In a Holidaze
Ratings145
Average rating3.6
I've read two other CLo books recently, and the thing that I love about them is how they make you fall in love with the heroine, so you only want amazing things for them, and then you fall in love with the person your heroine falls in love with, because they are amazing and are wonderful to each other.
I'm setting this aside around the halfway mark. It's FINE. I don't have an issue with the Groundhog's Day thing; rather I think there are too many characters and so it's hard to get to know/love any of them the way our FMC Maelyn does. (And also I'm still not especially invested in Maelyn either.) She goes to a cabin with close family friends every year for Christmas, has since she was a child, but there are so many people that it's hard to distinguish them from one another. The love interest, Andrew, has literally never considered her a love interest to this point (but Maelyn's had a crush on him for like 10 years!), and I'm not sure why we're supposed to love him other than he looks sexy when he's out in the snow with flushed cheeks. We basically know nothing else about him.
I just finished a holiday romance that I enjoyed way more than I'm enjoying this, so I'm dropping it like it's hot. YMMV. Got too many other books I want to get to this month.
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
3.5 stars
A fun, light-hearted read capturing the quiet spirit of Christmas.
Although it took me a while to really warm up to Maelyn, she was funny and relatable right out of the gate. However, sometimes, for me personally, she lacked the maturity you would expect from a 26-year-old —most of the time, I felt like the characters were younger than stated in the story.
For a good majority of my reading time, I wondered why Maelyn and Andrew would fit well together, but they got me in the end. Eventually, I found myself oohing and aww-ing at their interactions.
And always a win when a book makes me teary-eyed(in a good way).
3.5 rounded down.
I thought this was a cute Christmas book, and if I hadn't read The Summer I Turned Pretty, I probably would have enjoyed it more.
It has a warm loving family, great traditions, a decent plot for a Christmas story, but I found like too much focused on the background and not enough of the main characters and their growing love.
4.25/5
This was one of the most interesting and well-written books I've read this month. Both characters are well written and I felt for Mae this whole tile. I don't typically like love triangles but this one was written so well with a twist, that we know who is the right guy from the beginning.
Mae time looping was great and I loved her reactions every time i happened. And when she finally stopped being so careful and keep the tradition going, instead of going with the flow (including telling everyone about the little things that would happen when she met them!! And her throwing out Lisa's baking, which was incredible) and letting herself breathe was so good. I loved her friendship with Benny, he was such a sweetheart, and I loved that she had someone to confide in!
The revelation when Andrew found out the truth was devastating in a real way. I understood his hesitation even though it broke my heart to read how much he distanced himself from Mae afterward. He needed time to come to grips with what happened and I don't blame him, though i wish he at least reassured Mae that he doesn't hate her lol.
It's the first book by Christina Lauren and I will definitely read more of their books. They're writing style is simple but great and I loved how enthralled I was with the story. The epilogue was also so sweet as well, I loved it. Mae and Andrew were so sweet together and I loved how real this was.
I also liked that it was Theo who saved Mae instead, though he acted shitty afterwards. Glad he apologized though.
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.
This book had such potential and I was lapping it up for the first 100 or so pages. Vibes of groundhog day, an interesting mystery to solve... Would Maelyn find her true happiness and stop jumping back in time?
Then, the author appeared to completely forget the premise the book was born on and just got stuck writing a romance.
Don't get me wrong, this was a reasonable book, with some ok romance. But if you are expecting something akin to Groundhog Day, or some other time hopping romance you will end up disappointed.
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.
THIS ONE WAS SO GOOD! I honestly should've known better than to doubt Christina & Lauren
I enjoyed this for a large part of it, but the 3rd act conflict was so dumb. I genuinely couldn't believe someone would get mad about THAT. Kinda ruined the end. It was cute though!
This book? Pointless.
The 30-going-on-14 year old characters? Pointless.
The plot? Pointless.
My time? Wasted.
A fun, quick read. The characters were interesting and well-developed.
I had expected more time loops, but it was still a good read.
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.
This was a super cute Christmas romance and exactly what I wanted! A bit of a slow start and the third act conflict had me rolling my eyes but still really enjoyed it overall.
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.
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.
This was a miss for me. Annoying protagonists with no chemistry interacting in much too formulaic ways.
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.
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.