yers. Now, her aunt encouraged her to come back. As she no longer has the excuse of work not to go, Ella finds herself back in the small town where she partly grew up.

This book gave me all the Hallmark vibes (which I totally love). But the writing style didn't resonate with me. First I thought it's because it's written in third person perspective, but there's something else I just can't put my finger on.

This story is wholehearted, with relatable characters and I really like how the focus was on family within the relationship

Snow Place Like Home is my first read by Lacey Baker and y’all I devoured it!
This cover immediately caught my attention. But what was inside stole the show .
I thought this was a very sweet, clean romance that gave me all the heartwarming feels.
I had such fun with this one.
Ella and Seth are a delight, it was great watching these two slowly letting those old emotions fire back up again. I love a transforming romance, and it was a great journey!
The setting was phenomenal. Being in the sleepy town of Bellepoint, Pennsylvania was enchanting.
A fun, enjoyable second chance, small-town holiday romance!

I would like to thank NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for the opportunity to read this ahead of its publication date in return for my honest review.

If you're in need of a feel-good, heartwarming, Hallmark vibe Christmas read, look no further.

Ella returns home after a decade of being away and finds herself working on a a charity tree auction with Seth, her high school crush - the one she had secretly adored. Seth finds himself falling for Ella, his secret high school crush. Both grown adults now, working towards a common goal for a good cause. Ella hasn't had a warm feeling towards Christmas for years and Seth is determined to show her the wonder in the season.

Lacey Baker does an amazing job of weaving the magic of the season into the stories of fantastic characters centered with community, family and faith.

Thank you Thomas Nelson and Lacey Baker for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Snow Place like Home by Lacey Baker
Holiday Christian romance. Closed door, clean.
Ella Wilson used to love the Christmas holiday season. But that was before returning home to the small community she grew up in. She needs to find a job. A life. A purpose. But she’s not feeling much hope.
Seth Hamil is a widower, an art teacher and a volunteer at his community church. Having Ella back in town reminds him of his youth and his heartbreak. But he still has faith in the season of love and the holiday is perfect time to remind Ella that there can be happiness in her life.

🎧 I alternated between an ebook copy and an audiobook. The audiobook is narrated by Trei Taylor who did a wonderful performance clearly acting emotions and character voice variations.
As Ella and Seth work together on the auction and getting the needed Christmas trees, you can hear their attraction, frustration, and longing in their voices.
The narrator has a very slight lisp. After the few minutes it blends and is barely noticeable. I found the best speed for this narration for me was 1.5.

Christmas warmth and joy. Spiritual happiness is apparent and included.
I enjoyed reading Ella and Seth’s reconnecting and their start down a path of love and joy.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley and publisher Thomas Nelson and Zondervan Audio.

Ella travels to her home time for the first time in years and meets widow Seth. The two grow closer as they learn to let people in again in their lives.

This book was a miss for me. It was very much a Hallmark Christmas movie, which I'm sure there is an audience out there for. For me, it was a bit too slow. I wanted Ella and Seth to come together sooner and really build up some angst.

But, this book will definitely find it's audience in anyone looking for a cute holiday cozy romance.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the gifted copy. My reviews are always honest.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Snow Place Like Home gave me the initial vibes of a Hallmark movie. I found the beginning to be a cozy read with the details of the Christmas holiday. This story involves grief, and I found it to be expressed in a beautiful way. However, I found it to be very repetitive and predictable. It was hard to keep my attention for this read.

However, there were cute aspects, and I believe that some will certainly enjoy this read.

