This book is probably exactly what you think you're going to get. It's extremely cute, just sexy enough, and very, very gay.

But I would be remiss not to mention what didn't work for me, as it is something that I often feel disappointed by when reading LGBTQ romances... The sapphic relationship is not as complex or given a much depth as the gay relationship.

Instalove is NOT for me, and that's unfortunately what Greta and Carys' relationship feels like. I understand that romance is not the really the point of Greta's journey as a character and can appreciate that - it's just disappointing that this is what we get for the sapphic romance. Once again here's an underdeveloped love story between two women and a cute, fleshed out love story for the two dudes.

It felt unbalanced in that regard, and I feel cheated a bit.

With that out of the way,
I loved reading all the classic romcom elements through a queer lens, and I love that this is a holiday story that also features a Jewish main character. All of the characters are likable and funny, and I was never bored. And I really, really liked the relationship between our two leading men. They were fun characters with a lot of chemistry.

I also really enjoyed the author's writing style, and would love to see them dedicate an entire novel to possibly a sapphic love story that has the development and chemistry that was missing from this one.

I had the opportunity to experience the audio version of this book, which I definitely recommend, as both narrators are absolutely wonderful.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great book. I loved the two stories in one kind. It covered a topic that is controversial and was handled very well. Highly recommended.

I really had a hard time finishing this. The main characters were so insecure and immature, I could hardly stand it. I would not recommend this book.

The Holiday Trap is an LGBTQIA+ rom-com featuring two romances, two couples who find love unexpectedly over the holiday season. It’s a rewriting of The Holiday where two couples essentially swap places and get to try on a new life distinctly different from their own. Taking place in both small town Maine and bustling New Orleans, one person is fighting his way out of a heartbreak and one person is seeking to find herself and her place in the world. This story is much steamier than I personally prefer and I’m not the best audience for this novel, but it is a sweet story that has a festive holiday feel.

The audio-version is narrated by Natalie Duke, Pete Cross, and Hilary Huber and is a quite lengthy story to tell. I appreciate when authors have multiple narrators for various characters and these narrators do a nice job of adding unique voices for a realistic storytelling.

3.5**

I liked this! It was cute, sappy, and GAY! Gay is my love language lol

Through the book I started to notice that I cared more about Truman and Ashes dynamic / story which unfortunately made half of the read not as enjoyable. Truman was SUCH a gem. How excited he got for passions and sharing them (even internally embarrassed sometimes) was the most amazing thing. Ash is his perfect match.

I didn't dislike Greta & found me rooting for her to be her own person away from family. I just think her character development was a bit too slow and I really started to love her right at the end. The love story also wasn't captivating for me.

Seeing the two totally different places / the swap was awesome.
Was a very cute read and bringing the fictional book into this was unique.

Thank you to NetGalley, publisher, and author for the early copy.

This was a fun story about 2 different people being in the wrong locations. When Greta's family put her up for the Christmas auction even though she is gay and doesn't want to do any of it. She talks to a college friend who suggests she needs to get away for a while. She comes up with a plan to have Greta flip places with Truman who just found out that his long-time boyfriend has a family that he didn't know about. After the switch, Greta realizes that her family is codependent and that her family just does things because that is what she thinks she wants. Truman is struggling with trying to figure out what is wrong with him and why ever one of his boyfriends has found fault with him and left. Both realize their faults and find a way to overcome them in the new locations and find love at the same time.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC! This is a sweet holiday house swap story. Our two leads are each going through their own rough patches and try a house swap to escape their current troubles. Each then finds themselves falling for new locations, new loves, and new possibilities. The audiobook narration is also excellent.

The Holiday is probably one of my favorite Christmas movies so when I saw this book, written by Roan Parrish, I was already hooked. Ultimately, The Holiday Trap mostly delivers on all of the vibes I was looking for based on the blurb alone, but there are definitely certain things that leave me with small quibbles in each storyline.

Essentially, Truman and Greta are both friends with Ramona and when their lives present each of them with a moment where they just want to get the heck out of dodge, Ramona provides them with the connection they need to swap homes for a month. Truman's home in New Orleans comes with his dog Horse and Greta's cottage in Maine comes with a large number of house plants, including the carniverous variety. I loved Horse so much during this book, for the record. He is such a good boy and I adore him. The other thing that I really appreciated is how this book treated the charm of Owl Island and the charm of New Orleans as both being really valid things to want. This book, to me, really emphasized how important it can be to find a place that feels like home.

