4.5 stars!
This book was like a warm cup of hot cocoa on a cold winter night. Perfect for when you have the tree all a light and a fire going in the fireplace. It was warm and cozy and so funny!

Molly and Andrew are long time friends. Every year, they fly home to Ireland together to spend the holiday with their families. When an unexpected snow storm locks down the flights. But that will not stop MOLLY! She has to get Andrew home! If you can't fly you're only options are boats, trains, taxis, anything to get them a little closer to home! Nothing could go wrong with this well thought out plan, right?

This kept my heart warm and cozy the entire read through. The romance is subtle and slow friends to lovers. Obsessed! I will be rereading this come Christmas time!

This book it’s the cutest! It’s sweet, funny and perfect for the holidays. This story had me laughing out loud! These two characters have an amazing chemistry. I dare say it’s already a favorite read for the future Christmas reads. Thank you Netgally for this arc. Can’t wait to read more from this author

If there's one thing I love, it’s a good rom com. The second I read the description of this one, I knew I had to request it. This book… This book is like the feeling you get when you’re sitting on a cozy couch under nice comfy blanket, drinking some warm tea or cocoa (whatever your preference). I mean, it just makes your soul feel warm.

Holiday Romance is going to be my go-to Christmas book now. I just put the book down the biggest smile on my face!

What I loved:

🌟I felt all the emotions of this book! When Molly and Andrew were rushing to get to their flight, I felt that bit of anxiety with them. When they kissed, I felt the passion.
🌟This book takes place over 10 years but Catherine weaves the different time periods together with ease. It’s not a struggle for the reader to follow.
🌟This is a romance that doesn't feel cheesy and unrealistic. The characters have real life problems, interesting/lovable personalities, and add so much character to the book.
🌟Friends to lovers- one of our favorite tropes!
🌟The Christmas setting/leading up to Christmas setting!

This book is just so sweet and full of holiday cheer! If you’re looking for a fun holiday rom com with likable characters, give this one a try!

📘: Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh
Pub Date: 04 Oct 2022

Thank you to NetGalley, Catherine Walsh, and Bookouture for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I absolutely loved this book!!!! From start to finish, I was hooked! I could have read the entire book in one sitting but I forced myself to go to bed at a reasonable hour.

The story of Molly and Andrew was just so freaking adorable! I loved the flashbacks of their yearly flight home and how their friendship came to be.

If you’re going to read only one holiday themed book this upcoming season, make it this one. You won’t regret it.

And publishers, if you’re reading this. I would love love love a copy of this book! Please and thank you!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I LOVED this book! It’s such a sweet and cozy read, one you’ll definitely want to snuggle up with for the holidays. It’s full of festive spirit without being over the top with it. Both our main characters feel so real with their wit and charm.

It’s a strangers to friends to lovers romance and I loved seeing Molly and Andrews relationship develop over the years. Having them meet on the same flight home for Christmas each year was such a cute way to watch this happen.

This book will definitely leave you full of joy and Christmas spirit!

I enjoyed this book, also liked the front cover, the story was easy to get in to with likeable characters and funny .

10 years of friendship from an unlikely start. Standing date of traveling from Chicago to Ireland for the Christmas period to join their families.
The journey from hell makes Molly and Andrew confront a few truth's about the friendship over looking back at the 10 years previous journeys.
Really enjoyed getting to know the characters and their stories.
Enjoy I did

- 4.5 Stars -

I didn’t think that I would love this book because I mean, why would I love a Christmas book when I’m reading it in September? But, here we are. I will always wonder why these Christmas books are released in the midst of spooky season, but oh well!

This book was CUTE. I actually really really enjoyed the entire premise of the whole book. The way that we get to flashback to the flights that Molly and Andrew took back home to Ireland from Chicago each year was so fun! You really got to watch their friendship grow and develop year after year.

