Snow Place Like LA is a novella set in the Christmas Notch series (between book 1 and 2) by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone.
Finished on: 19.7.2025
[Here’s my review of the first book in the series, A Merry Little Meet Cute.]

Plot:
Angel and Luca have been circling around each other for a while, and finally hooked up with each other on the set of Duke the Halls. But when Luca tries to continue their romance at home in LA, he gets the cold shoulder from Angel. After a social media posting that shows Angel in Paris with his ex, Luca is devastated. Hurt, Luca blocks Angel everywhere and tries to forget. But LA isn’t big enough, and when they run into each other half a year later, their old passion stirs again.

Snow Place Like LA is a cute addition to the Christmas Notch series (that I have yet to continue) but it didn’t really win me over completely.

Snow Place Like LA relies foremost on one of my least favorite tropes in romance, and that is miscommunication. It can be done, but it needs a lot of work to not seem ridiculous – and it doesn’t work here. Why Angel wouldn’t just talk about Paris didn’t make sense to me, even after explanations were given, and that made the romance stand on shaky ground for me.

That they the go on fucking more than actually talking would have been fine with me, if the sex in this M/M-pairing written by two women hadn’t felt a little too reasearched. I mean, I guess I prefer it to the other end of the spectrum where lube never seems to be an issue and prep is unheard of, but maybe somewhere in the middle would be nice. I just could never shake the feeling that it was a little clinical.

That being said, for the most part I very much enjoyed Snow Place Like LA. I liked the characters, I liked the Pretty Woman references (it may be time for a re-watch of this problematic fave), I liked the banter and I liked checking in with Bee again. It is a short, quick read that scratches any romance itch you might have. You could definitely do worse than spend your time away from Christmas Notch and here in LA instead. At the same time, I am hoping for a little more from the second book in the series.

Summarizing: cute but not great.