Such a fun holiday romance! A wonderful slow burn, friends to lovers story. Who would have thought traveling home for Christmas could be the start of a romance? I can see myself rereading this every year for the holidays.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Nothing like starting the holiday reads early....

Holiday Romance is a joyful and cheery Christmas romance with all the feels you'd want over the holiday (think warm blanket and cocoa feeling). Packed with amusement and fun, and many an adventurous obstacle for this pair to make it home, and amp up the romance. I thought Molly and Andrew’s first real encounter on flight one was very unique and memorable - but talk about awkward! I enjoyed the side characters, and am wondering whether this is going to be the first in a series? (which would be great!). Some of the auxiliary characters that stood out for me as needing romance in their lives. And to top it all off there was an open door bedroom scene that was perfect! Id definitely read more by this author.

Thank you to Bookouture & NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this digital ARC

A Romance to swoon Over!

Traveling during the holidays can be a nightmare. But having someone to travel with makes things more bearable. In fact, having someone to travel with can be the perfect gift! This was such a feel good, heartwarming, and lovely book. The characters are fantastic! The humor is delightful and put a smile on face many times while reading this.

Molly and Andrew are traveling home to Ireland for the holidays. They are two friends who have taken 10 flights together in the past 10 years. They look forward to their shared flights. Neither ever takes a plus one home. Their travel time is for them. Both are opposites. Molly is not into the holiday season where Andrew can't get enough. This makes for some fun, sarcastic remarks, and witty banter.

This last trip home has been a disaster, but Molly is determined to get Andrew home for the holidays!

What a joy this book was. I loved the witty banter between Molly and Andrew. I enjoyed their families, and I enjoyed how Catherine Walsh told the story through the present and through flashbacks to earlier flights. This allows readers to get to know them both better and how they relate to each other. I always say, romance books are about the journey. This was one a delightful, heartwarming, I'm-rooting-for-them-the-entire-way journey. Will they make it home for the holidays? One must read to find out!

Reading this book was like a present! It put a smile on my face and had me wishing for a White Christmas for the characters in the book.

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

So of course as everyone starts to read for spooky season, I read a Christmas romance. We have friends to lovers and opposites attracting, and I rooted for them, HARD, so this was a great romance to me. I’ll remind everyone that my main need in a romance is for me to root for the couple. If you don’t have that, then I don’t think you have a worthy romance.

What starts out as an accident and continues as tradition, Molly and Andrew share a plane ride home from Chicago to Dublin for the holidays. Molly really isn’t into the holidays while Andrew is a Christmas lover.

I love to read about the kindness others show each other. Molly knows how much Andrew wants to see his family so when a storm blows in and wreaks havoc on their plans to fly home, she sets up an ambitious (read nuts) plan to get him home. I can’t put my finger on it, but it reminds me of an old movie the way the book is setup showing all the flights over the years.

I loved Andrew and Molly. I loved the Christmas setting and the storm, and the inclusion of the families to provide depth to the story and characters. There really wasn’t anything I didn’t like about this one.

When it comes time to pick a holiday read, you cannot go wrong with this one

Molly and Andrew have been taking the same flight every year from Chicago to get home to their families for Christmas in London and Dublin, respectively. This year, a terrible storm threatens to ruin those plans. Molly knows how much Christmas with his family means to Andrew, and with the help of a friend, manages to figure out how to get him home in time with just a couple of slightly out-of-the-way layovers and adventures in between. This stressful adventure brings the two closer, and Molly starts to wonder if there could be more in store for her and Andrew than just an annual flight.
I really enjoyed this one. It was sweet, it was funny, and I loved the setting. Molly and Andrew were so likeable and I felt pretty invested in them. Though this was told from Molly's perspective, I personally would have loved to read this as a dual to learn of Andrew's background and get to know his character a bit more. Overall, I certainly recommend this one for the holiday season!

This was a fun read. I do really enjoy a Christmassy romantic book and wasn’t left disappointed by this.

