*4.5


Trigger Warnings: Violence, blood, gore, attempted rape/sexual assault, misogyny/sexism, loss of a family member, torture,


This was just...

’”I’ve loved you since I knew what love was, and I can’t undo that. I would never wish to take that away. Loving you is all the proof I needed that love can last decades. Maybe even a lifetime, who knows.”’


I was very pleasantly surprised by this story! Christina Lauren have just been authors that have let me down in the past, and I’ve only rated 1 book from them higher than 3 stars. So for their Christmas book of all things to be the second one that made that list was actually quite surprising to me.


I think the two core elements I enjoyed most about the story were the MC’s development and also how easy this was to get through. In a Holidaze at it’s core is almost a mimick of a Hallmark movie, following a large family who spends every Christmas vacationing at a cabin. But it divulges when Mae gets stuck in a Ground-Hog Day-like situation, where she repeats the same day over and over again because she wishes the universe to show her where she’s happiest.


As Mae relives the days over-and-over again, I was worried that I would get bored of reading a character going through the same experiences again-and-again. But Christina Lauren writes this in a way so that each day is reminiscent of the other, but different at its core. The story didn’t get boring either because each day relived, Mae heavily develops as a character and learns from her mistakes—which was quite enjoyable. While I do admit most of these characters are pretty one-dimensional, I still think seeing Mae learn from her mistakes, and become better made this story a really enjoyable experience to me.


Combined with the fast-pasting, I really enjoyed this. I was turning page-after-page because this was just so easy and fun. I think I enjoyed this so much because it was a Christmas romance, so I’m lighter on my ratings, and how seriously I will really take a book. And I really do think that helped my enjoyment most of all.


The romance was pretty good too, I must admit. Andrew and Mae (Andrew is one of the kids from one of the families Mae always vacations with) had really undeniable and fun chemistry, and their banter was really sweet. I really enjoy seeing childhood best friends to lovers, especially with the unrequited crush trope, and it was done quite well in here.


Overall, a very fun and bingeable Christmas romance, with heavy cozy holiday vibes and just the right amount of fluff and angst.


➸ 4 stars

’”You came,” I said, my arms wrapped around him.
“Of course I came,” he whispered.’


I’m kind of baffled of how highly this book is rated on Goodreads, and I feel like I missed something. This story was fine, but I just couldn’t stand the heroine. She made things so much harder for herself than they needed to be, and she absolutely infuriated me. I loved the hero, and he genuinely deserves so much better than what he was given. The romance was cute overall, but again, I didn’t really get the hype unfortunately.


➸ 3 stars

The homoerotic tension between Montag and Captain Beatty was the main theme of this book. But on a serious note, I was bored to tears. Sorry y’all


➸ 3 stars

DNF @ PG. 60


I can already tell this won’t be for me, so I’m just gonna dnf it. I’ve read one other book by Tessa Bailey and didn’t really enjoy it either, so maybe she’s not the author for me.

’”What I’m realizing,” I continue, “is that I like myself the most when I’m around you. And I think it’s because I’m the most honest version of myself. I don’t have to try as hard, and I don’t have to hide. I can just. . .be.”’


I’m kind of disappointed by this story overall. I adored Rachel Lynn Solomon’s YA novel Today Tonight Tomorrow, but ever since reading that, I haven’t had much luck with her books. I read We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This which was an absolute mess, and now I’ve read Weather Girl which was a pretty big disappointment.


I really enjoyed the way this book portrayed depression, and while this isn’t how my depression is, it’s so nice to finally have more representation of depression in romance. I also loved the plus sized hero rep, because I rarely ever see that rep in books at all. I’m plus-sized and it’s so nice to have good and well-done representation. Rachel Lynn Solomon also always has own-voices Jewish rep in her books, and I always love to see it. But that’s really where the good ends.


I also really enjoyed the hero in this book, he was very sweet and so understanding of the heroine and her depression. But I just didn’t really like the heroine in this story. She was entirely too self-centered, and she made every problem in her life about her depression. She was just an asshole really. She did grow by the end, but it took her till the third act breakup to stop being an idiot. Speaking of the 3rd act breakup, the conflict was also so corny, predictable, and just blatantly unnecessary. It just made me dislike Ari, our heroine even more than I did before.


This book wasn’t bad persay, there just wasn’t much flavor to it. I watched a movie called Set it Up in November with essentially the exact same plot as this book, and I really didn’t enjoy that movie either. So maybe this let’s get our asshole bosses back-together trope isn’t my thing. I will say however, I listened to the audiobook, and it was a pretty solid experience. The narrator was good, and told the story in a well rounded way.


Anyways, I’m highly disappointed by this story because I want to love another book by this author again, but so far I have been very unlucky.


➸ 2.75 stars

God I’m so fucking excited for this!

UPDATE: I just now saw the cover, name, release date, and time period this is in, and ooh girl. The cover is really ugly and the title is (yikes). I'm excited to have a new character to learn about, and a new district and time period, but the cover and title ain't it sis.