❄️🏠 Book Spotlight: Snow Place Like Home by Rachel Thorne

Romance • No Spice • Fake Dating • Christmas

☕ Book Details & Rating

Format: eBook
Series: We Three Kings #1
Year Published: 2025
Page Count: 368
Rating: ☕☕☕☕ (4 Coffees!)

🥤 Coffee Pairing: Spiked Peppermint Mocha

Cool, cozy, and just a little daring — the perfect drink for a woman experiencing all the magic of her first white Christmas. This festive mocha blends creamy chocolate, bright peppermint, and a warm kick of something stronger… just like Finley’s first holiday season in a snow-covered small town. It’s the same drink she grabs at the Christmas market — a delicious mix of holiday sweetness and new-experience excitement.

Disclaimer

ARC provided by the author—review powered entirely by cold brew, chaos, and my own honest opinions.

About the Book

Snowflakes melt, but love in Hollybrook just might stick.

Finley O’Brien has two jobs, a mountain of debt, and exactly zero time for romance. Her Christmas plans include a steak-for-one, a grumpy cat, and While You Were Sleeping on repeat.

Alex King has a tech startup, a meddling family, and a major holiday problem: if he shows up to Christmas without a girlfriend, he’s doomed to a lumpy sofa bed with three sugar-amped kids.

When Alex makes Finley a wild offer—an all-expenses-paid trip to his family’s Vermont hometown in exchange for pretending to be his girlfriend—she knows it’s ridiculous. She also knows it’s everything her late mother ever wished for her: a real Christmas with snow, sleigh rides, and magic.

Finley is sweet, funny, and nothing like the women Alex usually dates. Playing pretend gets complicated fast when sparks start flying under the mistletoe. Suddenly, this fake romance feels anything but make-believe…

Snow Place Like Home is a heartwarming holiday rom-com filled with cozy small-town charm, laugh-out-loud banter, and all the Christmas magic you can handle.

My Thoughts

I love a good holiday rom-com, and Snow Place Like Home feels like it was plucked straight out of a Hallmark movie—in the best, coziest, most predictable way possible. Fake dating is one of my favorite tropes, and even though these stories follow a familiar formula, each one brings something different to the table: new motivations, unique personalities, different traditions, and fresh twists. Snow Place Like Home fits that mold perfectly, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

We meet Finley, one of the strongest characters I’ve read in a while. Her mom passed away from cancer six years ago, leaving Finley in massive debt. She works two part-time jobs, is putting herself through nursing school, and is doing everything she can to stay afloat. Then there’s Alex—a man who runs a start-up, dates “sophisticated” women, and initially comes off like a narcissist. But he’s more complicated than he seems. He’s also the one who needs a fake girlfriend… for quite literally the most ridiculous reason ever. If he shows up single to his family’s Christmas, he has to sleep on the sofa in the same room as his aunt’s three feral grandchildren. It wasn’t even his idea—his business partner, Roland (certified scumbag), came up with it after spotting Finley at her coffee shop. Alex wasn’t on board at first, but the more he thought about it, the more the idea grew on him—not that he’d admit it, considering they both already had tiny crushes on each other.

The side characters—Barb and Mirna—are absolute gems. Because of a clerical error, Finley lives in a low-income senior housing complex, and these two ladies have become her honorary grandmothers. They tell her the truth whether she wants to hear it or not and show up for her in every way that matters. Barb is delightfully “spicy book” obsessed, while Mirna is morally opposed—creating some of the funniest banter in the book.

The character development in this story is one of its strongest elements. Alex grows tremendously—he goes from cold and prickly to vulnerable and genuinely caring. He’s been carrying a secret for years, and once he finally opens up to his family, everything makes sense. I do wish this reveal had happened earlier so we could’ve spent more time with that growth, especially since he picks a fight with a childhood friend early on and never gets the chance to make amends.

Finley is a delight—kind, hopeful, but unsure of herself. The only thing she wants out of this arrangement is her first real white Christmas, something she and her mom always dreamed of. Taking this risk is her way of honoring her mom’s wish for her to be braver and say yes to life. Her enthusiasm lights up the entire King family and pulls out a softer, long-lost side of Alex. She cherishes every moment of the magical holiday they share, but she also feels guilty deceiving his family. She makes it very clear to Alex that the only lie she’ll tell is that they’re dating; everything else has to be the truth. That’s why it hurts when Alex initially judges her job and circumstances without knowing what she’s been through. Once he learns, though, his respect deepens—and so do his feelings. Finley’s growth comes from realizing she isn’t a burden, she is wanted, and she doesn’t have to carry everything alone.

The dialogue feels refreshingly real—messy, funny, and not overly polished. There’s no actual spice, though spicy book plots are mentioned, and the overall banter is genuinely fun. One of Finley’s inner thoughts even includes the phrase “you’re just being butt hurt,” which made me laugh out loud because it felt so true-to-life. Thorne also sprinkles in tongue-in-cheek nods to classic Hallmark tropes, and those self-aware moments were an absolute delight.

There were a few minor drawbacks. Language was a little heavier than I prefer—not overly explicit, just frequent. And the ending, while charming, was predictable, especially the grand gesture. But honestly? Predictable isn’t a flaw in a holiday rom-com. It’s part of the charm.

Final Thoughts

Snow Place Like Home is everything I want in a cozy holiday romance—sweet, heartwarming, snowy, and full of characters you can root for. While the language kept this from being a five-coffee read for me, the charm, humor, character growth, and emotional beats more than make up for it. It felt familiar in the best way, like curling up with a beloved Christmas movie.

If you’re craving winter magic, found family vibes, a Hallmark-worthy romance, and the rush of experiencing a first white Christmas right alongside the main character, this is one you don’t want to miss.