Catherine Walsh quickly became an author I love. It started after reading The Rebound but she became an auto-buy author after reading Holiday Romance - it was such a feel good holiday romance and gave the comedic, chaotic energy of a Christmas movie. The book focuses less on the romance aspect and more of the relationship development, and that’s what made it a five star read. Everything tied together perfectly and I just loved everything.

Molly and Andrew have been flight companions for ten years as they travel from their lives in Chicago and travel back to families in Ireland. This Christmas, however, is a disaster of canceled flights. Molly is determined to get them home for Christmas and Holiday Romance takes us on on a hectic journey, a blooming friends-to-lovers romance and the cutest feel-good story.

The banter was 10/10, I’m obsessed with the Christmas vibe and I can’t wait to read Catherine Walsh’s next release.

This book was the perfect holiday romance, I loved the characters and the storyline was amazing! I highly recommend this book to everyone!

I picked up this book after seeing rave reviews for Catherine Walsh's stories and this one, in particular. It wasn't on my TBR at all prior to seeing these reviews. In fact, I'm not sure I'd ever heard of Catherine Walsh's books before. This is her fourth book and I was sure it would be amazing with what I was reading. Unfortunately, I quickly found out that I was clearly in the minority with this book. I love a good meet cute at the airport, and with a snowstorm grounding all flights, it's a great set up for this trope. However, that's about as far as I truly enjoyed. I don't suppose there was anything fundamentally wrong with this story. It wasn't bad, necessarily. It just was hard for me to stay engaged and interested. It just fell a little flat for me, especially after all the hype it was getting. For me, it was a miss, but I'm sure others will love it!

Cute holiday romance. This one is a fun read at Christmas time, and a solid rom-com. It was an easy 3.5/4 star read for me.

Holiday Romance is a delightful and sweet friends-to-lovers romance. There's no angst, everyone is nice to each other and it has a wonderfully happy ending. Written by Catherine Walsh, it gave me all the feels and made me just feel good.

Andrew and Molly are both from Ireland, but live and work in Chicago. For a decade now, they've each been on the same flight back to Ireland for the holidays. Each year their friendship has grown as they discover each other's quirks and get to know each other.

On the latest flight home, a bad storm has them traveling all over kingdom come to get home in the most random and roundabout way imaginable. Thanks to some well-placed mistletoe, they started to open up to each other and acknowledge their feelings toward each other.

I absolutely adored the scene in Andrew's family kitchen where he started listing out, flight by flight, how he fell in love with her. Talk about swoonworthy!

Side notes:

* I'd love to see a book with Zoe! And Christian??? Hmm?
* Zoe gave me some fantastic laugh-out-loud moments. I'm sure the people in the cars next to me thought I was a little crazy, but it's all worth it.
* Hannah was adorable - so vibrant and full of life.
* I love the dual timeline and how it eventually met up at the end.
* I was late in getting this reviewed, so I ended up listening to it on audible. Kudos to Shelley Atkinson for the incredible narration! She made it an absolute joy to listen to.

This was my first book by Catherine Walsh and I know it won't be my last.

Thanks very much to NetGalley and Boukouture for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A brilliant read and one I really enjoyed. The characters are loveable and varied, the plot is one that is engaging and medium paced. I found myself completely drawn into the story and enjoyed the writing style.

This was a super cute holiday romance that really got me in the holiday/Christmas spirit. I really liked Molly and Andrews and I am a fan of the friends to lovers trope. I am not typically a fan of time jumping in books but it really worked with this one. I loved the idea of Molly and Andrew slowly falling for each other each year one their annual flight home for the holidays. I will definitely read more from this author!

She’s meant to be catching flights, not catching feelings…



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.



Molly isn’t that bothered by Christmas, but—in yet another way they’re total opposites—Andrew is a full-on fanatic for the festive season and she knows how much getting back to Ireland means to him. So, instead of doing the sane thing and just celebrating the holidays together in America, she does the stupid thing. The irrational thing. She vows to get him home. And in time for his mam’s famous Christmas dinner.



