Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Tropes: second chance romance; forced proximity; working with an ex; Christmas in July feels; mm romance; miscommunication and misunderstandings
Snow Place Like LA begins where Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone’s A Merry Little Meet Cute leaves us. Angel and Luca have enjoyed themselves thoroughly in Christmas Notch, but it’s time to return to the “real world,” and Luca is curious and anticipatory about his future with Angel. However, at the airport, at the last minute, Angel seems vague. The two separate with Angel going to Paris and Luca returning to Los Angeles. When Luca tries to connect with Angel via messaging and hears nothing, he doubts their connection. When he finds an incriminating photo on social media, he makes the heavy decision to block Angel, and he feels heartbroken.
Snow Place Like LA is a deliciously dirty rom-com highlighting the disastrous effects of misunderstandings and spur-of-the-moment actions. Set in the backdrop of Teddy Ray Flectcher’s “corn” business, Murphy and Simone use the epic Pretty Woman to craft moments of hilarity for their story. They incorporate many of the characters from the first book of the Christmas Notch series as a way to connect readers who loved that book to this expanding world. When Angel and Luca are forced to work on the “corn” version of Pretty Woman, Luca’s anger and heartbreak create tension in the story, but it never overwhelms its rom-com designation. Unfortunately, Angel and Luca cannot keep their hands off each other.
When Angel and Luca finally talk about their falling out, it becomes clear that there were misunderstandings. As these two reconcile, Murphy and Simone use Luca’s emotional journey to highlight the impact of past traumas on present-day choices. Luca shows us that feeling misunderstood and not being accepted by his family has left him to create walls with the people around him. He uses humor to mask his feelings. When he doesn’t feel “seen” by Angel as they leave Vermont, he recognizes it replicates his feelings to his family’s disinterest in him. Just when it feels as though they will find their happy ending, Angel has more news, and he invites Luca into a future with him. However, Luca’s love for the people who have loved and accepted him makes it difficult to choose Angel’s proposition. Murphy and Simone deftly walk us through Luca’s journey of self-awareness, and Angel and Luca find their happy ending.
Snow Place Like LA is irreverently funny. It’s impossible not to love Luca and Angel, and there are truths in this book that feel necessary for us to read and apply to our own lives. I cannot wait for more stories from Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone’s Christmas Notch series.
In love and romance,
Professor A
Professor Romance 