Let It Snow

by Michelle Stimpson, Jurnee Smollett (Narrator), Kendrick Sampson (Narrator)

No one wants to spend Christmas Eve snowed-in at the airport—but will it spark an unexpected romance?

It’s Christmas Eve, and school teacher Nia West can’t wait to get to Jamaica for the sun and adventure she’s dreamed of all year long. So what if she’s traveling solo this year? A relaxing holiday alone on the beach sounds like a sweet escape from the usual family drama.

Family drama is something Andrew Beckman knows all too well. Ever since his ex-girlfriend started dating his brother, Andrew has buried himself in work at his veterinary practice. Now he’s on his way to an awkward family Christmas party with the happy couple, and all he wants is to put the season behind him as fast as possible.

When an unexpected blizzard grounds all flights, Nia and Andrew’s holiday plans are put on ice, and they’re stuck spending Christmas Eve at the airport. Soon the pair of travelers decide to make the best of it and team up to spread holiday cheer to the other stranded passengers. After all, just because their flight is cancelled doesn’t mean Christmas is. Now they’re about to discover that with the right person, home for the holidays can be anywhere—and life’s crossroads are the perfect place to begin a new story.

©2022 et al Creative (P)2022 Audible Originals, LLC

Length: 6 hrs and 25 min

Genres: Romance, Audiobook, Christmas, Holiday, Fiction, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance

7 pages, Audible Audio

First published December 1, 2022

About the author

Hello, Goodreads community! I'm Michelle Stimpson, and storytelling is my heartbeat. I've found my calling in penning heartwarming women's fiction that offers a seat at the table of family, humor, and hope. As an author, my greatest joy comes from crafting narratives that resonate with anyone seeking to find laughter and light in the pages of a good book. My tagline, 'Read. Love. Repeat.', is a promise of the emotional journey I aim to provide—engaging stories you’ll love and yearn to revisit.

Happy Reading

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Reviews

[Just A Girl With Spirit · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 swoony stars✨

First of all, this audio, the narration was perfection. Clean romance set for the majority in an airport. It was a little busy at times, but it still managed to grab my heart. More of an emotional read than anything else, but still corners of lightheartedness.🫶🏽

[♥Milica♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started off as a five star listen, then dropped down to a four and finally to a 3.5. I'm a bit sad about it because the start was really cute and I instantly liked the characters, but as it went on it didn't hold my attention as well.

There was also a joke that was kind of weird where the main character was stressed while riding in a taxi with a driver and he was quizzing her about not having a man so she said that she was a man.

And then she was sad her friend wasn't with her so they could laugh at the joke together. But then she realised it wasn't a joke at all and eventually told him she wasn't really a man at the end of the ride. But I don't get why the joke was necessary to include? I really don't.

[Hannah B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The voice actors did a phenomenal job and Audible’s production continues to be top tier (you can tell they hire voice actors, not just people to read some words). As a whole, the book felt reminiscent of Unaccompanied Minors but for adults. It was very cute but a little dense.

This felt like a lot more about other people than the main couple. Two couples got engaged and neither was the main one lmao. I don’t think the main couple was engaged in the epilogue? I listened twice but my attention was wandering.

I didn’t really have interest in the side characters (except for the guy who played Santa). There just seemed to be a lot of characters and things happening for a novella. The main side characters in the airport were grieving people who recently passed away and while the stories were touching, it was a little heavier than I’d have liked. I spiral about mortality daily and would like to Not. So while a personal preference, it’s good to know I think.

Plus, she was mad at him for not understanding her situation when they knew each other for one day? The story itself covered a lot and just felt a bit packed. I would've liked less side character helping and more development of connection between each other. The relationship itself was very cute and definitely emotion packed. No spice or anything sexual.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was super cute and has some great moments. Both narrators were wonderful too.

[Stacie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love, love, loved! Such a refreshing story. Just a few kisses so very, very sweet but not too much heat. Snowed in at the airport, Nia and Andrew form a stong connection while creating Christmas magic for their fellow stranded travelers. It gave me all the Christmas joy. Happy reading!

[Maren’s Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5🌟. This is a really charming Christmas story about a group of strangers who wind up stranded in the airport on Christmas Eve. I loved how some of the issues addressed and how the characters dealt with and overcame them. I also found it so heartwarming the way the strangers banded together to make it as good a Christmas as possible for the kids. It was a bit corny at times, but I’ve come to expect that in holiday reads.

