Okidokie so- I almost DNFed this one. It took me sooo long to get through. It's too long. Edit again to tighten the story would be my advice. I liked a lot of parts and disliked a lot of parts. The good; Candice's character development and female friendships/found family she finds in Cornwall- loved it. Demi and Makayla- gold. The bad; what the heck is up with Alexis!!! The book starts by making him the main love interest but he is sooo unlikeable from the get go. Then when the actual love interest shows up he's not really portrayed in a way that makes me feel like Candice actually likes him??! Idk, the marketing for this book feels off; it wasn't sexy or overly romantic. I think I went in with really wrong expectations because of the synopsis. It has a great premise but definitely needs another bout of editing. I received an eARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Normally I start my reviews with a summary...but I can't.

I'm so confused????

With the promise of a Beach Read comp, I was stoked. Could Candice be the quirky, independent heroine I needed?

No.

There were just SO MANY subplots. None of them were well-developed, and I can't say what the real plot was. First it was the surf shop, then it was co-writing, then it was the divorce, then it was searching for her dad. None of these connected well.

Then there was the romance. I couldn't even figure out who the love interest was until 60% into the book. And there was very little build up to "moments". One moment, Candice and Daniel would be doing something totally platonic and next thing you know, they're almost kissing.

This story needs some serious polishing to make it enjoyable to the reader.

I struggled with the writing style of Holiday Read, long run on sentences peppered the story and made it hard to follow. The dialogue between characters felt a bit forced and awkward. The hero of the story wasn't very likeable and there seemed to be some dubious consent issues. I went into it thinking it would be comparable to Emily Henry's Beach Read but it wasn't at all. The title and book cover are a bit misleading

2.5 stars. Oh boy, this book took me forever to pass the 20% mark. Not only the premise is unoriginal but also the pacing is slow and all over the place. After the 40% mark it started to pick up, or maybe I was just too fustrated and skimmed all the uninteresting sections. It's good that the writer tried to put the focus on female friendship and a female lead trying to find herself after a bad break-up, but it's awful that the book uses the trope of the love triangle introducing two hunky male leads. How is she supposed to grow as an independent woman if she's forced (by the author) to choose between two guys in order to save her from an unfulfilling womanhood. Similar to other debut romance books I read that were just meh ("Float Plan" or "Lizzie & Dante"), the marketing aims to target readers of Emily Henry and Josie Silver. But these titles are just lower quality copy paste ideas that fail to bring anything new to the contemporary romance genre. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

I’m a sucker for a beach read and British setting, so this title, cover, and synopsis were very inviting. In practice though I struggled with the pace and writing style, and didn’t find myself hooked. I did not finish this book. Thank you for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was expecting a lighthearted holiday romance but that’s not what this is. I read the whole book hoping it would improve but it didn’t. I felt the middle of the book went on for ages then the ending felt rushed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

I DNFed at 40% and I tried to push through but it simply wasn’t for me.

this book wasn’t the way the description made it seem to me and the plot wasn’t interesting enough for me to want to read further.
Also, I feel like If you’re using the “Emily Henry fans will love it” as a way to promote your books you’re setting the expectations too high.

This was a winsome story about a woman taking charge of her life after things went completely off the rails.
Candice moves to Cornwall from Hawaii after her mothers dies and her husband admits to cheating on her with her best friend.
She finds a job in a cafe and the owner, Demi, lets her keep her camper van (the only accommodation she can afford) on the property. She also tries to start up a surfing lessons business.
She becomes attracted to an author,Alexis, trying to write his next book, but this quickly fizzles out when she finds he was just using her for his story.
Her friends and found family Makayla and Demi are great characters and all about empowering each other and being true to themselves. They are there for her when she finds out about Alexis, and also when her ex Joseph comes looking for her.
Alexis, the would be romance author, is truly an unlikable character in this book. He is sexist and selfish and an elitist. But in the end, his agent convinces Candice to work with Daniel as coauthor on the book.
This is not an especially fast paced book but I adored following Candice on her journey of self discovering and with her friendships with Makayla and Demi. And she also just might find a new love with someone unexpected. This book will be released July 2023.
Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book. That having been said, it took me a full 8 days to read. It was the most painful book I've ever read but I'm not a quitter so I saw it through.

I was mislead by the title thinking it was a beach read. Alexis, the main character was. self-absorbed and misogynistic. Candice, his co-writer had so many issues of her own that she almost allowed herself to be taken in by him. Enter Daniel, the literary agent, and you have the perfect, creepy love triangle. The only redeeming part of this book was the development of the female characters friendships. There was so many sub-plots, it was hard to keep track.

I am glad that I persevered to the end as all resolved nicely and there was a happily ever after. How the author got there, I'll never know..

A fun read with some interesting characters. I loved the backdrop of the story and the character development.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I received a copy of Holiday Read via NetGalley to read and review.

When I requested an ARC of Holiday Read it was because the cover caught my attention. The reason being Emily Henry has a book called Beach Read and the covers are VERY similar. I have not read Beach Read (yet! But it is on my TBR) so I can’t say how similar the two books are.

I’ll admit I’m a little unsure how the book got titled Holiday Read. The characters work on a book- often on a beach but no one is truly on vacation and there’s no major holiday celebration in the book so the title makes no sense to me.

