Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I rarely DNF books, but I just really couldn't get into this one, because I did not like any of the characters, and I really wasn't very enthralled by the plot either. I was especially uninterested in the dialogue between Candice and Makayla, and just felt that there wasn't actually much content to the book. I also didn't like Alexis at all, and felt as if he was constantly belittling women for his own pride. I thought that it was deceiving through its title, as this was not the up-beat, vacation read that I was expecting going into it based on the title and cover of the book. I feel bad saying all of this, and I wish that I had better things to offer, and other people may have very different opinions, but this book really just wasn't for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Aria for this ARC!

“Also, if I had time to spare, I’d use it to read a few more pages of the Unhoneymooners”
“There is my future, there is my chance, and I am here to take my shot”
Never too late to read a summer romance, right? Even if you’re closer to winter than the actual summer season but … who cares when you’re reading such a good book!!
I had real fun reading this book. A romance story worthy of Beach Read but where the main couple is not what it first seems !!!
Candice’s story went from betrayal to trying to figure out who she is and what she wants from her life and her past and I loved how much supportive and fun were the people around her when she is in Cornwall. A romance reader meets an author and his agent … what can go wrong right??
Honestly Alexis was such a crazy amazing character to meet and Daniel … well … I’m in love !! I don’t have anything to say.
I really liked how the author developed both the main plot of the story and the romance in it.
I’m really thankful I had the chance to read it and I cannot wait for this one to be out !!!
“It’s simple enough. Everyone loves romance”
“Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves”

Holiday Read by Taylor Cole gets a 2/5 for me. The potential for a great romance book is there, but it didn’t totally do it for me.

I enjoyed Candice, the main character, and her group of friends. They felt well-written, fleshed out, and layered. However, I do not feel the same about Alexis. I am a massive fan of the sunshine/grumpy trope, but Alexis was just pretty awful with very few redeeming qualities.

The setting, a beach holiday, was lovely and I could absolutely see how a romance could unfurl in that setting. I just couldn’t begin to like Alexis, so it all just fell flat.

Thank you to NetGalley, Aria, and Taylor Cole for the opportunity to read and review this e-ARC. Holiday Read is out July 4, 2023.

I always enjoy a good romance novel. I like meet cutes, friends to lovers or enemies to lovers plots. Holiday Read had some good potential, a great location with a really likable main female character and great female friends. However, the main male character was really unlikable and based on some of the initial actions, I can understand why in some of the other reviews people did not finish the book. The last two thirds of the book improved slightly as we got to see more of a romance blossom between our main female character and a second male character. I mostly, however, enjoyed the scenes between all the female characters as they felt more authentic. Based on the title I was expecting something different and this book didn’t fully meet my expectations.

Thank you to NetGalley and Aria for sending this book for review considerations. All opinions are my own.

“‘Everyone loves Bridgertion,’ he says, sighing. ‘You can never talk women out of it.’”

Thank you, Taylor Cole, Aria & Aries, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Available 05/11/23.

When romance-fanatic Candice meets writer Alexis, she thinks her happy ending is finally on its way. He walks into her struggling Cornish surf school, and they hit it off straight away. Until she discovers that Alexis has been using their courtship as inspiration for the romantic novel he’s struggling to write. When Alexis offers to bring her in on the deal if Candice helps him deliver a winning book to his publisher, she accepts, and along with Alexis’ agent Daniel, they embark on a very unusual summer of love, as Candice tries to teach the men the recipe for a successful romance. But you can’t have a great love story, without a great romantic hero. Will Candice find hers before the summer is over?

I want to preface this by saying I really wanted to like this book. I was hoping that it would be a romcom similar to the likes of “Beach Read” or “The People We Meet On Vacation”. It was not. I don’t know if this was suppose to be a grumpy/sunshine trope, but the male main character was completely insufferable. I’m talking that if I met a man like this in person I would be without words. He not only puts down mass market romance, but he also puts down major classical works written by women like “Pride and Prejudice”. There seemed to be some internalized misogyny going on here and I wasn’t a fan. I DNF’d this book 40% of the way in, because I could not stand how awful this character was when he was talking about women. Romance books already get looked down on, we don’t need a romance book with the entire premise doing just that. I gave the “Holiday Read” 1 ⭐️.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Yes, the characters could get annoying sometimes- the author did a great job of making Alexis a complete jerk that you just wanted to reach into the book and smack. And yes, the ending did feel a bit rushed… too many strings to tie together, I think, to satisfy all the loose ends. But overall, I found myself highlighting entire passages that spoke to me (some probably because they discussed my favorite author, Jane Austen), and that definitely elevates a book in my humble opinion. I’ll be looking forward to additional works from this author.