Read if you like:
•insta love
•character rich stories
•forced proximity
•BIPOC rep

[max · Rating 1 out of 5]

This audiobook was 6h, but it felt like 12h
& why did they have to voice the kids like that 😭

[Toya (thereadingchemist) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a fun and adorable Christmas rom-com! Also, the narrators (Jurnee Smollett & Kendrick Sampson) were incredible!

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 stars rounded up

This is truly sweet, with strong Hallmark Xmas Movie vibes.

Both Nia & Andrew are relatable and extremely like-able.

I loved the Xmas Magic feel of this.
This was a 'clean' romance by a xtian author and I wouldn't have expected to enjoy it as much as I did.
No heavy religious or respectability themes.
Aggressiely straight-hetero representation only downside.

[Tonya Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute, touching, funny and sometimes emotional story with diverse characters stuck at the airport in a snow storm. With each character telling a different story.

[Quaterria Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

If this was the cutest Christmas novella!

Yes, it was highly unfortunate that the snow cancelled Nia and Andrew’s plans but it turned out to be exactly what they needed in order to bring them together.

“I don’t think us getting stuck here together was a coincidence.”

These two were some of the most selfless characters I have came across. Nia and Andrew’s selflessness in bringing Christmas cheer to those around them despite the circumstances really made this book that great.

Fantastic audio! 🎄

4.5 stars

[Wobilba · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fun & adorable meet cute Christmas Romance. The narrators did an excellent job with this one.

[BrandyD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfectly sweet story and fantastic narrator performances!

[Dawn Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a cute Christmas story. It gives you a little angst, a little insta-love, some self evaluation, healing, charity and all around holiday cheer.

[Shameka · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really was not a fan of this book. I went into it expecting a lighthearted, predictable holiday romance but it kind of wasn’t. It had the cheese of a Hallmark romance but then the main character continuously brought the mood down because she was constantly butting her nose in other people’s business, being condescending, and judging everyone else for their life choices. She’s apparently an expert on how to handle kids because she’s been a teacher a few years. She’s giving lectures about misogyny and judging other’s life choices while at the same time she’s angry at her best friend for having a boyfriend and calling her parents liars because they got divorced when she was in college. She can’t even bear to spend the holidays with her family because her parents' divorce somehow means her whole life was a lie. Some of that “wisdom” she wanted to dish out on everyone else should have been reserved for herself. I think I would have been able to give her more grace if not for the fact that she never extended the same to others.

If it was not for the MC I may have liked this book more but because I could not get past my dislike for her I'm only giving this book 2.5 stars.

['Nathan Burgoine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This audiobook had me until about three-quarters of the way, and then lost me with the literary equivalent of a nuclear blast of FAMILY IS EVERYTHING that left me so uninvited from the experience I barely crossed the finish line, and when I did, I was still mad at the love interest on this one, because Nia's reaction to him saying "you should just go home and hug-it-out, because they're your family" was 100% valid, but the way the novella was written, it read like ultimately he was 100% correct, she actually apologized for being angry, and... Okay, it's not worth me hashing this all out, but the short version is books where the lesson is "Family is by definition a magical thing you should never give up on, no matter how you feel or have been treated," and... listen. I'm begging authors to just take into consideration that when you tell that kind of story, there will be readers you're basically kicking in the teeth. Even the inclusion of a BFF who had a sister-like role to Nia (and a not-so-great family of her own) wasn't enough to offset the truly relentless "Christmas is Family, Family is everything, forgive-no-matter-what!" I just... Oof.