The clock is ticking. But Molly always has a plan. And—as long as the highly-specific combination of taxis, planes, boats, and trains all run on time—it can’t possibly go wrong.



What she doesn’t know is that, as the snow falls over the city and over the heads of two friends who are sure they’re not meant to be together, the universe might just have a plan of its own…

What a wonderful book with such a sweet and unique love story.

Molly and Andrew met 10 years ago while traveling back to Dublin from Chicago. Every year since then, it has become their tradition to flight back home together for the holiday season. Andrew loves Christmas and his family, and traveling back home for the season is the highlight of his year. Molly can't wait to get back home so she can be there for the birth of her first niece. Except, this year it seems that their plans are in danger as a huge snowstorm has cancelled every flight to Dublin. As Andrew gives up hope that he will see his family and be there for their annual Christmas celebration , Molly decides she will get him back home no matter what. And after pulling on some favors, they are on their way home with a stop in Argentina and another one in London. As their journey begins, they relive their 10 years of friendship and what they really mean for each other.

I adored this book and found the story sweet and lovely. Lovers-to-Friends is definitely one of my favorite romance tropes, and this story truly reflects the type of love that comes from a long-lasting friendship like the one Andrew and Molly had.

The book switches from the present to flashbacks of each flight the friends took together for the past ten years. The author does a great job giving details of how Molly and Andrew became best friends, and why their yearly flight back home is so important for both of them. As they continue their journey to Dublin in the present, they both have to face the attraction and feelings they have for each other. At the same time, they struggle with the possibility that acting on their emotions could potentially damage their friendship. Overall, the story is told beautifully and the characters, even the secondary ones, are likable and lovable.

Truly loved this book and found it a perfect read for the Holiday season.

I really loved this book! Such a lovely, easy read which made me giggle. Thank you to Catherine Walsh and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

"Sounds like you're thinking a lot about what could go wrong and not about what could go right"

'Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh follows two friends, Molly and Andrew. These two unlikely friends met 10 years ago– they also met in the most unfortunate situations– but have continued a tradition where they will meet up at the same airport, to catch the same flight from Chicago, to fly to the same Dublin. It's a tradition that they have stuck with for years, but this year was different– aka. a snowstorm happened. Not wanting this year to be the one where they break their tradition, Molly vows to bring Andrew home to Dublin. This story follows them along as they do everything they can to try and make it home to their families in time for Christmas.

First of all, the concept is sooo good. It was through this book that I discovered that maybe I do, in fact, like the friends-to-lovers trope. I love that this tradition that Molly and Andrew was started because of their first meeting and they just continued it ever since. It just so happens that when they needed each other, the universe pushed them together. I really liked the fact that these characters genuinely started out as friends, and we got to see that friendship blossom into something more as the flashbacks occur and the story progresses.

Let's talk a little bit more about the characterisation. I really loved all the characters in this book– primary and secondary characters. I think the author did such a good job distinguishing each of the characters as individuals and made them interesting enough for readers to care about them. With Molly and Andrew, I love how they are almost the complete opposite of each other when it comes to their personalities. For example, Andrew loves the festive season; meanwhile, Molly could not care less about the Christmas lights and Jolly old St. Nicholas. However, they still share some similarities. They both seem like family-orientated people, and will do anything to make their loved ones happy even if they have different ways of showing it. It's the little details like that that make the opposites-attract trope work. I love the fact that we got to see flashbacks of their earlier, previous years of travelling together and the different points of their lives that shape them into the characters they are in the present.

I also have to applaud the author for her ability to incorporate a more heavier topic like Andrew's journey with sobriety in a way that becomes a part of the character, and not just something that was mentioned for shock value or conflict and then never addressed again. I think she weaved that topic in the storyline and dealt with it really well.

