French Holiday
Sarah Ready
Pub Date: April 26, 2023

This was my first book by author Sarah Ready and it won’t be my last! I absolutely adored French Holiday and read most of the book in one day!

French Holiday is the perfect enemies to lovers and close proximity romance! I absolutely loved the character development and found myself wanting to visit France NOW because of how beautifully the author described the scenery.

When Merry’s sister marries her best friend (and love of her life) Leo, she knows she needs an escape plan, so she quits her job and decides to move to the French countryside for three months to live in a castle. All sounds perfect, until she realizes famous travel documentarian, Noah Wright, the best man from her sister’s wedding and the worst person she has ever met, is also living in the same castle. Will the two be able to survive three months living together?

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good enemies to lovers trope!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Swift and Lewis Publishing, Sarah Ready, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of French Holiday!

Posted on Goodreads on April 2, 2023: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144922955?ref=nav_profile_l
Posted on Instagram (full review) on April 26, 2023: https://instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Posted on Instagram (mini review) in April 2023: https://instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Posted on Amazon on April 26 2023

I was actually really impressed with this book. I was expecting a standard romance but this was so much more. It had a really good and interesting story along with great side stories and characters which makes the flow of the whole book really nice. The characters were all very good with great back stories. My favourite scene was the one with the lobster, hilarious! Definitely recommend.

I traveled to France with this book for sure. I loved this book so much that I was engaged from the start. I feel like this book will be on the top charts for 2023. It was one of my complete five favorite romance novels I've read this year. It was fast-paced, and I enjoy the enemies-to-friends-to-lovers trope, and this one delivered. I LOVED Merry and Noah's chemistry. It was well-developed, and the characters were very enjoyable. It was the novel we didn't know we needed. SO GOOOD!

Merry is a kind young woman that just wants things to go right for her. Even after a childhood spent feeling like she was #2 behind her little sister, and her parents separating with her dad leaving, she still found a solid job and a solid best friend. But now her best friend (whom she’s also in love with, met and fell in love with her sister, she’s forced to be the bearer of bad news to multiple people at her job, and when she decides to escape it all she finds herself living in a crumbled down chateau with her nemesis, Noah.

Deciding to make the best of the situation, she starts exploring the local community, meeting a handsome man to spend time with, cleaning up her new home, and trying to become acquaintances with Noah. Slowly learning more about each other they become friends and learn to like spending time together. That leads Noah to sharing something important about his past and together they work to try to solve a mystery he’s been working on for over a decade and build a stronger relationship as a result.

Merry is a light character, but not flighty, easy to root for and quirky. The self discovery theme is easy and the romance storyline of friends to love comes together nicely (with a little spice). This was a sweet and engaging read; I kept wanting to come back to it.

3.5 Stars French Holiday by Sarah Ready is a vacation rom-com set in a beautiful, but dilapidated French chateau. After Merry DeLuca’s younger sister marries her best friend and unrequited love, Merry is in dire need of a change. Just as Merry quits her depressing HR job and her sister announces her pregnancy, Merry’s godmother asks if Merry will temporarily move to France to look after her chateau. Three months in a beautiful French chateau? Yes please! The chateau is beautiful on the outside, but it’s what’s inside that sends Merry spinning: an old run down estate and Noah Wright. Noah was best man at the wedding and he’s made it clear that he doesn’t like Merry or the fact that she’s been pining over their shared best friend. It seems that Merry’s godmother forgot to mention that she’s renting the chateau to Noah while he spends time researching and writing for the next season of his wildly popular travel series. Merry and Noah agree to make peace for the time being and try to avoid each other while both living in the chateau. Easier said than done when there’s only one bed.

This was a fun and breezy rom com. The word count made it seem like it would be a lot longer, but the action kept the story going. I liked the bit of mystery surrounding the chateau, a disappeared artist, and even Noah himself. I wasn’t expecting that element of the story, but it was a delight. Recommend this one for a fun read with a romantic HEA!

I loved this book! This was my first book by Sarah Ready that I’ve read and it definitely won’t be my last. I loved all the characters she created in this universe and that they were more than just side characters, she gave them reason and depth and background.

The story of unrequited love is so good and how that can take many forms. I think we can all relate to Merry and having feelings for that friend who doesn’t see you as more than a friend and how painful that can be.

One of the things I loved about this book is how so much of the book the characters actually like each other! Often in enemies to lovers so much of the plot is them fighting and it was super nice to see a different approach.

I loved this book and will definitely be recommending it to my friends to check it out when it’s released on April 26th and picking up some more Sarah Ready to read!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for providing me an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4* A funny, somewhat exhilarating, moving novel about love, required or not.

