In a Holidaze

Disclosure: I received a digital ARC from NetGalley.

Lately, Christina Lauren has been hit or miss for me; there are some books I loved - Autoboyography and The Unhoneymooners - and then others that missed the mark for me (The Honey Don't List). In a Holidaze is somewhere in the middle.

The premise is fun, especially if you liked The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver or other books with a touch of magic in them. At first I thought we'd rehash the same period over and over but the authors manage to pass the time in the alternate versions in a way that feels authentic.

I also love the setting of this book; I actually live IN Park City, where this book is set. While there's not an excessive number of references, there was a subtle nod to the neighborhoods and businesses that have been here a long time. And I can vouch for the beautiful mountain winters. Given that Christina Hobbs lives in Utah, I'm not surprised to see this well-depicted.

The book starts off in a bit of a weird fashion, with the female protagonist going to an uncle-like figure to talk about something that happened the night before. But that aside, the plot continues in fun and zany ways. I do get a little frustrated with the protagonists in recent Christina Lauren books; the female protagonists are almost always zany, hate their jobs, aimless, or self-described as “quirky” while the male protagonists are almost always either perfect or awful. I think that's why Autoboyography being a queer YA love story felt fresh and different in a good way.

Overall this book was a great break from everyday chaos - and there's a lot of it right now. When it comes out in October, it's going to feel like a cozy and warm afternoon reading Groundhog Day meets The Family Stone.

3.5-4 stars. Groundhog Day meets Christmas in this fun read from Christina Lauren. Maelyn Jones, unhappy with her life and unsure of what to do next, makes a wish that the universe would show her what would make her happy. By doing so, she is transported back to the days leading up to Christmas when her family and friends travel to their Christmas cabin retreat in Utah as they do every year. She must relive the events of the holiday over and over again until she finds the right path that will lead to her happiness.

This was a really sweet read and definitely gave me the warm, fuzzy feelings that Christmas always brings. There are a lot of characters in this book and it was tough to keep them all straight but I loved the dynamic that the three different families had with each other. The romance is a typical friends-to-lovers with a little bit of a love triangle thrown in. To be honest, I was more into Theo and I wish his friendship with Mae would have been a bit more fleshed out. Or the entire sub-plot of him liking Mae should have been omitted because we really didn't see much of it on the page, we were only told about it. Would definitely recommend, especially to anyone who enjoys Hallmark Christmas movies.

ARC provided by the publishers and Netgalley for review.

I enjoyed this book. Being a Utah resident it really made me feel like she did her research talking about the origins of park city. Nice to see, people talking about more than just the LDS religion here.

This book had a bit more “spice/heat” than i was expecting. wasn't bad, just unexpected. i prefer a bit more fad to black.

I thought that when the repeating started She was going to end up with Theo, kind of a you thought it was a mistake but it wasn't kind of thing. am i sad she ended up with Andrew? No, it was well written and honest. i thought there would be more repeats beyond just 3. Parts near the beginning of Theo picking her color in clue, trying to get a rise out of her, made me feel for him as i was once a teenage/adult boy that did similar stupid thingsI kind of thought Benny buying the cabin was kind of out of nowhere, but it wasn't a deal breaker.

Comfort and tradition are the name of the game for Maelyn Jones when it comes to her Christmas vacation. Ever since Maelyn was born her family, and family friends, vacation at the snowy cabin in Utah. This bucolic setting is what Maelyn looks forward to every year and never wants things to change - until the status quo was challenged and Maelyn's world went to hell.

Maelyn is petrified to face her families but when she opens her eyes, she realizes that she is back on the plane heading to Utah. She gets to redo the Christmas holiday over again and relive the same routines over and over. She needs to figure out how to get out of the time loop and figure out what will make her happy.

