Publication Date: October 6, 2020
Publisher: Gallery Books
Pages: 336
Genre: Romance; Holiday
Rating: 3/5
Holidaze is about Maelyn who ends up trapped in a time loop a lá Groundhogs Day as she relieves the same week of Christmas over and over. Maelyn is 26 years old and has been going to the same cabin in Utah since she was a baby with her family, her close family friends and her longtime unrequited crush. She is stuck in a rut in every aspect of her life and so she makes a wish to see what will make her happy which is what she is trying to figure out while stuck in this loop.
For a large chunk of this book I was so enthralled with the story and I found all the characters to be amusing and heartwarming. My favorite aspect of this story was the group dynamic between everyone and how comfortable they all were with each other. This story is also infused with a lot of humor that I really appreciated. I think this book would be such a cute movie and in a lot of ways probably works better as a movie then a book. The message behind the story was a great one for this time of year (and any time of the year really) about how important it is to always be living to make ourselves happy.
The first two hundred pages I was obsessed with this book, even if I did find it to be overwritten at times, but the last one hundred pages fell flat for me. The writing issue that I had been having every so often with the story become an almost constant issue that became harder to ignore. There would be these really great moments between characters and then the authors would randomly put in unnecessary info during a scene that really took me out of it. In essence it was a lot of telling and not showing. I was also swooning over the romance and then it all became so rushed and I was really turned off by that. Agh, there was so much that I loved about this story but there was also a lot that I didn’t enjoy which leaves me very conflicted.
If you are a fan of Christina Lauren then I do think it is worth reading. I also think if you are interested in a book that is festive and filled with lots of fun Christmas activities then this is a great one for that. I wouldn’t recommend this if you are mainly interested in the romance unless you enjoy 0 to 60 romances. I have always either absolutely loved a Christina Lauren book or really didn’t like it so I think it’s interesting that this one falls right down the middle.
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