Angela's the little sister, the one everybody loves at first sight.
Merry is the older, kinder one and she too is under her sister spell: it happened since she cast her eyes on her, she can't help but let her have all she wishes for: from her first bike to Leo, her best friend, who's she's secretly in love with.
Angela and Leo are getting married and Merry can't stand her life anymore, so when her eccentric godmother offer her the opportunity to use her French castle to have a flight from her life, she gives in.
Everything in France seems wonderful: the scenery, the smell, the colors, but soon Merry discovers that all that glitters is not always gold, the romantic and wonderful castle is stony, dirty and falling apart on the inside and, most of all, her godmother didn't share that Noah, Leo's best friend and Merry worst enemy, has just rent the castle and they're going to share it.

Merry is lovely, kind, compassionate and brightly hopeful; Noah is more grounded, a bit aloof and not so easy to read, but has a bright and popular public persona. They're the perfect couple of main characters for a novel like this.
There's plenty of funny, if not crazy, moments and I had plenty of laughter, with cucumber and lobster used a prop.
There's also some insightful moment about what love means, what's worth or not in love and what it should really mean to be loved.
It's sort of a contemporary gothic novel, mixed with most of the typical rom-com scenarios.
This book is lovely written and checks all the marks you might imagine while reading the plot and more, I would totally recommend it for a holiday, a self-dedicated day or a little escape from everyday life.

Thanks Netgalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing LLC for providing this as an Arc in exchange of an honest review.

I was intrigued by the cover and synopsis of this book so I requested the advanced listeners copy. I enjoyed this book off and on. I was hooked for the first 20% and then the main character mistaking a rat for a kitten in her bed was the first red flag for me. There were several other ridiculous things that happened and that just turned me off. I found the characters likable so that’s why I decided on a 3 star rating.

I really enjoyed this one. Its equipped with some of my favourite tropes. We have enemies to lovers, one bed and forced proximity. Such a fun and easy going read.

I really enjoyed this book! It was a great hate to love book. I loved the setting and the vibes I got while I was reading. It’s a great romcon to read this spring/summer. I also absolutely adore the cover! It’s what drew me into reading the book.
The forced proximity and the one bed trop were also well written.
So overall, it was a very enjoyable read!

I really enjoyed this story! It reminded me of You Deserve Eachother by Sarah Hogle except obviously takes place in France. Some of the details were a bit far-fetched, especially considering modern day technology and the ability to look anything up online. But it was enjoyable either way. Highly recommend as a fun beach read and for those who love rom-com types of books!

An enemies-to-lovers, only-one-bed rom-com that harks to Gothic romances like Jane Eyre, is set in the French countryside (in a castle, no less) AND has a third-act art mystery?! Say less. I’m there.

I came for the blurb that promised all the good silly romance antics I love in a quick romcom, but I stayed because NOAH 👏🏻 IS 👏🏻 A 👏🏻 DREAM 👏🏻. We love a brooding hero. I kept picturing a cross between Scott Foley and Josh Gates. Rwar 🐅

Here’s my one complaint, and I think it’s just that I don’t mesh well overall with this author’s writing style. She constantly adds in ridiculously unnecessary moments that aren’t needed for the plot, nor for humor. It’s cheapening. In this instance it’s a rat and then a lobster. In a previous book it was jello. It seems to be a crutch to add antics that make us laugh, but the awkwardness of falling in love is enough. Without those cringy moments the book would be a solid 4 stars for me. But the frequency of those types of forced moments really take away from the charm. 3.5 ⭐️

Thank you NetGalley, and the publisher, for the ARC book & audiobook and for the opportunity to share my unbiased opinion!

Within the first chapter I knew I was going to love this book. Oh my goodness! Who doesn’t love a good old fashioned crush is marrying my sister and I am stuck on the arm of a man I absolutely detest (but will maybe possibly fall in love with at the end) story? Please beware: there are spoilers ahead.

This book gave me butterflies. I mean, truly, what the hell? There was even a moment where I audibly squealed about 40 percent into this book because of a situation that happened. Noah and Merry are two incredibly sweet and fun characters and I already deeply miss them. Both characters had wonderful arcs and I enjoyed that there was chemistry between them from the very beginning. I also appreciated the humor of the story so that when the more serious topics arose their solutions were all the more bittersweet. One of these serious issues was the topic of Noah’s mother. It was a topic that might have caused a third act breakup in another type of romance but I LOVED that, instead, these two characters communicated. Healthy communication? Immediate extra star to the book.


All in all I could talk a lot about this book. I enjoyed even the silliest of romantic bits and the cliched nature of it was actually so endearing in this. I’m going to be honest, this one was up there with Emily Henry for me. I am excited to read more of her books and am already looking at digging into this authors backlog.

"The best kind of love is requited love!!!!!!"

Fun and charismatic story that gives you hallmark feels while daydreaming about the French countryside!

This story kinda has a little bit of everything!

🖤 Enemies to lovers
🖤 Forced proximity
🖤 One bed
🖤 Holiday adventure

It's was just really fun in a very surprising way. As I said, it read like hallmark movie. I could easily see it playing out in my head! A lot of over the top moments, but they were funny! But also some tender moments.