This book was laugh out loud hysterical! I’ve traveled more than I care to admit and have spent my fair share of time running through terminals, sleeping in terminals, stuck at airports than should be humanly possible. . However, you pair that with a holiday romance and I’m totally there for it!

The banter between Andrew and Molly is next level and snort inducing funny. They spend a decade together as friends and travel companions. One fateful year, their flight gets canceled for the annual holiday trip home to Ireland. Molly won’t stop for anything to help Andrew get home for Christmas.

Romance + travel + the holidays = perfection

🎄Holiday season
❤️ Friends to lovers
💺Forced proximity
✈️ Holiday travel woes
😂 Hilarious banter
☝️Single POV

This book was such a cute and heartfelt Christmas romcom! Every Christmas, Molly and Andrew travel home together to Ireland. Unfortunately, their flights were canceled this year due to a snowstorm, but they are determined to find another way to make it home for the holidays.
This is the first holiday romance that I find myself absolutely loving. It has my favorite trope: friends to lovers. I also love the past/present timelines where we get to see how Molly and Andrew’s friendship develops in the span of ten years together into something more romantic. The characters are so lovable with amazing banter and chemistry. This is the perfect book for Christmas!
4 ⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Fabulously fun, utterly delightful, sweepingly romantic, cosy, Christmasy, heartwarming, smile inducing, heart uplifting, funny and joyful. Loved it.

Holiday Romance is everything that comes to mind when you think "Hallmark Christmas Movie"... but it's also so much more than that. If you were following my Goodreads updates as I read this one, well, you'd see a lot of "I'M SO OBSESSED WITH THIS", and "my BELOVED". That says a lot on its own, I think. I don't usually post live updates as I read, but this one had me smiling, giggling, and glued to the pages.

Now, let's get into it.

THE GOOD:
- The concept is everything! I love the fact that Andrew and Molly only hung out on those annual airplane trips. Seems a bit odd, but I think we all have those friends we barely see other than one particular activity. Also the fact that they raved about each other to their respective families all the way back to when they first met.
- Friends-to-lovers and the difficulties that can bring (fear of losing a friend, communication issues). This was well-explored and I appreciated that the leads took the time to address these issues as they arose, instead of letting them fester.
- Andrew is simply the sweetest! He was giving me Will Solace from Percy Jackson vibes. The funky Christmas sweaters? He's a farm boy? A loud, loving family? Protective but in a gentle manner? A great gift-giver? Obsessed. I love him.
- Perfect setting for the book.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD:
- The pacing fell a little flat in the middle. Nothing major.
- Andrew's character seemed to change a bit about halfway through. I still enjoyed his character, obviously, but something shifted and he became a little more negative (although it was understandable given the situation) and reluctant to communicate as effectively.
- This last point is more of a neutral, but I'll stick it here anyway. This really reminded me of People We Meet On Vacation -- both in terms of the layout and the friends-to-lovers aspect -- which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it meant that the book wasn't anything super new or special to me.

OVERALL
3.75 stars! A sweet and cozy romance. Great for the holidays. I might have rounded my rating up to 4 stars if I'd read it closer to Christmas time.

Catherine Walsh's Holiday Romance unfortunately fell flat for me for the most part.

First of all I found dual time lines and switching back and forth between Christmases quite confusing and I think that was the beginning of the end for me.

While I found the characters quite likeable and relatable there were so juvenile and so stereotypically millenial that it was off putting for me. Also I didn't feel any chemistry between them.

I liked reading the texts between the heroine and the hero.

I don't mind stories written in first person it has to be down really well to work.

Overall, the premise was very good but the execution needs some work in my opinion.

This is a must read for this holiday season. Maybe even the only holiday book you need to read.

I absolutely loved this book from the beginning to the end. It was cute and funny. And the end was everything!

Do yourself a favor a buy this book for yourself and everyone you know.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for a copy of Holiday Romance in exchange of an honest review

Oh My Gawd, how much do I love this book?!