The cast of characters are….interesting. I think the author tried really hard to make the characters seem like your average people who have many flaws but somehow missed the mark. Jeremy and Alexis are extreme on the “bad” side while Daniel is the complete opposite. And Candice took the whole book to grow a backbone. The author is close to having a decent cast of characters but they need a bit fine tuning.

I’m sure a lot of people will disagree with me on this but I think the overall arc of the story felt organic. The timing felt right but with the characters written as they are it can be hard to focus on major points in the story.

I, unfortunately, had to dnf this book (which I hate doing with ARCs) because it sent me into a two-week reading slump. It is not very attention-grabbing, at least not at the start, and it failed to suck me in.

first of all, I would like to thank NetGalley for allowing me to read this book!
Now let's talk about it! I DNF this book very early (I think 20% into it) because I just couldn't with it. The characters were nothing like I expected. I don't want to go into many details because I don't want to give spoilers but they weren't for me and I couldn't continue with my reading while they were doing their thing like that. You'll understand if you've read the book.
The synopsis of this book was giving me everything I wanted but it didn't do at the end.
I'm sad about this because I've had great expectations about this book but it's alright, not every book is for everyone!
Also if you are interested in this book I suggest you read it! My opinion could not be yours!

Unfortunately I had do DNF this book. The MMC is truly awful. I hate to leave a bad review, but it’s the honest truth. Thank you NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my review.

Thanks NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy.

Normally with ARCs I push through and read them to the end regardless of my feelings/enjoyment of the book. I just couldn’t do with this one. I DNF at 25% point.

The writing style was hard to follow. There didn’t seem like enough context at some points.

I felt like the cover didn’t match the feeling of the book either.

I loved this romance story -- it will be the perfect summer beach read!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC.

arc provided by netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

i spent the last 40% speed reading just so i could be done this book. i really hate giving 1 stars but honestly i cant think of a redeeming quality this book had. characters were 2D, the chemistry between the couple was non existent and not one part of the story had me invested. advertised as for fans of emily henry but you’re better off just rereading her books and spare yourself.

This was a struggle to read... there was two different plotlines that was not a successful approach. Backstories to the plot were so confusing and barely mentioned. It ended up being a messy triangle of love. I kept getting lost and confused. Just a big NO.

This title might make you think this is a Beach Read knock off, but it’s not. It’s also not nearly as good.

The story follows Candice who has recently moved from Hawaii to Newquay, a English beach town, to run away from her failed marriage and start up a surfing school. She meets an writer struggling to write his romance novel.

This is marketed as a romance novel but it really didn’t feel like one, at all. There’s a lot of hinting at romance but we get very few romantic scenes, and they’re also not great. The writer character was clearly some form of autistic, although it’s never specified. It felt very wrong how he was written off as a douchebag who just wants to cash on writing a romance novel because they are hot right now. He was also horrible to the female main character and it all just felt a little little ableism.

Honestly this book felt like a Hallmark movie. There was just no clear plot for a big part in the beginning and at like 40% there were too many plotlines. I will summarize all of them:
* Failed marriage/emotionally abusive husband
* Husband cheats with best friend
* MC wants to start a surf school
* MC wants to be a writer
* MC wants to find her biological father
* MC works at a quirky restaurant with a quirky owner and a quirky coworker/best friend
* MC cowrites a book
* Two love interest

LIKE PIC TWO AND STICK WITH THEM. I swear none of these were fully fleshed out and some like the finding of her biological father were resolved so quickly and randomly it was ridiculous.

I can’t really think of main strong point expect for the women supporting women in this book. Although the best friend was also just a little too quirky for me, so much that she didn’t really feel like a real person. But I guess it deserves half a star.

Thank you Netgalley for this eARC. I am sad to say I didn’t like this more but I’ll always give a honest review.

2.75 stars.

This book had the potential to be good, which makes it even sadder that it wasn't. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either and found it pretty difficult not to DNF halfway through, which is what most people did.

I've read 3 Sally Rooney books so far and one of the commonest criticisms I see about them are that nothing happens and they're too boring. In this book, a LOT of things happen but it still somehow manages to be boring. Its not stylistically boring; I actually really like the author's/protagonist's voice, its melancholy but hopeful at the same time. I blame the anticlimactic-ness of the book on too much robotic dialogue that didn't move the plot and over-exposition. There were too many scenes that were way longer than they needed to be, and I think weren't necessary in the first place because they didn't contribute in any meaningful way to the story or to the protagonist's growth.

I also wouldn't really call this a romance novel? I mean, there IS romance and the book wouldn't be complete without it...but it wasn't the defining feature, for me. I'd argue that the relationship the protagonist had with her friends and her sort of 'finding herself' was more pivotal. I don't know what genre this would really fall into but romance is not it. The fact that the romance genre is basically mocked early on in the book also does not help.

Another problem is the title, I really thought the author was attempting to plagiarize Emily Henry's Beach Read and it gave me a bad taste going into it. It wound up being very different from what I expected, but it still didn't fit the title because nobody in the book, or at least none of the main characters were actually on a holiday?

Anyway, I really think this should go through a heavy round of editing before it actually gets published, I think Taylor Cole is a good writer, but this book just really isn't working in its current condition.