Sadly this was not for me! I am not one to rate so low but this book has alot of church, Jesus, etc & that is not for me. Also, there is alot of grief and sadness - not a cozy holiday read.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

Snow Place Like Home
Lacey Baker
Oct. 10, 2023
Thomas Nelson
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. It will soon be released!
This is a cozy and heartfelt Christmas romance that was enjoyable, but didn’t quite reach my expectations. The slow pace kept me from becoming fully engaged with the characters.
I would recommend this to readers who want a clean romance. Beautiful cover!
3 stars

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Snow Place Like Home
Author: Lacey Baker
Source: NetGalley
Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023

Snow Place Like Home is a cozy, yummy, and charming Christmas story, and it feels like a Hallmark movie. There is a reason for that: the author has written some shows for Hallmark. So, you know, when you read a book like this, you get to read a sweet story with a kiss (most of the time) at the end to seal the deal. Ella Wilson has not celebrated Christmas since her Mom died, her fiancée dumped her, and her company closed, leaving her jobless. So, Ella takes a long overdue vacation home to the small town where her Aunt raised her. It’s not long before she volunteers to help her family church with an auction to raise funds, and her co-organizer is her childhood crush, Seth, who is now a young widower. You can guess the rest. I enjoyed the dialogue and the descriptive setting, which brought the chemistry of the two young loves together. Maybe we will see this as a Hallmark movie in the future. #Christmas #Wish #romance #ChildhoodCrush #art #religion #TheReasonForTheSeason #SecondChances #Future #Love #SnowPlaceLikeHome @laceybakerbooks @thomasnelson @netgalley
🎄

I received a complimentary copy of this ARC. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Thank you to Thomas Nelson, and the author for the opportunity to read this novel. Pub. Date: October 10, 2023.
🎄

#book #books #bookaddict #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #bookstagramer

I loved this book’s cover! There’s nothing more romantic than walking down a snowy path with snow softly falling!
I was hoping for a nice romantic book but this one fell kinda short. I think others will like it this book but I unfortunately didn’t
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher Thomas Nelson for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Like some others, I was attracted to the book for its Hallmark movie-type vibe. It didn’t quite live up to expectations but it was a nice story.

At the outset we meet Ella as a girl decorating the Christmas tree with her mother and making a special wish on the star at the top of the tree. Although Ella wished for a pony – her dream did not come true and post-Christmas, instead, Ella’s worst nightmare occurs. Her mother passes away. She is lovingly raised by her aunt Addie – but of course, her grief over the loss of her mother never quite dissipates.

The book moves on to Ella in adulthood. She is happy, engaged and a has a job she loves as a curator at a Philadelphia art gallery. Unexpectedly, just before Christmas, the gallery is closing and her fiancé has announced he is taking a new job in another country. Suddenly the “Christmas jinx” seemed upon her again. Ella hasn’t liked Christmas since her mother passed, viewing it as “another month to get through.”

When Aunt Addie called this time inviting her to come home for Christmas, reluctantly, Ella agreed to come home after 10 years of not visiting because it’s too painful. The emotional pull she feels once she returns is a little overwhelming, but there is much to embrace about coming home. Coping with grief is a big theme in this book, both for Ella as well as Seth.

Seth was Ella’s high school crush and remained in the home town. He was also a widower, having lost his wife to complications from lupus the previous year. When Ella and Aunt Addie attend the church meeting on the tree auction that evening – Ella and Seth reconnect, and disagree.

Seth was focused on continuing prior traditions that his wife Rhonda started with the first tree auction. Ella has fresh ideas to raise additional money that don’t mesh with Seth’s tradition. Seth is too mired in his quest to honor Rhonda’s memory that he isn’t open to the possibilities of other opportunities.

Ultimately they work things out. I found the book a bit predictable but sweet. It’s focused on Christmas traditions, finding a way through grief, being willing to consider new beginnings, and service to your community. While some reviews mention the high degree of scripture in the book, I didn’t find this to be the case and perhaps it wouldn’t have bothered me much had I even noticed it. I did find the pace of the book to be a little slow and I didn’t identify with Ella or Seth as characters. Aunt Addie was a typical auntie character.

I would recommend this book to those who enjoy little Christmas novels and would identify with and embrace the struggles of the characters – grief, loss, and coming to turns with starting over.