I was so disappointed with this book. The characters were all so disjointed, I didn’t believe for one minute they would even be friends with each other so when a romance suddenly developed, it felt really forced. There didn’t really seem to be a storyline just people lurching from one event to the next. Unfortunately I wouldn’t recommend this.

Let me first say thank you to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Truthfully, I only made it 25% in before I had to DNF the book! The male character epitomizes every reason why romance novels get a bad rap.

Completed this in a day🤩

A much needed Holiday Read🏖🍹
You'll LOVE it<333

THANK YOU SO MUCH NETGALLEY, AUTHOR & THE PUBLISHER FOR THE eARC.

Thank you to Netgalley, as well as Aria & Aries for an ARC of Holiday Read in exchange for my opinion.

To be honest, I haven’t been this disappointed in a story in a while. This book had so much potential given the plot line, but it just fell flat.

The characters weren’t that likeable, specifically Alexis the author. He was rude, classist, and misogynistic. I kept reading thinking eventually we would get a break through moment with him, but unfortunately the book even ends with him still being a complete jerk.

As for the love story happening with Candice, it’s extremely hard to buy into. There’s no romance, no real connection, or passion.

I did enjoy some cast of the characters including MaKayla and Demi, who brought humor and banter to many pages.

The ending felt rushed and quick, and left a lot unsaid which I wasn’t a fan of. It felt like I read this entire book, and didn’t even get any answers by the end of it.

Overall, this book misses the mark. It was a struggle to get through, and wasn’t enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this ARC!

I feel the marketing should go in a different direction for this book. With the cover, title, and description of Holiday Read, I’m afraid people will go in expecting something different. It’s selling as an escapist romance, but that did not come across for me.

What I liked about the book was the setting, the focus on the importance of healthy friendships that feel like family, and Candice taking control of her life and not being complacent! Yesss, we love that journey!

However, the negatives unfortunately overshadow the positives.

The plot points (some unnecessary, I dare say?) felt equally forced and forgotten at the same time. This requires the reader to suspend reality when these plot points are “resolved”, which took me out a bit. The dialogue often feels disjointed and irrelevant in moving the plot forward.

With our leading lady, there is a lack of communication not only with the other characters, but with us, the readers. This made it difficult for me to root for her, because I was often unsure how she felt in situations or what she really wanted, especially with the Alexis and Daniel moments.

Speaking of the Alexis and Daniel moments, this love triangle/work partnership did not work for me. When one romantic male lead is an unlikable, selfish, misogynistic human being - it's easy to write him off. While the other is obviously a more likable person, the conservations required for relationship building were glossed over, so as the reader, I was not pulled in. The triangle was unnecessary and ineffective.

Overall, I feel there is a disservice to the author by selling this book as an “escapist beach read rom-com”. If the reader goes in knowing this is a story of a woman finding a new life for herself after a tumultuous past by taking on a new career opportunity that leads to her fighting for respect in a field so often looked down upon; all while navigating the obstacles of working directly with a petulant male colleague, and catching feelings for the other, there might be a more positive reaction? But as it stands, the story falls flat and is inconsistent in its objective.

I want to start this off by thanking NetGalley and Aria for this arc.

I really didn’t like this book and I had to force myself to finish it, it felt like the author tried really hard to mimic beach read and failed miserably at it also a lot of the dialogue that was intended to be funny just ended up being cringy and uncomfortable.

The pacing of the story felt off and completely detached and the characters that are suppose to have feelings for each other have no chemistry plus they are surface level and have no debt therefore they feel very “fictional”. When it comes to the important issues that have or had an influence on the fmc’s life they are either unresolved or resolved way too fast like for example (incoming mild spoilers) one of the main reasons she moved to this small town was to find her father and this topic is dragged on during the whole book just for it to be resolved in a few lines in a paragraph towards the end like??? Also we are never told if the issues she had with her ex-husband remained unresolved or if they were resolved at all, plus we are just given a time jump and we are suppose to accept it and move on and don't get me started on the lack or none existence of consent!

