Three times the holiday magic. Three times the chaos.
As strangers and seatmates Maryam Aziz and Anna Gibson fly to Toronto over the holidays—Maryam to her sister’s impromptu wedding, and Anna to meet her boyfriend’s wealthy family for the first time—neither expect that severe turbulence will scare them into confessing their deepest hopes and fears to one another. At least they’ll never see each other again. And the love of Maryam’s life, Saif, wasn’t sitting two rows behind them hearing it all. Oops.
An emergency landing finds Anna, Saif, Maryam, and her sister’s entire bridal party snowbound at the quirky Snow Falls Inn in a picture-perfect town, where fate has Anna’s actor-crush filming a holiday romance. As Maryam finds the courage to open her heart to Saif, and Anna feels the magic of being snowbound with an unexpected new love—both women soon realize there’s no place they’d rather be for the holidays.
I can't sing the praises enough. This was a beautiful collaboration. I love holiday books and holiday movies and holidays in general. This holiday book had it all. It had 3 holidays! It also had the quintessential, picturesque small town which was the filming site for a holiday romcom. It had travelers stranded on the way to their holiday plans in said small town, and you had a holiday pageant in need of a new writer and some inclusive refreshment.
Snow Falls, Canada is where I'd like to retire. It's a multicultural haven near Ontario. You have all of the shops that you might expect with either puns or alliterations in their names. But you also have a lot that you might not expect from a small town community. For the record, if I could move there before retirement age, I would not be sad in the slightest.
Anna is traveling to Toronto to spend Christmas with her boyfriend's family. Maryam is traveling with her family to Toronto for her sister's wedding. Everyone on that fated flight is rerouted to Snow Falls due to weather. In 2000, when the book is set, Ramadan, Hanukkah, and Christmas are all happening around the same time. As a Muslim family observing Ramadan, Maryam and her family are concerned about their meal options. Turns out everyone was lucky to spend their holiday in Snow Falls. You get to see all of them learning about one another and their customs and traditions.
I know that this is an idyllic, romanticized snapshot of these people. But boy was it everything that I needed in my life right now. To see these people of different faiths and backgrounds coming together to help one another and celebrate together was really beautiful. And that's nothing to speak of the actual romance contained within the pages, because they were beautiful.
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