The romance is perfect. It's sometimes hard to be invested in a romance story because of how common and predictable the formula to writing a love story has become– Person A meets Person B, they end up liking each other, they date, conflict happens, and then they resolve it. The end. However, this book is different. In my reading experience so far, I have not encountered any book like this one. Sure, it plays with familiar elements and tropes that are common in other romance books (friends to lovers, forced proximity etc.) but it does so in a way that adapts to the characters and the plot that has been set out. It did not at all feel like the author, Catherine Walsh, added these tropes just to say that these tropes exist in this book, but because they sever a purpose for the development of the plot (and the romance). I also love that the steamy moment happens behind closed doors and we didn't actually have to read about. It's a nice change.

The pacing of this book was also really well done. There was no point in this book where I was not completely drawn into the story. The dialogue, the banter– all of it was fantastic. Not to mention the humour was absolutely top-tier that I often caught myself giggling and laughing as I was reading along. Even after waiting a couple of days for my thoughts to formulate in order to write this book review, I can not find one fault. This book has everything I could ask for (and more!). I now have Catherine Walsh's other works on my tbr, and I cannot wait to read more of her work.

All that being said, I guess it's safe to say that I will be recommending this book to everyone and their dog. This book is a gem amongst the treasure trove of romance novels. If you are ever in the mood for a perfectly written, swoon-worthy holiday romance then this book is for you. This is probably the best Christmas romance I have ever read.

5 stars.

The cutest book! The story follows Molly and Andrew. Both of them are from Ireland and currently living in Chicago but they are going back to Ireland for the holidays.

This friends to lovers story was lovely and beautiful.

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.

Molly isn’t that bothered by Christmas, but—in yet another way they’re total opposites—Andrew is a full-on fanatic for the festive season and she knows how much getting back to Ireland means to him. So, instead of doing the sane thing and just celebrating the holidays together in America, she does the stupid thing. The irrational thing. She vows to get him home. And in time for his mam’s famous Christmas dinner.

The clock is ticking. But Molly always has a plan. And—as long as the highly-specific combination of taxis, planes, boats, and trains all run on time—it can’t possibly go wrong.

What she doesn’t know is that, as the snow falls over the city and over the heads of two friends who are sure they’re not meant to be together, the universe might just have a plan of its own…


This book was a great romance book, full of so much laughter and so much fun and had me up laughing until the early hours of the morning!

i do love a book where friends become lovers and that is set during the holidays! truly the perfect book to sit by a cozy fireplace and read while hoping it hapened to you.

If you are looking for a book with all the holiday feels, this is definitely the one! The characters have great chemistry and it was so fun to read!

So cute! Loved these two, I kept rooting for them the whole time. I feel in love with them. A sweet cute story.

Loved it. So sweet. So funny. So charming. I was into it straight away and was rooting for romance to blossom. A super fun read. And I like the way it flits back and forth in timelines. I'll read this again next Christmas, a fab festive read!

I am not always a fan of books where long-time friends suddenly become a couple. It makes it seem as if friendship between a man and a woman is never possible! That said, if it is handled well, like in this one, I did enjoy it (surprising myself).
As the only two Irish people in their university, Molly and Andrew knew about each other. They happened to meet on a flight home for Christmas, which did not end very well. Over the years, after a few such meetings, they decided to talk and become friends. They have very different lives, and this short flight duration and sporadic texts through the rest of the year tether them together.
One December, bad weather derails their usual plans as the flight they are meant to be on does not take off. Suddenly Molly finds it extremely important to get Andrew home for his treasured family Christmas time. What follows will make anyone who has ever had to make multiple trips feel tired. Into the mix come the feelings that have been dormant, and this is what the rest of the book is all about.
There are some fun characters who are introduced as we meet more of the extended family and friends. It was written well, and although it is not a unique storyline, the people felt fleshed out, and this made me enjoy my read.
I would recommend it to readers of this genre and would read another by this author if I had the chance.
I received this book as an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

I loved the dual timelines, interestingness of the plot yet still has typical tropes, and the setting! Everyone needs to read this book around Christmas time! We love and need a happily ever after!!

Perfect holiday quick read! I have been in a slump for a long time and this book pulled me out of it. Holiday reads have quickly become my year round go to book genre.