The mmc is an egotistical and misogynistic author who doesn’t get the appeal of romance books and pretty much looks down on them but he still wants to write one due to their popularity and immense profit which is quite literally what this author is doing by using a title, cover and description that are completely misleading to draw the attention and interest of romance readers just for the content of the book to be completely lacking and poor.

Overall this book felt like a waste of time and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone!!

I really liked the vibe. It was sunny, funny and reminded me of holidays. I also liked the characters even though I would have like more depth in their personality. But the writing was cool, so was the story.

To preface this review- I really wanted to love this book and usually don't feel comfortable giving reviews this low. I appreciate the time and energy and love authors put into their novels and never want to detract from that. However, I'll just say this book isn't for me.

What I loved:
- A book about books!
- The setting of Newquay
- Positive female friendships

What I didn't:
- I pretty much exclusively read romance novels and this one just falls short for me. The characters feel flat (I felt indifferent about all of them, except the MMC who I had a lot of trouble liking). There's a lot of small plots that aren't resolved/needed.
- I feel like the cover and title is a little misleading? It wasn't about their holiday at all. I mean the cover is seriously cute, but it doesn't fit this book.
- I had trouble following the plot, I feel like the dialogue doesn't flow and I had trouble pushing through to finish this book.

A massive thank you to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This book was just okay for me. I didn't connect with the characters very well but I kept reading and it ending up being cute. Just not 100% for me. Will I read another book from this author, you bet I will.

Unfortunately this book was not for me. I didn’t realise until reading other reviews that the author was male, in the romance genre this does play a factor in the quality and scope of the story and characters- especially the female main character. This felt very cynical and mean, romance as a genre is beloved and popular for a reason and this book wanted to profit off that while also scorning it. Disappointing effort all round.

I was given an advanced copy of Holiday Read by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.. so here goes.

I didn't love it, but I also didn't hate it.

The challenge with romance is that it's a very common and intensely saturated genre. Writers have to stand out to make them feel different to all the others. And whilst I can see what Cole tried to do - it rarely missed the mark.

I made the mistake of reading reviews whilst I was reading the book. I got about a third of the way in and, getting quite frustrated with the story in a "Surely not?" kind of way - I took a look at the reviews (something I NEVER normally do). The guilt absolutely took me over so I finished it instead of DNF'ing it.

And I'm glad I did because thankfully, it set itself back on a relatively good course.

In an attempt to set themselves out from other romance writers - there were some seriously unnecessary facts throughout the dialogue which turned elements into a lesson. There were social issues highlighted and discussed purely for the sake of featuring them in the story/book.

There were one or two subplots that were completely unnecessary - trying to tie up the ends just left the final chapters rushed and with no depth or value.

The desire to highlight and include so much of Cornwalls rich and beautiful scenery and history was clear, but it fell short of the mark because it just didn't DETAIL it all. It was spread too thin.

The main romance story - awesome, I love it. The motivating plot behind it, worked. The doubt I felt when I thought it was going to go one way was well done and I'm glad it DIDN'T go there. And had the the writer chosen to strengthen instead of adding in the above mentioned snippets - it probably would have ended up being a relatively decent read.

And I have to say it - the title is misleading. I'm keen to see what the others will say on release.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

TW - Not clear consent for sexual scenes.

This one was hard to finish. Really hard. I have a lot of issues with consent not being taken seriously, a really kinda dickish male lead who just obsessed the main female's body. I also didn't love that it felt like a jab to those who love romance novels or liked Bach Read. The MMC hates romance books but writes them as his job? It just was really rough to get through and I pretty much DNF near the last 50 pages. I was so drawn by the cover but it really wasn't for me.

Sorry.

This was such a fun read. The chemistry was palpable between the characters and I loved every second.

Sadly not for me, I just couldn’t stay invested , I need to like the main characters and I just didn’t take to Alexis from the start, and then once he started outlining his book synopsis urgh just no wasn’t my thing at all. Sorry