Anyway, once the switch happens, both Greta and Truman encounter their respective love interests very quickly. Greta and Carys have an immediate connection that just keeps building and building. It's cute and their dynamic winds up being really interesting. Greta is dealing with the fact that her family is a bit... overly involved in each other's lives and somehow make harmful decisions. Greta feels a lot of guilt for wanting to pursue a life more suited for her than what she can find on Owl Island. Carys has been through a lot of therapy because her mother is a narcissist. The two of them discover that their childhood wounds present in interesting ways and they have very well-adjusted conversations about them and it was neat to see on page, but also sometimes managed to pull me entirely out of the story for one reason or another. Meanwhile, Truman winds up connecting with Greta's friend, Ash, because he's convinced he killed a plant. Truman is a precious bean and Ash is a wonderful human who I genuinely wanted to just wrap up in a warm hug and tell him everything was going to be okay. I really loved the two of them together. Their relationship is more of a slow build and I really loved all of the emotional issues they encountered and how they were able to overcome them and work things out.

I was able to listen to the narration of The Holiday Trap and overall I really enjoyed it. The part that I didn't understand is the addition of the third narrator who voices Ramona's messages to Truman and Greta. I... never really understood Ramona's place in this book, honestly, beyond being the catalyst for what happened. I felt like if she was going to have these specifically voiced narrations her part either needed to be larger (which I wouldn't have wanted) or removed entirely. And in a physical book, that's easy enough, because you could just skip them, whereas that's a little more challenging in an audiobook. But that's a very small quibble.

Overall, I enjoyed this one and would recommend when you're ready to be in the holiday spirit! I should emphasize that Greta is Jewish and so Hanukkah is represented in this book and the inclusion of Greta's traditions by Carys and her friends is so heartwarming. I really loved that part.

I'm so disappointed to say that I found this book lacking when I'd been so excited by the premise. The pacing is so wildly uneven between the two main characters' POVs--and despite one's "love story" moving quite quickly and the other being slower paced, neither is all that well-developed. None of the characters are, in all honesty. They all feel superficial and it's hard to care about any of them. I genuinely liked Truman but still found the "chemistry" in his romance and the writing lacking enough (somewhere between weak fan fiction and cheesy holiday movie script?) that I had to force myself to pay attention to the audiobook.

My thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the opportunity to preview this title in return for my honest opinion.

𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: DNF 35%

I have LOVED this author's past books, but THE HOLIDAY TRAP just didn't work for me. I did like, and was invested in, Ash and Truman. But Greta was just so unlikable to me that I just didn't care about her story.

Even with the couple that I did like—their story was very slow moving and I soon lost interest.

I listened to the audio of this book and I really liked the narrators particularly the narrator for Truman. But the book itself didn't work for me.

Adored this story. Loved all the characters and the settings and the friends. Love that the solution doesn't 100% come up roses and happiness for every relationship in the book. Very enjoyable read that gave me exactly what I was expecting from it.

Thank you for the ARC

Take The Holiday (which is one of my favorite Christmas movies) and make it queer and inclusive and that’s exactly what The Holiday Trap is!

I loved so many things about this book…the queerness, communicating needs, cutting off toxic family members, recognizing that not everyone celebrates Christmas (Jewish rep!), etc.

Oh…and deliciously steamy scenes!

I really enjoyed both Greta's and Truman's stories and their respective love interests. I will say that this book was a little bit slow to get into in the beginning as we first learn about the two main protagonists, but once they officially swap and settle into their new environments, I was sold!

Dual storyline book following two main characters, Truman and Greta, as they undergo a house swap during the holidays. I have to admit that I personally much preferred Truman's love story while being slightly envious of Greta's found family.

3.5 stars, rounded down.

This books is essentially two holiday romance books in one, with a bit of overlap. One half of the story follows Greta, who is feeling smothered by her family and desperately seeking a change that allows her to feel comfortable in her own identity outside of her family. The other half follows Truman, from a different city, who recently found out his now-ex was having an affair and is in need of an escape. Then a mutual friend recommends that Greta and Truman swap houses for a while. Their respective vacations breathe life into them and they both find new and lasting romances.

I typically do not enjoy stories that follow two separate stories simultaneously (or non-linear timelines, but that is unrelated), but this one hit different. The small town charm. The romance and mild spice. The delightful queerness. It gave wonderful holiday vibes without it being overly Christmas vibes. I really enjoyed the book overall.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Natalie Duke, Pete Cross, and Hillary Huber, via NetGalley. An advanced reader's copy of this audiobook was provided to me via NetGalley by Dreamscape Media in exchange for an honest review.

