**IN A HOLIDAZE by Christina Lauren BOOK REVIEW**
🎄
I just love this writing duo and they did not disappoint with this quirky, warm, unique holiday love story. I absolutely loved Mae and Andrew’s relationship and I adored the loving framily (friends that are as close as family). in this book.
🎄
When I say that this story is unique and quickly, what I mean is that the main character goes back in time to relive the holiday over a few times. She makes some mistakes and is given another chance (over and over) to get it right, or find what makes her happy. At first I was like, wait...what? What is happening?!
*I didn’t read the synopsis ahead of time, so I had no clue* Then, when I got used to the time traveling, I was nervous that it wouldn’t stop and Mae would have to relive everything AGAIN. Thankfully, it did stop. The time traveling was fine but in this story, I really wanted it to stop when things started to go well for Mae and Andrew.
🎄
The cast of characters that gathers at the beloved cabin for Christmas every year is really great. The parents all met in college and it’s just really lovely to see the relationships they’ve nurtured all these years. I love the Park City Setting as well.
🎄
Mae and Andrew have a wonderful chemistry. There is some definite steam, but not to the level that makes me blush (for reference, I blush pretty easily). Their relationship hits a snag, but in typical Christina Lauren fashion, we leave the story feeling happy and hopeful.
I highly recommend you curl up with this feel-good romance over the holidays (or Christmas in July like me!).
🎄
Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Books, and Christina Lauren for the advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Twenty-six-year-old Mae has been in love with Andrew her entire life. But when she gets drunk at the cabin that their families gather at every year for Christmas, it's his brother Theo she kisses. Not only that, Theo's rude to her the next morning. And their parents announce that they're selling the cabin. Mae desperately needs a do-over on the worst Christmas holiday ever. She makes a wish, and the universe answers. Suddenly, Mae finds herself back on the plane, about to start the holiday all over again. Mae's uncertain of what she's supposed to do - save the cabin? Finally tell Andrew how she feels? And she's not sure how many times she's going to have to live the same holiday before she gets it right.

This is a super cute holiday read brimming with snow, mistletoe, and Christmas cheer. Complete with cuddling sessions under thick sleeping bags, this book will make you want to curl up under a blanket in front of a fire. Perfect with a cup of hot chocolate or eggnog or something stronger.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ever read a book and immediately translate the page to a movie?

Christina Lauren, one of my favorite writing duo's, seems to always write books that this happens for me.

I don't know how they do it, but every book I pick up from this team spins a plot with a new twist and just the right amount of romance, and comedy, and cringeworthy moments!

This time around, In a Holidaze, gives us - Christmas, Family Hijinx, a groundhog day theme, and romance.
I could not put this one down, and while reading this book, could see the movie very clearly in my mind (think Hallmark movie, but with way more steam and snap).

Here’s the set up- A family tradition of 4 different families getting together each year for holiday cheer and chaos at a family cabin, kids who have grown to be young adults, a crush (of course), a potential love triangle with 2 brothers (awkward), and our main character, who keeps reliving the same week of holiday hijinx, until she can figure out how to make things "right". (Groundhog Day done right). Throw in a family member who doles our family counseling between smoking bowls of weed, an aging male broadway star attempting to keep trendy, and divorced parents who still hang out at the holidays and you have all the ingredients for a great book.

The characters are easy to love, the family dynamic is hilarious, and the setting perfect. Thank you to @gallerybooks and and @simonandschuster for this ARC!

Add this one to your TBR, its out in October, and is going to be the perfect holiday read.

Maelyn is on her yearly holiday vacation with her family and their friends. This year is extra challenging, her life is in shambles and she had to move back home. After making out with her old friend Theo, she feels even worse as he is ignoring her the next day and Andrew, his brother and the one she actually has feelings for finds out. On her way to the airport after this awful holiday, her family get into an accident and Maelyn founds her back at the beginning of her holiday vacation, which is extremely confusing as she is reliving the past few days. She is stuck in a time loop and is hoping to right some wrongs. This book was a different kind of rom-com and I loved it. An easy read, I got through in two days.

I always enjoy the work of Christina Lauren - and this cute lil Christmas tale is so very charming. It's a sweet romp with a big ol' blended family with just a touch of time-travel tossed in & somehow it just works! Heartwarming and tender and just a touch mushy, this writing duo delivers again! Highly recommend! Thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for my ARC!

Another great story from Christina Lauren! I am a sucker for time loop stories, anything magical realism, and cheesy Hallmark movies. I also love Christmas stories. So a combination of a lot of my favorite things in this book! I loved the closeness of all the characters. A wonderful family, despite not being blood related. I loved the setting of the cabin. This scenes with Maelynn and Andrew were the sweetest. Such great chemistry. Like with previous Christina Lauren books, the humor was great! Highly recommend!

OMG! This is my favorite Christina Lauren book yet! Thank you Netgalley for the ARC copy. Maelyn’s life is one to live over and over again. A sweet romance during Christmas is always a great story but this book tells it better. The friends that gathers every Christmas to celebrate the season are more family than blood relatives could ever be. A laugh out loud adventure and romance makes this a perfect Holiday book

This was a really cute holiday read and really got me into the holiday spirit. I absolutely loved it and can't wait to read whatever CLo puts out next!

