Synopsis:
Snowflakes and Sparks is a standalone, small town romcom in the Old Pine Cove series.
One small town. One hot neighbor. One second chance at love.
The best fake snow decorations in L.A.? Done by me.
About to get a promotion? Also me.
Sent to a sleepy small town right before Christmas to save a bookstore? Unfortunately, me again.
Old Pine Cove was the one place on earth I had sworn I’d never return to. Then my boss asked me to manage one of our bookstores there. I wanted to tell her no way, but that would definitely lower my chances of being promoted once I returned to L.A. So I sucked it up. Besides, it was only supposed to be temporary. What could possibly go wrong?
Gosh, how naïve of me.
Alex Denverton opening the door with that smoldering look of his, that’s what went wrong. It had been ten years since I crashed his truck and made a run for it. And now he was back in my life. How was I supposed to focus on work knowing he was right next door? And why did I ever agree to organize the annual Winter Walk with him?
One thing was certain, though. If I wanted to have a magical Christmas, I couldn’t ask Santa to make it happen. It was up to me to decide: go big or go home.
Review:
I decided to read Snowflakes and Sparks as it was a free book that was promised to be a ‘rom-com’. Unfortunately, this book was not romantic or comedic in any way. Well maybe some parts were a little funny but more for the reader at the expense of the main character.
Suzie is up for a promotion at work, but before that she’s been asked to do the role she’s going to be promoted to at a store in a small town she knows from her youth. This is apparently the worst thing to ever happen to her, well other than ‘the incident’ (more on that below). She’d rather give up her promotion opportunity than return to Old Pine Cover.
The reason for Suzie not wanting to go back to Old Pine Cove is actually ridiculous. “Two days before we had to go back to California, Alex said we could help him with the preparations for the annual Snow Ball. He needed to pick up a pallet of snow globes that would be auctioned off for a good cause. The proceeds were meant to go to a summer camp for disabled children.” “Meant to?” Dean raised his left eyebrow. “I wanted to impress Alex and lied to him about having a driver’s license. We hit some black ice and crashed right into the town square where the tent for the Snow Ball had just been assembled.” “You didn’t.” “And then—” “Wait, it gets worse?” Dean cut me off. “How can it get worse than that?” “We got out of the truck, but I had forgotten to put the vehicle in park. It got away from us and crashed straight into the town’s coffee shop, breaking our cargo as well as his truck.”
Sorry that the previous paragraph is a little lengthy and all over the place. I didn’t think I could explain the situation better than it was written in the book. It would have been just as wordy and all over the place.
The change in relationship between Suzie and Alex has given me whiplash. When she first gets to town he’s pretty cold with her and it seems like he’s trying to get a rise out of her. Then literally the next chapter they’re out for dinner together and talking like they’ve been friends the whole time.
I’d really hoped we were past fatphobia in books, especially romance books, but apparently not ‘I turned my computer off and changed into my running gear. I hadn’t gone running once since arriving here and it was starting to show. The cookies I kept eating at night hadn’t gotten the memo that they needed to travel further south. Instead, they had taken up residence on my hips. It was time to let them know they’d outstayed their welcome’.
I’m only saying this because she’s a book character, not a real person: Suzie is legitimately stupid. She walked onto a frozen lake because she wanted to pet a deer. Also, who the hell goes for a run in the forest of a town they don’t know at night? This was done so Alex could come save her, but come on.
To further prove my point on how dumb Suzie is, she found a ring box in Alex’s bathroom and one of her first thoughts was that it could have a Cheeto inside it. Now, this was probably meant as a joke but based on how she’s acted previously I like to believe she actually thinks there’s a Cheeto in it.
She’s also a little delusional: “This was getting ridiculous. One crashed truck with a load of snow globes wasn’t so bad that it was still newsworthy ten years after the fact, now was it? Unless… Yes, there was no other explanation. Old Pine Cove Weekly was a parody newspaper.” Clearly Old Pine Cove is a small town where nothing ever happens so someone that created such a spectacle returning probably is news. It’s actually hilarious that there’s a half page spread about her titled ‘Christmas Crasher Returns After a Decade of Silence’.
To top it all off she’s also a hypocrite. Addy asks for help finding an outfit for the Snow ball: ‘“Well, the Snow Ball is coming up fast and I don’t have anything to wear. I lost a lot of weight the past year,” she added in a whispered voice, as if it was a crime to have had a couple of extra pounds on her.’ Just a few chapters ago you were complaining about having extra cookie weight. Make your mind up woman.
This book felt like it was over before it really even began. I’m all for a short read, I love them at this time of year, but nothing happened. There wasn’t enough time for characters or relationships to develop and sadly it wasn’t festive in the slightest.
The plot twist was also completely contrived. It was obvious what was going to happen and I understand it was a ploy to create drama, but the motivations made no sense whatsoever. There was also no reason for Suzie to get so upset about it. No relationship had been established between her and Alex, and she’d only been back in his life for a couple of weeks.
Honestly, if I hadn’t already had a ton of DNFs this year, this book would have joined that pile. It’s rare for me to want to DNF something so short, but Snowflakes and Sparks was genuinely not a good read. Maybe the other books in this series are a lot better, but I’m not going to find out.
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