A holiday house-swap story with two romances, this is a bit lighter than many of Roan Parrish's other books, though still digs in on some deeper issues along the way. I thought the narrators were fantastic and had very original voices. There seems to be a tendency in audiobook narration for all narrators to gravitate toward the same style and cadence and tone. By contrast, the narrators here have original and unique voices, which really matched nicely with Parrish's unique story and characters. It really is great to listen to a book that doesn't sound like the last 10 audiobooks I listened to. I also thought they did a great job with the secondary characters, reflecting personalities and helping the listener distinguish between characters even when there were several in a scene. I give this a five-star rating on the narration; I can't think of anything that would improve on the high-quality voice work in this audiobook.

I did really enjoy the writing as well. I was pulled in a bit more by Truman's story than Greta's. Truman decides to take his friend's advice and heads from New Orleans to Maine to do a house-swap after discovering his boyfriend is married and living a second (or really first!) life that Truman knew nothing about. Truman is a sweetheart, a spreadsheet nerd, into bullet journaling, and a bit of a pushover. He meets Ash, the quiet local florist who's juggling a struggling business and an ailing mother. Truman is reluctant to put much stock in what is happening in his friendship (and more?) with Ash, because he worries that his instincts are bad based on his previous relationship. He spends a lot of the book beating himself up for being gullible, and while there may be some truth to that, he also has to learn that his ex simply wasn't a good person, Truman is not to blame for being trusting and loving. He does need to stand up for himself and speak his needs. I really loved Truman's growth arc and also loved how Truman and Ash played off each other's strengths. There's also a bookish mystery that Truman is exploring throughout the story, but I wasn't as into that subplot, other than appreciating what it showed us about Truman in the past relying on reading for escape and healing during a difficult time in his life.

Greta's story was quite a bit different than Truman's. Greta does the house-swap (Maine to New Orleans) to escape her loving but overbearing and co-dependent family. Some of her sibling relationships are rather toxic, and while her family isn't homophobic, they also aren't very supportive allies to her. Her time in New Orleans helps her see her family in a different light, and as her relationship with Carys develops, she also sees herself in a different light. I wasn't necessarily sold on the relationship between Greta and Carys as a lasting, long term thing. Carys bristles at some of Greta's nurturing tendencies and I thought there was a mismatch between Carys' independence and Greta's instinct to care for others. While there may be some room for Greta to learn to take cues from her partner, I also thought that Carys didn't necessarily appreciate Greta for who she was. There's also less plot to the Greta-Carys story than the Truman-Ash story, and I found myself zoning a bit in Greta's chapters and waiting anxiously for Truman's. As with Truman, I really enjoyed Greta's growth arc regarding her family but I thought the romance was a bit flat. It read more like lust than love to me, two people with chemistry enjoying each other's company but not really becoming true partners. What did really resonate in Greta's relationship with Carys was the other friends connected to their relationship and the found family that Greta experiences, as a contrast to her difficult family relationships. I think Greta needed that even more than her relationship with Carys.

The common thread between the two stories is learning to express your wants and needs to others (Truman to his romantic partners but also to *everyone* and Greta to her family), and that is a fantastic theme for a romance in my opinion. I also loved the sense of place in both stories; Parrish is a master at this, you always feel deeply the settings that her characters inhabit. The small Maine island town and New Orleans both feel very real but we also get magical bits from the locations that make the stories feel special.

One final note, while this is set up as a holiday romance and it's certainly set around the holidays, I did not get a holiday vibe from this book at all. Most of the holiday references are painful moments in the story - Truman glimpsing the tree in his soon to be ex's front window, several bad family interactions for Greta that are tied to local holiday or family Hanukkah happenings. I think this might work for many readers, and it didn't necessarily bother me, but don't go in expecting hot cocoa and decking the halls and declarations of love on Christmas Eve or Hanukkah, or whatever you imagine when you hear "holiday romance." But if you believe that family holidays can be toxic and it sucks to be single during the holidays, and that love might be possible in spite of rather than because of the holiday "spirit," then this may be the book for you!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this audiobook!

There is so much to like about this book. The characters are very likeable and interesting. The reader wants them to be successful and find their place in the world. The narrators are really good. Their voices are so nice to listen to they are almost soothing. But herein lie the problems. This book is so comfortable that sometimes the reader/listener feels lulled in like a warm blanket when what we ultimately want is to be entertained. There were some funny moments and interesting situations but these were far and few between. Also it is really not clear why it is called the Holiday Trap because the main focus is on family discord and finding one’s way in life. It is possible that this book might be better to read than listen to. Regardless I would recommend this book.
Thanks to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to listen to the audiobook arc.