Holiday Romance follows the wonderful friends-to-lovers story between Molly and Andrew who over ten years have each taken the same flight as they travel back home to Dublin from Chicago for the Christmas holidays. Since that very first flight when Andrew was dating Molly’s roommate this annual tradition has kept going, they have become firm friends over the past decade. They pass the hours talking and catching up and have done every year, neither think of themselves as anything but very good friends, and neither wants to break this annual tradition.

Andrew and Molly despite being the best of friends, they are completely different; chalk and cheese. Andrew loves – no loves is not the right word – he is Christmas obsessed, he loves the traditions, the fun, the magical joy of Christmas and most of all he loves being with his family and diving into his mam’s Christmas dinner. I have melted and gone to pure heaven with this guy, I too am a huge fan of my family’s Christmas dinner!!

Whereas Molly is the absolute opposite, she basically can’t be asked to bother with it all, it’s too much, too full, and too showy on the outside she is as hard as nails no Christmas glitter is getting past that hard exterior, yet inside she is a softie and a lot more sentimental then she and others think – plus our girl likes food. Yup, I have just met myself in bookish character form!!

Without giving too much away, this year’s trip home goes wrong, very wrong! Their plane is grounded due to a storm, they could always stay in the US this year, but Molly being the kind, considerate and secretly sentimental woman she is decides that her friend will not miss out on his Christmas and devises a plan to get him home in time for Christmas.

What follows is a fabulous adventure full of laughter, fun, and frustration that things don’t quite go right and soon Christmas magic starts sprinkling romantic glitter over Molly and Andrew.

I liked these two, they are meant to be firm friends but were they meant to be more? Well, of course, they were! Their journey from friends to romance is natural and so swoon-worthy, you feel all the glittery tingles you only get from a gorgeously happy romance, add in Christmas and two very lovely people and you have a wonderful story of true love.

Talk about super cute, you can’t get cuter than this beauty, it’s incredibly fun, light-hearted, cheerful, romantic, festive, and utterly feel-good – honestly, this book was meant to be made into a film! It needs to be, and better still it would be an instant classic. I love it!!

An absolute must-read for anyone who devours romantic comedies like biscuits.

After sharing a flight to their home towns for Christmas, Molly and Andrew make a pact to always fly back together to spend the festive season with their families.

Molly goes home just because she feels like it’s expected, her family don’t seem to be all geared up for the festive season, Andrew is the complete opposite and his family go all out. Christmas for him really is magical.

After years of flights home there is a huge storm over the Atlantic and they find all flights to Ireland CANCELLED. Andrew is emotionally crushed and Molly literally does everything she can to make sure he’s sat round the table with his family celebrating as always.

After years of being friends, practically the best of friends Molly and Andrew explore their relationship as more than friends. With their completely different worlds at Christmas, Andrew is desperate to share the magic and show Molly exactly what she’s been missing all her life.

The friends to lovers trope is done to perfection. Catherine absolutely smashes this out of the park. It’s got the right amount of everything, sexual tension without the spice, the humour is absolutely on point, the perfect pace throughout, flipping between the present and past flights, honestly couldn’t be happier that I was chosen to have an ARC from @netgalley in order for an honest review.

This is everything I love about a holiday romance book, and it does exactly what it says on the tin! Molly and Andrew have been friends for 10 years now, catching the same flight home from Chicago to Ireland for Christmas every year. This year something goes wrong, and their flight is cancelled at the last minute. Festive Grinch Molly makes it her mission to get Christmas loving Andrew home for the holidays via a lot of drama and fun along the way. There even seems to be a little bit of Holiday Romance too….

This was so well written, and I was in love with this book by the end of the prologue. Both Molly and Andrew are brilliant characters and I love the contrasts in personalities. I particularly loved the little flash backs to previous flights over the years as an insight to how their friendship has progressed.

Holiday Romance is an absolute delight of a book.

Love love love this book!!

