4.5 ⭐, rounded up.

This book made me want to put up my Christmas tree, make a cup of hot chocolate, and cuddle up in a cozy blanket. It would be a great cozy holiday season read.

I loved seeing Molly and Andrew's dynamic evolve over the years and adored their wholesome friends-to-lovers story. They both felt very grounded and real, with Molly's relatable work-life balance struggles, fear of change, and both of their family dynamics.

This was so fun and I had a hard time putting it down, I would gladly revisit this world if the author wants to write spinoffs for Zoe, Christian, or Oliver (they don't even have to be set at Christmas time).

CW: Alcoholism and sobriety

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This book was just what I needed to get into the holiday months!! I am so ready to Christmas shop and decorate!! Too bad it is October!! I loved this feel good Christmas romance so much. I loved seeing their relationship grow over the years with the flashbacks and how they have loved each other for years without knowing it which makes the love story so much better!! This should be a Hallmark movie!!

This book was absolutely adorable. I loved the dual-timeline, the Christmas setting, and the relationship between Molly and Andrew. This book made me laugh out loud multiple times and had some of the sweetest moments. I am a complete grinch, and even I had my heart warm up to these two.

This was my first book by this author and I'm so glad I was able to read it. Looking forward to more of her titles in the future.

Cute Christmas romance about 2 people who meet on a plane flying home for Christmas and cont to meet over the next 10 years on their flight home. I loved the characters and how they come together.

For ten years, Molly and Andrew have been sitting next to each other on flights home from Chicago to Ireland during the Christmas season. They have an enjoyable 7 hours of laughing, joking, and chatting about their lives as they head to their separate celebrations. It becomes a tradition of its own. However, this year the weather has caused almost all the flights to be canceled. But Andrew is a huge fan of Christmas, and Molly vows to get him home.

This is a fun, witty, and charming story of two friends who fall in love on a whacky adventure from airport to airport over ten years. The characters are engaging and the dialogue is clever. The story flashes back and forth from the present to each of their previous Christmas flights, and we watch their relationship develop. Does this transport me to the Christmas season? It does. From packed airports to Christmas sweaters to many Christmas-tinged side trips on the way to their destination, we follow the couple on a romantic holiday jaunt. This book also truly lives up to its genre of romantic comedy, and I chuckled my way through. The cast of characters is fun and varied, from family members to cabbies to airport employees and more. Holiday romance is a sweet, funny Christmas vacation that you will definitely want to take.

I received a free copy of this book from Bookouture via Netgalley. My review is voluntary and my opinions are my own.

I am so glad Christmas came early into the spooky season and I completely reveled in reading this friends-to-lovers romance set in Ireland (featuring Chicago, Buenos Aires, Paris and London) ✈️

The dynamics are a delight! I loved Andrew and Molly and their families, so much that I want to spend Christmas with them in Dublin (or Chicago), just anywhere.

Molly's character made me laugh so hard 😂 and the little things Andrew does is so swoony 🥺 (and kinda hot 😳)

Andrew and Molly had such a fun and healthy relationship, I love how they became close over ten years/flights. Also, I can't help but admire the way they communicate and understand each other. They're just meant to be 🤍

Verdict: Christmassy with romance in the air and smiles all the way ❄️

Molly and Andrew have a holiday tradition of travelling home to Ireland together for Christmas. It's their tenth year, but when all flights out of O'Hare are grounded, they have to find a new way home.

I was immediately invested in this story. Think Planes, Trains, and Automobiles but over continents, and with two people who just maybe want to kiss... 😉 I love a grumpy/sunshine dynamic, and even more when it's the man who's the cinnamon roll. And boy is Andrew that roll, slathered in icing. He's just SO adorable. He loves Christmas, whereas Molly doesn't see the point of any of it. The banter between them is top-tier, they are genuinely hilarious at times, as is their chemistry, and I also loved Molly's snark (the gift she gets her twin every year made me cackle).