The main plot focuses on their current flight trying to get home as a storm rages and cancels all of their flights. This leads to a rather memorable ten-year flight-aversary as Andrew and Molly take the most roundabout way in order to get home for Christmas. All of the shenanigans and bad luck that strikes them along the way are a little far-fetched, but that made the book all the more cutesy in my opinion!

You find yourself just rooting for them to wake up and realize that they love each other the whole time you’re reading it and as any good cute Christmas romance book would, there is a cute ending all wrapped up in a shiny red bow. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a cute holiday romance to cozy up with while they sip hot chocolate in front of a wood-burning stove!

⚠️TW: alcoholism, medical content

Well if this wasn't just adorable!! 10 years of flights home to Ireland for the holidays, one travel day(s) from hell and the swooniest friends to lovers holiday story. The laugh out loud moments, the meeting the families they've heard about for years, Christmas cheer. I was rooting for Molly and Andrew from the get go. There were parts that I would have loved to see a dual point of view, just to get inside Andrew's head for a minute. But that declaration at the end detailing each flight rendezvous over the years just melted me!

Grab some chocolate and your favorite fuzzy blanket and curl up next to the christmas tree for this sweet treat of a story!


Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC in exchange for my review!

A cute holiday book! I did love the MC’s and loved their story. It made me swoon and laugh out loud at some points. Love a friends to lovers trope. Perfect holiday romance❤️🎄

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for an advanced ecopy in exchange for an honest review.

Publish Date: October 4, 2022

thank you netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

none of my friends are allowed to look at the notification's timestamp. look away. I'm serious. while I still have your respect please (although 1:30 isn't the latest I've ever finished a book. that title still belongs to the song of achilles).

this book was so good! un-put-downable good. I would have to ask my cousin how snorting cocaine feels but I'm sure its similar to this feeling. i. loved. it. although this probably requires a reread during the holidays, it was just as good on a warm September evening, which is a feat if I do say so myself. I can barely wait for biting cold and Christmas lights. suddenly it can't come soon enough!

anyways, this book is about Molly and Andrew, two friends that live in Chicago and fly home for the holidays together. except this year there's a massive storm so they can't. Buuuuuut Molly to the rescue, she gets them to Ireland before Christmas! a true miracle. you see, Andrew's family really fucking loves Christmas, and they wouldn't enjoy the day as much without him. so she puts her miles to the task and then some. my god the girl planned the shit out of that trip. I would've given up and cried, honest to god. Andrew and Molly are also just so natural and funny together (think along the lines of Poppy and Alex from PWMOV - sort of. I'm not trying to get myself killed by that subsection of Emily henry's fandom). The progression of their relationship - which if you think about it for longer than a second is FAST - feels natural and as a long time coming. as if they're taking a breath for the first time in a long time. yeah, it was good. also my good man Andrew was funny as fuck, I was giggling out loud multiple times, so there's that.

I would really recommend this book, to my fellow hopeless romantics at least. also I think this comes out on my sister's birthday so I might see that as a sign that I should buy the physical copy. so I can relive kicking my feet into the air from sheer giddiness, during the holiday season. because I deserve that. until then, sending you much love Catherine Walsh, I will be looking out for other books of yours (or send them to me for free lol. if they're just as good as this one, I will rave about you forever. okay thanks byeeeee)

I loved reading this, had such an enjoyable weekend! The storyline is similar to Emily Henry’s You and Me on Vacation with the background story alternating with the current time line. It was funny, light hearted and I loved all the characters. I would highly recommend this.

The perfect book doesn’t exi ……. YES! Yes it does in the perfect Christmas Romcom!
Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh. It was hilarious, well-written, and such an overall feel good book. The dialogue and banter was just top notch. There’s believable characters, and just the right amount of Christmas without overdoing it.
Bottomline, read the book. Just do it. Read. This. Book.
Many many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the exceptional advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. (And that review is to read this book!)

This is the third book I have read of Catherine Walsh. While I enjoyed her two previous book, I am having mixed feelings about this book.