I really enjoyed this book! I thought I would hate it based solely on the description but, in the traditional Christina Lauren style, it wins you over with a very relatable main character facing (mostly realistic) predicaments of life.

i was not prepared for how quickly i would get insanely attached the all of these characters. i grew up with a very similar family friend dynamic. my parents and their high school / college best friends all had kids around the same time. this book hit me HARD. i haven't talked to those friends in probably years at this point and this book made me realize that so it made me sad. i think that's why i got so attached so fast. but regardless, this was an incredibly cute and enjoyable holiday romance filled with a lot of emotions.

I would probably enjoy the movie if they made one but this book was just not for me. I thought I wasn't able to enjoy written romance in general but turns out that's not true. I recently read another author and had fun. I was unable to distinguish between the characters in Christina Lauren books, they sound the same in my head. I read The Unhoneymooners last month and this book feels like a different story around the same characters.

Imagine a holiday trip that goes badly awry. Wouldn't it be great if the universe would grant you a “do over”? In Christina Lauren's new book In a Holidaze, Maelyn Jones gets that second chance. The universe sends her back in time to relive her Christmas vacation. The resulting story takes us on a “Groundhog Day” style journey that is quite entertaining.

Every year, Maelyn and her family join the families of her parents' college friends at a cabin in Utah. The first time Maelyn lives through this holiday, she engages in a romantic mishap that she immediately regrets and that has the potential to ruin her chances at the relationship she really wants. When she wishes for the universe to show her what will make her happy, she wakes up back on the plane five days earlier with an opportunity to fix the error she made. She also has to make sure she does not mess things up worse than before.

The characters in this book are charming, funny, and very relatable. Maelyn starts the story as a woman who is a little lost in life. She doesn't love her job, she is back living with her parents, and she is in love with a family friend that she has known all her life but who does not see her as a romantic prospect. Through her repeated attempts at the Christmas holiday, she learns to take more control of her life. She has good growth as a character. The main love interest is presented as an almost “too good to be true” guy. However, that fact doesn't annoy me. He is extremely likable as are most of the characters in the book. I cannot really think of one character I do not like. They all add something good to the storyline.

The plot itself is interesting and kept me engaged in the book. The time travel aspect is obviously unbelievable, but I don't mind it too much since it is the whole premise of the book. It does not distract from the enjoyment of the romance in the book.

The Christmas setting is secondary to the romantic and family relationships, but it provides a nice backdrop. I always find it enjoyable to read about Christmas traditions and activities, and the ones in this book are fun and memorable.

I ended up rating this book 4 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed the romance and the family interactions. The Christmas setting was not kitschy or overdone, which I appreciate. I would definitely recommend this book to readers who love a Christmas romance mixed with a little bit of magic.

I've realized my brain categorizes the romance genre into two distinct onomatopoeia categories. There's the “Ugh” category and the “Squee” category. This book was a squee. It was adorable and sweet from start to finish. It's definitely hallmark movie-esque, but reading it versus watching it, let me cast the characters. I loved how fast-paced and wholesome the entire story was. All the characters were all good without it being annoying. The perfect holiday romance. Loved it.

I'm pretty disappointed with this one. I have heard such rave things about it and was excited to dig in. There was a groundhog day theme, but was barely referenced throughout the book. It might have been better with less focus on her “mistakes”/needing a miracle do-over and more focus on developing the characters and storyline.

Okay, yes, this is the Groundhog Day movie in a Christmas book box. And, yes, it's resting on shaky legs, like all romances—a man who somehow overlooks the twenty-plus years of adoration a close family friend offers, among other questionable plot elements. Plus, it's barely more than a novella—don't think I didn't see the large font and the padded plot.

But it's fun and fun wins. And it's romantic and romantic wins. It's escapist, and it's Christmas-y, and it's wintery—so, win, win, win.

This was my first Christina Lauren book. I love a good romance, but it's not my go-to genre so they are few and far between. I was in the mood for something fun and light and that would get me in the Christmas spirit. I picked the PERFECT book for it too.

I'm not going into too many details because, spoilers, but I will say this was a fun read. It made me happy. It made me laugh and even had me tearing up at parts. It made me think of all of the light Christmas movies that come out each year. The ones that put you in the mood to do holiday activities and fall in love. I believe that I will be reading more Christina Lauren books.