Their chaotic journey home was brilliant, as are all of the supporting characters, especially the Fitzpatrick family. There are also plenty of heartfelt moments, some of which made me sob - Andrew in chapter 27 BROKE me! It also left me desperate for Christian's story.

This was a giant hug of a book and the perfect festive read (even if it's still October!)😉

Overall Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Heat Rating: 🔥
Emotional Rating: 😂🙈🥰😍😲💓😍💔😢💖

*Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to leave an honest review*

An amazing Christmas romcom full of swoony and funny moments. I loved the writing style and characters. So far, this is the best Christmas romance I've read this year. Highly recommended!

"Don’t tell me I don’t know what this is. Don’t tell me I don’t know what I want."

Holiday Romance is a charming holiday romance between Molly and Andrew through a ten year journey towards realizing what's been in front of them all along. Friends who are each other's constant, they live in Chicago and share a flight every Christmas holiday to visit their families back home in Ireland. Andrew simply adores Christmas and all it represents. So when a snowstorm grounds their flight, Molly makes it her mission to get Andrew back home for Christmas by any means necessary.

I enjoyed the flashbacks to the ten years of flights they've taken with the hints of feelings they had yet to discover. They shared a beautiful friendship and they fit so perfectly together even through all the others they dated as they attempted to find what they already had with each other. Andrew was the sweetest, so thoughtful, protective and caring for Molly from the start. And Molly always considered Andrew's feelings, never wanting him to get hurt from the very first flight. But if they became more than just friends, what would happen to their friendship if it didn't work out? Would they lose each other forever?

This is a book about not letting fear hold you back from chasing after your dreams and from what you truly want, and to think about what could go right instead of always worrying about what could go wrong. Overall, I enjoyed where this book took me though parts in the middle moved too slowly and I had lost interest somewhat there, thus lowering my rating from five stars to four.

I loved the steam, never overdone, but filled with such intense feelings. Molly and Andrew shared a beautiful connection, capable of tugging at my heartstrings. I swooned over Andrew and everything about him, especially his smile and dimple. I could feel what the characters were going through and I felt like I was right there beside them throughout their travels. All of the family members were written so well and I loved the dynamics between them. I especially loved Andrew's brother Christian and I would love to see him to get his own HEA.

I've always said that an ending could make or break a book for me and this one was truly spectacular. Molly and Andrew were completely meant for each other and I couldn't imagine it any other way.

"He kisses me like I’ve never been kissed before. Like he’s been waiting his whole life to do it."

** Special thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. Quotes subject to change at time of publication. Available October 4, 2022. **

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture on this fun read. This is the book of what can go wrong?..everything.

This book was funny, set in Ireland and just a great time, Friends to lovers and the song..JUST haven't met you yet comes to mind. I recommend.

This was my first book by Catherine Walsh but it won’t be my last. I’ve already downloaded her other books and can’t wait to get stuck in.

I was hooked from the very start with this book. It was a very sweet and romantic book set in December of each year when Molly and Andrew get the same plane home for Christmas. They are complete opposites with Andrew loving everything to do with Christmas and Molly not so much. It is set in the present day but goes back over each year they travelled home together.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a hilarious rom-com set in Christmas.

My housemate would like to remind me that it is NOT Christmas and that it is only appropriate to start the countdown to Christmas AFTER Halloween. However—I don't care, I've been listening to Mariah Carey since mid-September, and I've been consuming Christmas literature way before that, first with Sarah Hogle's Just Like Magic and now with Catherine Walsh's Holiday Romance.

I've been a fan of Catherine Walsh since her first novel; her stories brim with universal nostalgia and characters with lightning-fast banter. Holiday Romance features both; Molly and Andrew volley Walsh-esque quips between them against backdrops of childhood homes and sterile airports. This book is everything quintessentially Christmas. Think When Harry Met Sally, autumn in the big city, and living as the year begins to taper off into something new.