Molly and Andrew are trying to get home Ireland for Christmas but a snowstorm in Chicago prevents them from going home. So in a dramatic events that would take them around just in time to reach home for Christmas, the universe has different ideas and the two starts falling in love.

The good things about this book is, there were some funny parts in the story that made me laugh out loud. However, this book sounds a bit like Four Christmases except the difference is the two are trying to reach to their families. I felt like I was watching some kind of Hallmark romance movie while reading this book and felt a bit unrealistic in some parts. Nevertheless, for ones who love a good Christmas romance novel that mirrors a Hallmark movie, then this book is one for you. Worth 3.5 stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

I cannot say enough good things about this book-it was utterly wonderful and made my holiday reading it!
Molly and Andrew know each other through mutual friends but end up sitting next to each other on a flight home to Ireland at Christmas. On the 10th anniversary of this annual tradition, they find themselves stuck at the airport after a huge storm grounds all the flights home.
Molly is pulling out all the stops to try and get them home for Christmas but when she slows down long enough to examine why she cares so much about making Andrew happy, it makes her unsettled and she starts to question everything she thought she knew about their friendship. Could there be more to this arrangement than they both bargained for?

I’d like to thank NetGalley, Bookouture, and Catherine Walsh for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! This is a really fun book that focuses on holiday cheer and a friends-to-lovers romance. I really enjoyed the first 50% of the book and was really invested in what happened in the past to make Molly and Andrew like they are now, but I sadly stopped caring as much after that. I’m not sure exactly why, but it seemed a bit too perfect in a way. The characters felt more shallow and the storyline seemed to only fit their romance. However, some people may love this! I normally LOVE romance novels but something about this one wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. However, it is a good book! I still recommend it, especially for Christmas time.

THIS BOOK WAS SO CUTE!! I know it's only September, but this read made me so excited for Christmas❣️

It's a perfectly paced story packed with everything that make for a good holiday read; the friends to lovers trope, loud and quirky families, holiday stress and ugly Christmas sweaters. The characters are absolutely perfect and it was just a perfect Christmas themed rom-com.

The structure of the story reminded me a bit of Emily Henry's "People We Meet on Vacation", so if you'd consider that one of your top summer reads you've now found your perfect winter read ❄️

I wouldn't say this is one of my absolute favourite books, but I still loved it and definitely recommend it!

I adored this book!! I feel in love with Molly and Andrew's characters and I am hoping a Hallmark movie is next for this couple. :) Such a cute holiday book, I can't wait to read more from Catherine.

Another great book by Catherine Walsh! I fully believe that Walsh is one of the greatest romance writers out there. Her characters are so easy to fall in love with and their romance arc is so believable it could be true. Holiday Romance is the perfect Holiday Romance for the winter, and I will definitely be recommending this one to friends.

Thanks to NetGalley UK and Bookouture for sending me this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Perfect for fans of "You and me on vacation", but Christmassy 🎅🏼

Holiday Romance reminded me of You and me on vacation by Emily Henry, but the author made it unique with the Christmas setting and the flight situation. The book follows the story of Molly and Andrew, two Irish ex-pats living in Chicago, and their annual Christmas flight back home. The story has two timelines – the present, in which we see the flight being cancelled during a snowstorm, and the past- when it shows every flight they caught in the past 10 years. The past timeline shows how their friendship grew and matured throughout the years and how they made the whole experience of travelling together special. While Andrew loves Christmas, Molly is very sceptical about it. They are very opposite in personality, but after so many years of friendships, it is possible to see one’s traits in the other.
I love Christmas stories; something about this time of the year made me feel very warm-hearted with Christmassy romance stories. Molly and Andrew’s friendship was so memorable, so dear to me. I was swooning with every kiss, every touch, every hug. Molly’s overthinking was also so relatable, and it is something I love in friends-to-lovers stories, the fear of losing someone special if things go wrong. Despite being summer when I read this book, I felt like I was at the end of December, surrounded by winter cold and hot beverages.
This book is perfect for readers like me who love Christmas stories, dual timelines, and friends-to-lovers romance.