[Book Review] Snow Falling by Jane Gloriana Villanueva

It’s been a lifetime (and three seasons) in the making, but Jane Gloriana Villanueva is finally ready to make her much-anticipated literary debut!

Snow Falling is a sweeping historical romance set in 1902 Miami—a time of railroad tycoons, hotel booms, and exciting expansion for the Magic City. Working at the lavish Regal Sol hotel and newly engaged to Pinkerton Detective Martin Cadden, Josephine Galena Valencia has big dreams for her future. Then, a figure from her past reemerges to change her life forever: the hotel’s dapper owner, railroad tycoon Rake Solvino.

The captivating robber baron sets her heart aflame once more, leading to a champagne-fueled night together. But when their indiscretion results in an unexpected complication, Josephine struggles to decide whether her heart truly belongs with heroic Martin or dashing Rake.

Meanwhile, in an effort to capture an elusive crime lord terrorizing the city, Detective Cadden scours the back alleys of the Magic City, tracking the nefarious villain to the Regal Sol and discovering a surprising connection to the Solvino family.

However, just when it looks like Josephine’s true heart’s desire is clear, danger strikes. Will her dreams for the future dissolve like so much falling snow or might Josephine finally get the happy ever after she’s been dreaming of for so long?

 1 STAR 

Well, that was disappointing. I am a huge fan of the show this book is in, Jane the Virgin. In the show the main character, Jane Gloriana Villanueva is a writer and she publishes a romance book. When I heard that her actual book was being published I was so excited. Unfortunately, it isn't very good and I am bummed because whoever wrote this book did Jane wrong. 

I want to look at Snow Falling as a stand alone entity. The plot is step by step (maybe even at times verbatim in the dialogue) what we get in the show. However, it's supposed to be set in the 1900's. The problem with that is that there is no setting or really any descriptions. I never for a moment felt like we were set in the 1900s. And because there was a lack of atmosphere and setting I couldn't help but picture the actors and the set from the show. I imagine reading this without seeing the show would be really confusing because although it's set in the 1900s there's not much evidence of that. I also think the characters were very two dimensional. Everything about this book was a water downed version of the show's plot. 

In the show we have this unnamed narrator who is actually pretty comical at times. I think it's done well and I find it to be a fun little extra thing the show does. However, for some reason after a lot of the scenes or at the end of the chapters in italics we have this "narrator" kind of talking to the reader. It was the same kind of thing the show does but in the book it felt unnecessary. I often skipped them entirely because I found it to be annoying. I am not sure why the people working on this book didn't believe it could stand as a fun romance book written by a fictional character. Instead it had to be almost the exact plot as the show with the narrator and everything. My expectations for this book was a book with a lot of characters that resemble the characters we know from the show (which is what we get, they even have the same initials but different names which is super cute) and it would be about a romance between Jane, Michael, and Rafael's fictional fictional characters. I was hoping for a totally different plot but with subtle moments weaved into the story of nods to Jane's life. I thought that would be clever. But instead this is like the writer had the scripts to the episodes in front of them and wrote it poorly into a novel. From now on every time Snow Falling is praised in the show I am going to be rolling my eyes because if this is the book Jane supposedly wrote then I am not sure if it would be as well perceived.

Overall I cannot say I recommend this book to anyone. If you're a fan of the show, I say re-watch the show, you'll be experiencing the same story that is in the book but with better writing, characters, and plot. If you're really interested I say go ahead but I don't think it's worth anyone's time. If you haven't watched the show I highly recommend it. This book is not a good representation of how amazing the show is and I think experiencing this story line solely through the book would not only spoil a lot of the show but you'd get a bad version of it. The only good thing about this book is the cover and the fact that it may get more people to watch the show.

Thanks for reading!