Christina Lauren are some of my go-to authors recently, and I loved this new romantic comedy as well. This one kicks in a little holiday magic - and cheesiness - with a Groundhog Day/Hallmark Christmas type story, which is totally my jam. Plus, by getting the ARC, I get a little early holiday spirit that I totally needed right now. At the beginning I was worried the whole Groundhog Day premise would get annoying, but it doesn't go over the top. The story is cute, funny, and the main characters have great chemistry. Some things get sorted a little too easily, like the time travel and how quickly the romance moves after one declaration, but these can be forgiven in the magic of the holidays. The main thing that I felt was missing was Theo. The plot often comes back to Theo and he's brought up a lot, but we rarely ever see him in any of the scenes, which stands out even more as many of the other side characters are given some development. I couldn't really figure out how Maisie and Theo's relationship works or why he reacts in certain ways because there's no context there. Overall, I would totally watch this as a Hallmark movie as well!

It’s Christmas in July 🎄so perfect time to read a Christmas book. “In a Holidaze” by Christina Lauren was of course fun and sweet and seriously has me counting down the days until the Holiday. It did start off with Maelyn reliving the same days of her family Christmas vacation over and over so I was concerned at first and wasn’t loving the sorta repetitiveness but it turned quickly. Will she tell finally tell Andrew she’s been secretly loving him forever? Lots of risk being that they have grown up together. This was yet another quick fun rom- com that I read in a day , leaving me feeling all warm and fuzzy wishing I was by a fireside.

#inaholidaze #christinalauren #netgalley #arc #outoctober6th #julesbookshelf

I was so excited for this since I'm a big Christina Lauren fan and it did not disappoint! I loved the premise, I'm a huge fan of time loop stories, and I really liked the romance. The only thing I didn't like was the pacing. The time loop aspect only took up like 30% of the novel, and the character development happened way too fast. I really thought she'd be caught up in many loops before she broke down and had an existential crisis, but it happened after only the fourth loop. She changed so much so quickly and I wanted more. The romance happens really fast, but it also makes sense seeing as they have been friends since she was born. It was not my favorite Christina Lauren, but I definitely still recommend it!

This book just jumped up the ranks and became my favorite Christina Lauren book AND my favorite holiday romance. Genuinely heart-warming and so swoony, the romance in this book is an utter dream, and protagonist Mae is a lovable mess that I immediately adored. Should be read by a fireside, with cocoa and peppermint kisses for full effect.

I wanted to love this book so much but the "groundhog day" story line just really annoys me. It has for years in movies and I guess it still does in books. I did like the second half of the book once the relationship between Andrew and Mae's relationship started to pick up. There were also a lot of side characters and, even though they were not that big of the story line, I found myself getting confused.

What would you do if you thought the consequences didn’t matter. How would you be? Mae and her family spend Christmas at a snowy cabin with her parent’s college friends and their families every year since before she was born. They go to the same cabin and do the same things with the same people year after year. It’s steeped in tradition and Mae couldn’t love it more. After a car accident on the way home after a particularly terrible holiday, Mae finds herself doomed to repeat this particular Christmas at the cabin over and over and over again. I found this story so charming. The cast of characters are memorable and so easy to love. Andrew is what dream book boyfriends are made of. He’s kind and gentle and easy-going. Their chemistry and friendship leaps off every page. Mae’s personality unfurls page by page as she learns to let go and stop being so careful all the time. She learns to trust herself and that ultimately you have to find what makes you happy regardless of circumstances. Even, and especially, when life is messy. This is not the style of story I’ve grown to expect from Christina Lauren, but that made for a pleasant surprise. This story is full of depth and heart.

My one weirdness with this story is that the main characters are all in their mid-twenties, but they read very much like teenagers. I didn’t mind this so much, I just had to constantly be reminding myself that they’re adults.

Who wouldn’t want to go back in time for a do-over when you realize you’ve kissed the wrong brother?

I loved this story set up from writing duo Christina Lauren in their latest romance release, In a Holidaze. Maelyn Jones is spending the holidays at a cabin in Utah where she has always spent the Christmas holiday with her family and two additional families she’s known since she was born. Only she wakes up the morning after Christmas having kissed her long-time friend, NOT his brother whom she’s had a massive crush on since she was a teen.

Not only is she devastated by this oops moment, but she soon learns that this holiday is to be their last one together at the cabin so full of memories. Desperate to change the past and the future she throws out a wish to the universe asking it to show her what will make her happy. Little did she know that wish would cast her into a time loop where she gets to relive her Christmas holiday giving her the opportunity to kiss the RIGHT brother and maybe even save the cabin and their Christmas tradition in the process.

The time loop plot line was overall an interesting twist and something new from Christina Lauren. It was very reminiscent of the movie Groundhog Day if you’re familiar with it, although there wasn’t an excessive amount of looping where you’d have to reread the same piece of story line over and over. What I liked best about using this idea was that it gave Mae the ability and confidence to just go for it – to finally live authentically and to share her feelings with Andrew, come what may. She was living in the moment without fear and it was totally freeing. If only we could all live that way!

