In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren

I love Christina Lauren books. They are humorous, romantic and, simply put, leave me feeling good. When I first learned that they had a Christmas book publishing, I knew I just had to read it.

Maelyn Jones is a twenty-six year old woman who has a fairly mundane life - she still lives with her parents and works at a job she doesn’t enjoy. One of the things she looks forward to each year is spending the Christmas holidays with the people she has grown up sharing the season with. This is a time of celebration, loaded with food, traditions and festive activities. She’s grown up with Theo and Andrew, the boys of Maelyn’s parents’ good friends, and has secretly held a crush on Andrew for the past thirteen years. She questions, then, why she made a big mistake her final night at the cabin. Her life seems to be filled with missed opportunities.

The holiday together finishes, and Maelyn and her family drive away. She reflects on her life, her inability to take chances and asks the universe to let her know what will make her happy. The next thing she knows, her family is involved in a car crash, and Maelyn wakes up only to find her self back on a plane to Utah on December 20 and in a Groundhog’s Day repeat of the last few days. Will the choices she makes lead to a different outcome by the end of the trip?

I loved this story. The authors have the ability to bring me back to a time of new romance with all the excitement, desire and passion I remember and cherish. I thoroughly enjoyed that the book is set at Christmas, with all the festivities, food and traditions. The characters are all likeable and the story engaging. I appreciated the history of the families coming together and the joy experienced by the characters. I’d love to see this book made into a movie.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for the ARC of this book in exchange for the honest review provided here. This book publishes on October 6.

My rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5.