I’m a big Roan Parrish fan - and I think this might be my favorite of her books so far! The main premise reminded me of Beth O’Leary’s The Switch, with the house/life swap, but from there it was completely Roan! It had her signature brilliant writing, LGBTQ (critical for her books), and the steam! Yes, this one is steamy and just oh, so perfect! I thought it should be called “The Holiday Swap” because there was no trap?

A fantastic story centered around two lost souls who need to escape their lives for different reasons, with a mutual friend who is able to facilitate their swap. Ramona, the friend, knows exactly what they each have and need, and helps them get swapped and across the country for the holidays. Truman heads north from New Orleans to Owl Island, Maine, leaving behind his dog. He just found out his boyfriend has a husband... and kids! Greta heads south from Owl Island to New Orleans, leaving behind her beloved carnivorous plants that require a ton of attention. Her family doesn’t understand or accept her queerness.

As each settles in for a month, they begin to really get comfortable in the other’s life. Truman meets Greta’s best friend. Greta meets gardening friends and a girl with a miniature horse.

If you enjoy Roan Parrish’s series, any other LGBTQ+ books, or are looking for a really special holiday read, look no further - this is it!

Audio version - Greta is narrated by Natalie Duke, one of my faves, who gave a fantastic performance (as you can always expect from her), and Truman is narrated by Pete Cross - a new-to-me voice, but one I very much enjoyed and am looking forward to hearing more from!

I received an advance review and advance listen copy from NetGalley, Sourcebooks Casablanca, and Dreamscape Media, and this is my honest feedback.

Cute queer version of the Holiday. This book follows two unrelated couples essentially - Greta lives in Maine, and Truman lives in Louisiana. Both are in need of a break from their current situations, so Ramona (a mutual friend of theirs) suggests they house-swap for the holidays. I did find the changing POVs to be done well - when it started, I was worried it wouldn't work out with the storytelling, but it works well. I liked Truman's POV more so I didn't love them equally which I think is the risk of doing two essentially separate stories.

Have you ever needed to take a break from your life? Thats what happens to Greta and Truman. Both are not loving their current circumstances and thanks to a mutual friend, find themselves living in the other person's home just before the holiday season.

Audiobook: I enjoyed the narrators chosen for this book. They work well with Greta and Truman's personalities as well as transitions to other characters in the book. I felt like I was in the story.

Story: Overall I enjoyed this audiobook, but I did enjoy Truman's storyline more. I enjoyed the hunt for something that meant so much to him. Both main characters are wonderful. They love their friends and finally find a way to do what they want. They are friends that are there to help you when you fall. The side characters throughout the story are diverse and add so much more to the book.

This book has LGBTQ rep, mentions dementia and Jewish representation.

A great listen for the upcoming holiday season!

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

Roan Parrish's 'The Holiday Trap' is the queer holiday swap rom-com that you never knew you needed in your life!

Greta and Truman both need a change in their lives but they don't know what or how to do it. Greta is living the Maine island life with her close-knit family who doesn't understand that she's a lesbian and wants more out of life than what her small town can offer. Truman just found out that his boyfriend of almost a year is married and has a kid and he wants to run away from New Orleans to mourn the demise of his relationship. Ramona, a mutual friend, comes up with the great idea that Greta and Truman swap houses for a month and thus begins this hilariously sweet, yet soul-searchingly emotional tale of two people experiencing new worlds.

This book made me laugh out loud and cry real tears so many times! The romantic relationships that Greta and Truman find during their holiday swaps are so sweet, and the lessons they learn about themselves are so relatable. I honestly felt like the author was looking inside my mind to find inspiration for both of these characters! I was lucky enough to get my hands on the audiobook version and the narration by Natalie Duke, Pete Cross, and Hillary Huber was spot on. They brought Greta, Truman, and Ramona to life and made the changing POVs easy to follow. I LOVED IT! Bonus points for the F/F & M/M romance, plus all the queer, trans, and nonbinary rep!

This book is out today just in time to start reading/listening for the holiday season! I highly recommend this to anyone who loves a good queer rom-com or holiday swap story--this is one that you'll definitely want to check out!

I received an advance review copy of this audiobook for free from Dreamscape Media and NetGalley, and I am leaving my honest review voluntarily as a courtesy.