I just have to say, I don't think I've ever read a book where I really REALLY wanted it to be dual POV. I'm usually a one POV girl for preference, but I sooo badly wanted to know what Noah was thinking!! It was clearly obvious, but I still wanted to see everything from his eyes. But no foul to the book, because I think it made the book unique in this way!

Definitely deserves to be add to your library if you want to enjoy something light, funny and want to get swept away to the French Countryside. Yes, I'd like to live in this Chateau!

French Holiday
by Sarah Ready
5 stars

Merry has a secret crush on one of her best friends, Leo, but after Leo meets her sister Angela. Merry's unrequited love is no more, and she must learn to overcome it. After watching her sister and Leo get married, Merry has a drunken night with Noah, Leo's long-time best friend. After a few months, Merry still hasn't found happiness and can't get over it all; work is too much, and life is too much she needs to escape. Merry jumps at a chance to travel to France to stay at her godmother's Chateau. What Merry didn't plan on was Noah being there too. Can she handle being around Noah for three months?

This book made me so happy, and I couldn't stop smiling. I connected with Merry, her insecurities, and her wanting to find her forever love. Merry is just real. She can't read Noah's mind, and she tells him in better words than I might. She needs the confirmation and the words to make sure. Noah and Merry are too cute together, but it is a too-fast jump between all characters. I love Sarah Ready's books.

If you like forced proximity, shared bed, friends to lovers, and drama, try this book.

I enjoyed this book! It was a charming friends to lovers story. The author’s writing really made me feel like I was in the garden, in the castle and on the bridge. Noah and Merry made such a cute couple that you couldn’t help but root for them. I also surprisingly ended up liking Camille and Pierre. I also enjoyed the mystery surrounding Noah and his intentions for being in France. Overall this was a great read! Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Omg I could not put this book down! The characters were so real and I was instantly invested. I love the enemies to lovers trope and this one did not disappoint! The scene with Louis had me laughing so hard!! The banter was great and the tension was amazing! I loved the twist it made me cry! The ending was so beautiful and everything just fell into place. This story was so fun to follow along with and had the perfect balance of everything! Noah and Merry were so perfect for each other!

Merry takes an opportunity to spend 3 months in France after her sister's wedding, in which her sister has married Merry's friend, and object of unrequited love, Leo. It turns out, the best man, Noah, is also staying at the same run-down chateau in France. This was an enjoyable forced proximity, enemies to lovers, romcom set in the beautiful French countryside. I was engaged during this read; the mystery/family history plot line of the story was interesting and added depth that may really appeal to readers, but wasn't the main event for me. I was mostly engaged with the chemistry between Merry and Noah.

Thank you to NetGalley for this: I ADORED it.
I'm just a big Sarah Ready fan. I think she does such a wonderful job of crafting relatable, genuine, spunky female leads. I think her B storyline's are always so well drawn up, so while the romance aspect is front and center, it isn't the only thing driving forward a believable story.
"Enemies to Lovers" is one of my favorite tropes and this absolutely did not disappoint and the romantic scenes were steamy but not cliche.
I think my favorite part of this story though was the sub-plot of unrequited love, the definition of 'love' and who can be the focus of unrequited love. I thought the duality between unrequited emotional love (and if its real or just put on due to situational availability) and unrequited familial love was just done so beautifully.
I can't wait for more of Ready's work.

This was a super cute romance set mostly in the French countryside between Merry (always puts others first before herself) and Noah (brooding travel filmmaker). If you need a feel-good story that you can read while on vacation or on your lunch break, this is it.

What it has:
- forced proximity
- enemies(ish)-to-lovers
- one bed (then two beds, then back to one bed)
- opposite of miscommunication
- some spice (🌶️.5 spice level)
- French stuff

Things I loved about the book:
- super easy to read (but not in a bad way - the writing was still great)
- the lack of miscommunication: I absolutely despise the use of miscommunication as a plot device and Ready did the complete opposite. Anytime there was a slight hint of confusion between the characters, it would be rectified and that was so satisfying
- the most adorable romance and very fun banter
- Merry's godmother (totally blanking on the name) - she was a delight!
- the character development, more specifically Noah's
- the small mystery of finding the french artist. I really enjoy a bit of mystery in a romance.

Things I didn't love about this book:
- the side characters of Leo and Angela. These two were awful and I hated them so much (hey, at least the author got a reaction out of me). I don't think we're meant to like either one of them but I kept wanting to shake the main female character because she was TOO NICE to both of them and it grated my nerves. I wish the book really only focused on Merry and Noah and left Leo and Angela mostly out of it.
- the conversations between Angela and Merry. They were so annoying and they weirdly got cut off when important information was about to be revealed.
- the quickness of loving someone. I get it, it's a modern romance and the heroine falls for the hero every time (mostly) but Merry went from head over heels in love with Leo to not being in love with him to loving Noah in a very short time frame and it really was not believable. It was cute nonetheless, though. Perhaps I'm too much of a realist.
- I guessed the ending.. it was not surprising.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Swift and Lewis Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.