Christmastime. Small-town romance. There’s a dog. I wanted to love this book. I really did. The cover was beautiful and the title was cute. I love Hallmark movies! But this book was a huge miss for me! Ella is still grieving the loss of her mother, but thinks she is cursed because bad things happen to her around Christmas. The most recent curse is her losing her curator job at an art gallery right before Christmas. Ella travels back to her small hometown to visit her aunt who raised her and in walks handsome, eligible widow, Seth (with a doodle). The two are thrown together to plan a Christmas tree charity for the church. I wanted to quit reading several times because the book was so repetitive. Ella’s grieving and “Christmas Curse” is constantly mentioned. As well as Seth’s grieving the loss of his wife. I also didn’t care for the author’s overly descriptive writing. Like every outfit Ella put on. It was weird and didn’t add anything to the storyline. (Like why would Ella wear a suit to drive hours back home to see her aunt?).

Thanks to the publisher and net galley for the ebook. I received a complimentary eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I did it like this book, nothing new or exciting to keep me entertained if you just a mindless read with all the cliches maybe you’ll like it jut i didn’t

This was a sweet little story. Very hallmark esque which can be a nice treat. I found this one a little slower paced than I preferred but it was okay. Kind of a take it or leave it for me.

If you love a light fluffy Christmas romance then this may be a great book choice for you. As I went through the book I kept thinking that this is very Hallmark-esque and then at the end, in the section about the author I saw that she has novelized Hallmark movies and had something of an aha moment. No wonder if feels Hallmark-ish.

There is a good deal about grief in the story since both main characters are dealing with loss. And there are Christian themes but they didn't over-power the story. Even with the seriousness of grief and the learning how God works in their lives, the romance was still light. I liked the characters and loved the small town setting.

I had a little trouble enjoying Ella and Seth initially because of the bickering initially but it didn't really last too long. Once they started working together I liked them. And I enjoyed their individual growth arcs as they learned how to move forward in their lives.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this story.

No sex, language or violence
*I received a complimentary ARC of this book and voluntarily chose to review it.

Snow Place Like Home is a sweet Christmas romance that follows Ella Wilson who is a city dwelling art curator that avoids her hometown and the painful memories it holds especially with Christmas. What happens when she goes back to her hometown? This book was a sweet Christmas book but for me the characters I could not connect with and the pace of this book was slow for me. I felt like this book dragged on sometimes and just overall had a slow pace. Overall Snow Place Like Home is still a sweet Christmas book that gets 3 stars for me and one I will still recommend to others. Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for this ARC read in exchange of my honest review.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

let me just start by saying i know this book is a vibe close to a hallmark movie, so i tried to keep this in mind.

the beginning of this book is crushing & i didn’t expect it to be so sad, so fast. throughout the book i felt like there wasn’t a lot of depth to the characters so i didn’t feel like i connected with them. i also felt it was a tad in your face how much the mmc wanted him to move on.

I could not finish this book. I read and could not get into the book. It was slow paced. Quite frankly it was Sad! There was no description of what she did it had to be explained over many pages and it still never explains what she does. I could not continue reading. I believe this book is for other people, it is not for me.

Thank you Net Galley for the advanced Reader’s copy. 2 stars because I could not continue and finish.

Does anyone have that ache, when you smile for so long that your face hurts after a while? That's how I felt during this book. I loved this book so much, it is so beautiful, cozy and so fluffy, it makes your insides warm. That's how I can describe it.
There was no part in which I felt bored or where I wanted to rush or skip a paragraph to get to the good part, everything about it was good and interesting.
I would definitely recommend this to anyone who's in a reading slump; as it is not a long book and it's not on the heavy side, it has this warmth that makes you feel so joyous.

I am very grateful to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this.

"Snow Place Like Home" is a warm invitation to experience a magical holiday tale, which beautifully captures the power of second chances and the comfort in rediscovering one's roots.