And yet, I also felt like you’re left hanging with the whole “why is this happening to me” question she asks herself about the time loop. It’s a good question but it’s never answered and there’s no real resolution to the time loop. Was there more to it? Why was she picked to rewrite her past? At times I felt led that there was going to be a deeper meaning exposed regarding the time loop but then nothing ever came of it.
Despite that, I loved Andrew and Mae together – once they were together. It took a bit to get to this point however where in the beginning I was questioning whether this was even going to be a romance book at all. If there was one thing I would change, it would be to add Andrew’s point of view. It was hard for me to truly buy into their connection because you don’t know what’s going on in Andrew’s head half the time.

If anything, Andrew’s reaction the morning after the first day of Christmas to her kissing his brother made it hard to believe his turnaround later in the book. Other than him knowing Mae since childhood you have no idea what he sees in her. It’s never discussed. You’re just supposed to assume that they both love each other because they’ve grown up together but I got hung up on that for some reason. There could have been more relationship development in my mind but that could just be me. There were however some really great moments with them that I loved and yet I also felt like there could have been more. Maybe a flash back or two so you knew how much Adam liked her even if just as a friend?? One of their last scenes in the boathouse though had me in tears and the epilogue was truly fantastic.

There were also A LOT of additional characters in this story. At times I thought there were way too many, but there were some great heart to heart moments that Mae had with a few that were so endearing. I loved Benny most of all- the pot smoking, 50 something who was Mae’s confident. He was such a good friend when she confided in him and I loved their scenes together. I also thought that Mae’s conversation with Andrew’s father was really poignant and a good moment in the story.

As far as a holiday romance, other than the title, a moment of Christmas tree decorating and opening presents, there wasn’t too much “holiday” to this novel so it really could be read any time of the year or whenever you’re in the mood for a bit of holiday cheer. Don’t let that part steer you away from reading it even if it’s not December 😊.

Overall, I liked this book because it was unique and something different from what Christina Lauren has given to us before. Is it my favorite of theirs, no, but I’d recommend reading it all the same.

*Thank you to Net Galley for the advanced reader copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Mae has been spending Christmas with her family and friends at the same cabin since she was a child. Little does she know that this year will be her last. On the way home her parents share that the cabin is for sale, and then they get into an accident.

Mae is jolted awake on an airplane, she is confused and freaks out her family with her so called terrible dream. Its not December 26, it is in fact day 1 of the trip and they are on their way to the cabin. Mae is stuck in a time loop, she is repeating the same vacation over and over again. The first time around she made out with the wrong Hollis brother! Talk about awkward! She is hoping to get it right this time, or in some version of traveling back in time as well as figure out how to save the cabin, and of course stop repeating the same vacation.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

A fun rom-com with a Groundhog Day-like plot made this an entertaining, heartwarming, and funny read. This was a holiday romance that I would like to reread each season because the story was engaging with characters that each had their place in the story with realistic personalities that were flawed but compassionate and good-natured. Maelyn was a likable character who I was rooting for (among some others) and reliving the holiday with her and her family over and over never once became boring or repetitive. This was the first book I have read of Christina Lauren and not the last—I laughed, cried, and smiled throughout, and was only a little sad when the story of the Maelyn Jones and the never-ending holiday on repeat in her childhood home came to an end. It had the magic of the holidays with the humor of Family Vacation set in a time-loop.

3.5 ⭐️(Rounded up)

Maelyn Jones and her family have spent every Christmas she can remember in an idyllic cabin in Utah, along with two other families who now feel like they are part of her own. When things go awry this year she pleads to the universe to show her what will make her happy. This sends Mae on a collision course with a truck carrying Christmas trees. She wakes up in a loop set to repeat the Christmas holiday over and over again, unless she can set things right.

I’m going to start out my review with a disclaimer that I’ve always hated the movie Groundhog Day. So the fact that I didn’t hate this book says a lot.

The book starts out quite slow, with way too many characters thrown at the reader all at once. I quickly became lost. Eventually I got the hang of who everyone was, but it took me the majority of the book to get there.

The author duo’s take on Groundhog Day was something I’ve never seen in a book before. I found many of the loop moments hilarious. I would have liked to see more of this to show how Mae made new choices and changed throughout the book. This aspect just stops part of the way through, and I found that slightly odd.

This isn’t my favorite book by Christina Lauren, but with so many laugh out loud moments and a made for Hallmark Christmas romance, it still managed to give me the warm and fuzzies.

*I received this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

Overall a cute story. The Groundhog Day is a very overdone story and I wish that CL wouldn’t of gone that route. I loved the ending and the romance of Mae and Andrew. I loved the thrill of their first kiss. It brought back memories. If you’re new to CL do not let this book deter you from reading others. While it’s a good book I enjoyed all the others much more! I wish the characters had more time to develop instead of redoing the story over and over again. All in all thank you for letting me read it and I can’t wait to see what CL has in store next!

Christina Lauren does it again! This is a great read. I love the twist to the plot as she relives her vacation over and over until finding out what it is she wants. Would absolutely recommend to anyone. #netgalley