But Holiday Romance features more clichés than its predecessors, as well as a less stable chemistry between its two lead characters. The parallel timelines yank the reader back and forth between the present day and all of Molly and Andrew's history, sometimes not in the most satisfying or useful ways. Molly's love for Andrew, and vice versa, is believable, but it doesn't quite take on the depth that the flashbacks are intended to provide. Moreover, the pacing is inconsistent throughout the novel; the first two acts are slow, carrying the reader through each unfortunate hiccup in Molly and Andrew's travel plans, but the last act races through their nascent romance, leaving the reader feeling slightly harried and robbed of true closure.

Overall, Holiday Romance is perfect for fans of People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry and people waiting to curl up with the Hallmark Channel's slate of holiday movies and a nice mug of hot chocolate. I know I certainly revel in my membership in both categories.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh

I was so excited to get this ARC from NetGalley but, was slightly nervous I wouldn’t be able to get in the right mood. No need to worry! Holiday Romance IMMEDIATELY puts you in the holiday spirit! Almost instantly you feel the holiday travel rush and it sweeps you up into the excitement of Christmas!

Molly and Andrew are long time friends who barely see each other but, always share a flight home to Ireland for Christmas. However, when a big snow snowstorm cancels their flight, the usually grinch-y Molly goes through great lengths to piece together a way to get her Christmas-loving friend, Andrew, home for the holidays. Whether by plane, train, automobile..even a ferry she is determined! Their journey home isn’t direct; taking them to several different countries before eventually arriving home in Ireland. But, rather than becoming disgruntled travelers, Andrew and Molly make the most of their time together! Molly may be the logistics girl, but Andrew is the the adventurer, making sure each stop is filled with shared memories, hilarious laughs, and holiday fun! And, no holiday is complete without the family! Although never meeting each others families prior to this visit, it was nice to see this dynamic included in the story. The familiarity was obviously there, eluding to how much Molly and Andrew spoke of and meant to each other. Andrew and Molly’s families are the best; sufficiently embarrassing and encouraging as any family should be!

Told in alternating timelines from previous flights to the current, this friend-to-lovers holiday romance is rich with fun banter, awkward but, steamy mistletoe moments, and adorable realizations that the person you were meant to be with might have been sitting next to you all along!

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. Available October 4, 2022

“Molly and Andrew are just trying to get home to Ireland for the holidays, when a freak snowstorm grounds their flight.

Nothing romantic has ever happened between them: they’re friends and that’s all. But once a year, for the last ten years, Molly has spent seven hours and fifteen minutes sitting next to Andrew on the last flight before Christmas from Chicago to Dublin, drinking terrible airplane wine and catching up on each other’s lives. In spite of all the ways the two friends are different, it’s the holiday tradition neither of them has ever wanted to give up.”

Full Disclosure: I’m biased towards Hallmark-type content. Things that might irk me when reading more ‘literary fiction’ bother me not at all with this type of story.

That doesn’t, at all, mean this story isn’t an utter delight. It just means that I’m aware of my candy cane coloured glasses, and Christmas is the season of Love - or is it Bailey's?

Sometimes you just need a 100% feel-good, zero angst, happily ever after.

Stamped it. No take backs.

God bless us. Everyone.

Lots to love with this plum sugary tale.

You want friends to lovers? A slow burn? Loving (if slightly sadistic in terms of gift giving) family relationships?

This book has you covered.

I particularly liked the mild-role reversal of Molly’s feelings having to play catch up to Andrew’s.

If you’re looking for some literary cheer to go with that egg nog, give this one a try.

7.5/10

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this holly jolly ARC.