Now, on the positive side? I really liked Nia and Andrew (until he got all "But Faaaaaaaamily!" at her) and the set-up, of them being stuck at the airport alongside a tonne of other people all having drama of their own and deciding to throw them an Airport-Christmas (especially for some kids who recently lost one of their parents) would have been more than enough for me, honestly. And the crisis moment didn't have to be Andrew going 100% but they're you're paaaaaaaarents!, but just them deciding whether or not they'd choose one of their directions to go or the other. Alas.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute enough Christmas listen, but nothing spectacular. Two random people meet while stranded in the airport on Christmas Eve and work together to give everyone around them a nice holiday. I liked the male narrator more. He had a nice smooth voice. The female narrator I liked fine when she was speaking in her own voice, but I did not like the voice she did when she was portraying a child. She was almost shouting and screechy and it was a little strange. In regards to the story itself, I also preferred Andrew as a character to Nia. Nia had a lot of drama and seemed to be very easily offended. I couldn’t really sympathize with her for never getting over her parents’ divorce (though I also really didn’t like the parents for not figuring out that the kids would be affected by it even though they were in their 20s). I was much more sympathetic to Andrew’s issues (his brother dating his ex girlfriend). Overall this had some cute moments and I loved it when Tim the grumpy guy sitting next to them dressed up as Santa for the kids at the airport!

[Dosha (Bluestocking7) Beard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was absolutely adorable. I particularly enjoyed the reader for Andrew. A wonderfully fleshed out cast of characters brought to life in a nice clean romance/family drama. Lots of families and lots of little dramas. I hated for it to end, but the ending was just as endearing as the story.

[Nádia (weebna) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started off nice but then it just got too much. The beginning was actually really nice and fun and I was excited to see how it was going to develop but it ended up not living up to the excitement of the beginning. Props to the narrators though, they did a wonderful job.

[chasc.taylor_reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

This started off good and has a really cute airport set up. I really liked the narrators.

However, this book tries to throw in a lot of different social commentary and doesn’t handle those topics particularly well. This made the book come off as preachy.

This could’ve been shorter.

[Meredith Stepien · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love her cozy warm Christmas romances!! So sweet!!

[paxyshia · Rating 4 out of 5]

aw! 3.5! very cute!

it was a sweet story and the narrators were really great. i enjoyed it!

[Abagail · Rating 2 out of 5]

This started off promising but quickly deteriorated. I was slightly more forgiving of the sugary sweetness of the whole airport experience since it’s the week of Christmas, but there was absolutely no conflict for the majority of the book. Near the end, they threw in one thing which was quickly resolved without any compelling development. (It seemed silly that suddenly Mia was mad about Andrew telling her what to do at the last minute, when they’re both been preaching life wisdom to each other all night!) The conflicts they described to each other with family and friends were also quickly wrapped up with an apology and a hug. While I hate manufactured drama in a romance, this one was just too easy. I’d describe it as….being waterboarded with caramel syrup?

The male narrator’s voice was A+.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was cute but millennials are 30 something not 20 something.

[Jamie (Books and Ladders) · Rating 3 out of 5]

See this review and more on Books and Ladders!

Content Warning: racism, being snowed in, mentions of car accidents, transphobic remarks

This could have been a really great novel that I enjoyed much more than what I did, but there was an offhand transphobic "joke" at the beginning that, while addressed, still didn't sit right with me.

The idea was that the main character didn't want to have to talk to her Uber driver, so she said that she was a "man" to shut up the driver. She then went on to describe how if her best friend was there, they'd be laughing over it. However, because she was alone, she started to feel guilty and ended up apologizing to the driver and telling him the truth, noting that it wasn't a funny joke in her inner monologue. While that's some great growth, in a very short period of time, it left me wondering if she would have apologized or had that revelation if she had been with her friend.

But the rest of it was really cute. I liked the romance a lot and the idea that it was meant to be. I'm not usually a love at first sight type of person but it really worked in this instance. I also liked that the main character wasn't afraid to speak her mind about how people could have bad opinions. But I thought there was a lot of side characters and side plots that didn't go anywhere and took away from the main storyline.

I think this is a hit or miss, to be honest. The majority of this book is really good but I cannot get behind transphobia.

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[Tianna ❀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not really a big Christmas person but I found this story so sweet and warm. It really encompassed the joy of the season. Meeting in an airport and staying overnight because of a snowstorm is such a great meet cute. They both were avoiding families for different reasons and had to work through their feelings with the help of each other. And what they did for the kids? Soooo touching. I loved the narrators too! They did all the voices so well, especially the kids. I was chuckling at their tones along with the words and audacity of the kids.

[Chantelle Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute story packed full of Christmas spirit.

[Jailai · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story gave feels!

Tapping into love, connections, self awareness, and so much more! I went into this one blind and I loved it!

[Alix]

Very pleasant :)

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun little 'stuck in the airport at Christmas' romance and it made me smile a lot.