It’s laugh out loud funny. It’s heartwarming and sweet and a little bit steamy! The friends to lovers storyline is perfection. The chemistry between the main characters - in all phases of their relationship - was so good! And I loved the banter! It was quick and witty and an absolute delight to read!

The storyline is so fun! I adored the secondary characters - especially the best friend and the sisters! And I loved both of the main characters throughout the entire book. We see them messy and stressed and in the times in between. Their communications and reactions felt completely real and natural. All the travel, festive, and family vibes have me craving the holidays.

I loved it all and I want to read it all over again.

Happy Belated Pub Day to this gem of a book!

Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh was such a fun read and has me so excited for all things Christmas🎄This book made me feel like I was wrapped in a cozy blanket watching a Hallmark Christmas movie.

Friends to lovers isn’t typically my jam but this one was done so sweetly that I couldn’t help but root for Molly and Andrew.

If you’re in the mood for a Christmas romance, look no further! I can see this being all over IG this holiday season!

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨


Published 10/4/22

Thank you #NetGalley and #Bookouture for the advanced copy of this book for my honest review!
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#holidayromance #bookreview #arcreview #christmas #books #bookstagram #readersofinstagram #contemporaryromance #contemporaryholidayromance #friendstolovers #books

Feel good Christmas romance done right! Oh my, Holiday Romance is just adorable. Everything you want in a holiday rom com- the perfect combination of humor and heart, tenderness and fun. The characters, the banter, the friends to lovers set-up- I loved it all. The perfect festive heart-filling and soul-lifting story. I’m ready to deck the halls with my happiness.

I loved how Catherine Walsh seamlessly takes old, familiar tropes and gives them a new spin- it gives this story a nostalgic and familiar feeling while also feeling fresh and inventive. The set-up alone is just so creative. Andrew and Molly travel home to Ireland from Chicago together every holiday for the last decade. While these two are certainly friends- their lives are busy, and so their holiday pilgrimage is their special moment each year to enjoy one another and deepen their connection. Only this year, their journey doesn’t quite go as planned- snowmageddon ruins their travel arrangements, leaving Molly committed to finding a way to get sweet Christmas loving Andrew home for his family and traditions.

This story is just so cute and sweet- the perfect combination of that traveling scavenger hunt experience with a really sweet and authentic romance. And I loved all the Christmas details- how mistletoe kicks off their exploration, Andrew’s family celebrations and his seasonal sweaters. Walsh takes us all the way back to their first meet cute with some flashbacks to prior flights, and I loved these little glimpses into the evolution of their connection and their slow burn love story over the years. And I loved how this holiday travel mishap really inspires them to dig under the surface and explore what has always been there. I loved their chemistry- how open they are with each other, communicative and trusting. We have sweet moments paired with fun banter, we have some really funny moments, and we also have some great family budding into their story. The steam is pretty low, which is normally not my jam, but it’s just so cute, I didn’t quite mind.

This was exactly the feel good, heartfelt Christmas romp I needed- it’s feeling a lot like Christmas!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5021104818
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/3059303151
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3OGXVJY3WSJPK?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp

This book is cute and cozy CHristmas tale. I loved the flash backs and forwards. Learning how molly and Andrew fly together each year at Christmas and how their relationship develops.

While there aren't any big twists and turns in this story I did enjoy a fake that wasn't all over the place with too much dramatics. Pick up this cozy and fast read and settled in for an enjoyable read!!

Thank you to netgalley and bookouture for this ARC

My first book by this author and my first holiday book of the year, @catwalshwriter did not disappoint!! I adore a good crazy travel story and this one was excellent! Holiday Romance follows Andrew and Molly trying to get home from Chicago to Ireland for Christmas, I loved their journey ❤️

What to expect:
•Friends to lovers
•Flashbacks of their trips home over ten years
•A sweet, Christmas loving hero
•Great family moments

I HIGHLY recommend getting this one on your holiday TBR this year!!!