This book was such a breath of fresh air. I haven’t read any Christmas book and I’m so glad this was my first, Catherine has such a way with words, the sarcasm, the banter and the love that developed was chefs kiss.
I loved the dual timeline that introduced the reader to the backstory of Molly and Andrews relationship, and how it developed over 10 years of friendship. I also enjoyed how this book took us on a trip with the characters to a few of our favourite cities.
I felt this book was funny and witty, had an eclectic bunch of characters that made made the book a pleasure to read. I would love to read more from Cathrine

Awww, this was such a fun, sweet, romantic read.

I love Christmas stories! It's always great to see the characters visiting their families and sharing their own traditions... and facing some awkward moments. Oh, I just love it.

But in this case, I think it's even more special because Andrew and Molly aren't just random people instantly falling in love. They've been friends for a long time. They share the same flights from Chicago to Ireland every year. At first, it was just a weird coincidence. But then, it became a special tradition. They've been through so much trouble. No matter what happens, they always go together for the holidays.

When they met, his sister was just a child. Now she's a teenager. So much has changed over the years and yet this friendship has always been a constant for them. Now it's the tenth flight and it's time to face that this isn't *just* a friendship. It never was.

I love this book! Christmas romances are always a bit cliché, but in this case I think it's a story that could actually happen. The "friends-to-lovers" gang will definitely love it. I've read another book by Catherine Walsh before, but this just became my favorite.

* I received an ARC from Bookouture in exchange for an honest review.

Holiday Romance
Author: Catherine Walsh

eARC and Book Review
Pub Date: October 4, 2022

Holiday Romance follows Molly and Andrew, and their 10 flights they have taken together over the past 10 years. Both living in Chicago, each year they make the trip home to Ireland for the holidays. How is this year any different? Maybe, just maybe, they go from being just travel buddies to something more.

I personally loved this one! Yes, it is still 80+ degrees outside but that does not mean I cannot get a jump start on holiday romcoms! This book featured adorable moments, bantering, and festive vibes - what more could you want this time of year?!

I will definitely be picking up a physical copy of this - the cover and plot are too cute not to do so!

Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This one was a bit of a slow starter, but ended up being a very sweet romance. It is a dual timeline story between Andrew and Molly. Every year they fly home together from Chicago to Ireland, for the past decade. The first two times were an accident that they were sitting right night to each other, until it became a tradition. They’ve been a constant in each other’s lives, helping each other through school, breakups, etc.

What will happen if a ton of stress is placed on their friendship. A storm blows in, cancelled by every flight across the Atlantic. Molly’s sister is about to have a baby soon, and Andrew needs to see his family. They find a ridiculous, circuitous route, which takes a marathon of flights, trains, and boats to get them there. Molly is determined to get them there. Andrew? His plans might involve showing Molly what’s right in front of her nose.

This book was adorable. Simply adorable. It made me laugh out loud constantly--and not the extra air you breathe through your nose when you're amused; this was the full belly laugh. The friends to lovers was absolutely immaculate in this. I adored both Molly and Andrew; they were fully developed, funny. and caring. The banter throughout this book was fantastic. I think I might make this my yearly Christmas reread!

Such a warm and fuzzy friends to lovers romance! And set at Christmas even! Partially in Ireland!

I loved everything about this book. Molly and Andrew fell into their friendship ten years ago when he was dating her friend. That ended (the relationship with her friend that is) and it was awkward for a while but they managed to keep a friendship going. Every year for the last ten years, they've both travelled home to Ireland for Christmas on the same flight. This year they are set to do the same thing when weather complications occur and threaten their trip altogether. Refusing to let her friend, Andrew miss Christmas with his family, Molly enlists the help of well-connected friends and pulls out all the stops to circumvent the weather issues and get them home no matter the cost. It's a comedy of errors, but it's also a wake up call for her. Molly has never let herself take the time to look at Andrew as anything more than a friend. However, this year many things are changing for her and one of them just might be her feelings for her friend. Just maybe she feels more for him than friendship. But is it worth the risk?

I inhaled this book in less than twenty four hours. I just had to see what happened between these two potential lovebirds and I wasn't disappointed...

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.