Normally with group reads I try really, really hard to find something to convince myself to bump up my rating for a book I didn't enjoy, but I can't with this one. To everyone I read this with who enjoyed this, I apologize!    With a Groundhog Day-style plot, Maelyn finds herself reliving her annual Christmas vacation a number of times while she tries to work out her life and find happiness.    I spent the majority of the book trying to figure out what was causing the repeated days. By the time I accepted the fact it was a question that wasn't going to be answered, I realized that this entire plot point seemed to have been dropped. Between this, one-dimensional characters, and the strangest analogies, this just was not for me from beginning to end. 

Now this is just what I needed. I actually meant to read this one last year and it somehow slipped through the cracks. Probably because last year I actually had a hard time feeling the Christmas magic. I'm in a better place this year and glad I pulled this off the shelf.

This was a perfectly light, funny, tender-hearted Rom-Com that has all the Christmas feels. I wish I had a family & friends mix like this when I was growing up. I love big gatherings and would have been all over a winter cabin retreat every Christmas.

Maisie was endearing and the banter between her and Andrew was fun. I loved their interaction and romance. I also loved the underlying lesson behind the time-loop which just made this one that much sweeter for me. I was laughing and giggling so much while reading this one and definitely recommend it.

On a mere whim, on 24 December, I decided I wanted to read a holiday romance during the holiday it depicts. Consulting my library, I quickly settled upon “[b:In a Holidaze 50892287 In a Holidaze Christina Lauren https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1601590329l/50892287.SY75.jpg 75786905]” by [a:Christina Lauren 6556689 Christina Lauren https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1730746046p2/6556689.jpg] which turned out to be a mixed bag but still effectively did the job. Between holiday chores (when my wife asked me to do something “steamy”, I didn't expect it to involve the steam cleaner!). Late at night today, I finished it (the novel, not the cleaner). Mission accomplished.“Holidaze” started exactly as I hoped it would: Two families coming together in a cabin to celebrate Christmas, lots of holiday cheer, endearing characters—it was fun!The “Groundhog Day” style time loop device was, thankfully, used sparingly, but this still was the first minor gripe of mine: »I believe now that the universe delivers random acts of kindness, and it's on us to decide what to do with them.«Attributing intention, kindness, or actually anything beyond its mere existence to “the universe” is misplaced. What we may interpret as kindness, cruelty, or serendipity is simply the happenstance of nature and probability.Maelyn, the female protagonist, was amusing to read about and I really liked when she started not just going with the flow after a short “learning curve”, but, sadly, out of a sense of fatalism, started stepping up her game, actively taking responsibility not only for herself but also for the people around her.»All I know is that the sound of my loved ones' laughter bouncing off the hillside is the best sound I've ever heard. Another small victory.«In contrast, Andrew, for whom Maelyn has been pining for merely 13 years, stays rather bland and generic. He is obviously into her but also never acted upon it and if Maelyn hadn't taken the initiative, nothing ever would have changed. This is a part I really enjoyed:»A rebellious streak races through me. “It's more like, I see my life stretching out ahead of me and figure, why not go for what I want?”“Jam and applesauce on your blintzes,” he jokes. “Cocktails on the porch. Snowball fights.”The word rockets from me: “You.”[...]Adrenaline spikes my blood. “Yeah. Like that.”«Communication, as always, is key, and at least Maelyn is good at it.»“And if there's one thing that we did perfectly, it was talking and being transparent and honest with each other right from the start. Right away, we talked. I can't think of anyone else in the world I've ever felt that comfortable with.”«Of course, there was the usual, somewhat frustrating, third-act breakup—imagine being held accountable for a drunken dream—and plenty of teenage behaviour.Also, my aforementioned steam cleaner was a lot hotter and far steamier than this novel. Bah!Nevertheless, this was a nice, fun, albeit easily forgettable holiday romcom which garners three stars out of five from me. Happy holidays!Blog Facebook Twitter Mastodon Instagram Pinterest Medium Matrix TumblrCeterum censeo Putin esse delendam