This was a lovely story. I don’t know if the cover quite fits with the vibe and amount of serious plot points, but I was pleasantly surprised. I liked both the main characters and the romantic tension between them is great. The enjoyed the way the author really makes the characters’ felt, s much so that when Merry is feeling very unwanted, it made me teary. The story got pretty predictable towards the end (the bit wit Leo especially), but I didn’t mind. I liked the bit of a mystery involving Noah’s parents. It really added the right amount of extra plot so things revolve 100% around the romance. This is another one of those books where many of the main characters really need therapy for their childhood trauma, but those issues are somehow resolved by the end of the story (through the “power of love”, or a couple tough conversations), which I don’t love. Overall, this was just a fun book to read, which is the most I can ask for.
Thank you to NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing for providing me access to this eARC for my honest opinion!

The audio for this left me laughing out loud. The lobster parts were my favorite. Sarah checked every box with this book. Funny, mysterious, romantic and inspiring. One of my top favorite books I’ve read lately! Can’t wait to read more from this author.

I really enjoyed French Holiday by Sarah Ready. The main characters Sophie and Noah, were believable and could very easily have been a friends of mine - just the type of characters I love reading about.

After introducing her beloved by everyone sister, Angela, to her best friend and the object of her (unknown to him) affection, Leo, Sophie must watch Leo and Angela get married. She is given the opportunity to go to France by her godmother and she jumps at the distraction, only to find Leo's BFF, Noah, also a resident. Their relationship grows into friendship and more from there.

Ms. Ready is able to capture the emotions of the characters and bring them to life in a way that I find most people can relate to and has the ability to make you laugh and cry before you hit the last page.

I loved her lush descriptions of France and the believable timeline of Sophie's character getting over Leo and falling in love with Noah.

I absolutely LOVED this book! I could not put it down once I started. I am so glad I got the opportunity to read this book. The cover is what kept grabbing my attention to start with and I was not disappointed by the inside either! It was a lively coming into oneself story with some love and fun and a little mystery. Sarah Ready did a wonderful job painting the picture of a getaway to France! I highly recommend reading this one!

I just kept loving this story more and more as I read. Just when you think you know where the author is going with the rom com vibes (enemies to lovers/forced proximity/only one bed tropes), she weaves in a gothic romance/mystery element as well. As much as I loved Merry and Noah, I also loved the side characters - Camille was hilarious and adorable, Jupiter was fabulous, wise, and kooky but LOUIS STOLE MY HEART! 🦞

A nice story of a man and a woman who get to know each other better at a French chateau. The woman was sent to the chateau by her godmother after losing her job. The man rented the chateau from the godmother. It looks like a setup.

Sarah Ready is the one author that I wish every rom com lover knew about. I absolutely love her books. This book made my day! The heroine, Merry, was a delightful character on a journey of self discovery when her spoiled sister married the only man she's every loved. He also happened to be her best friend. She ends up getting stuck in a broken down castle in France with the best man--a guy she happens to dislike. This is where the hilarious adventure begins. This book brought me laughter, a little bit of mystery and ALL the feels. It was well written with excellent character development--especially Merry-and hot chemistry between the hero and heroine. I enjoyed this one very much. Huge thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book!

Oh, man. French Holiday by Sarah Ready was a stay-up-all-night type of book. Merry, a 28 year old people pleaser is in love with her best friend, Leo. Unfortunately, Leo fell for Merry’s sister. Enter Noah, a broody, angsty, rude travel documentarian. By happenstance, Merry and Noah end up at a chateau in France together (not as obscure as it sounds). Both have entirely different purposes for their summer; Merry’s is to overcome unrequited love and Noah’s is to find a missing French artist.

Ultimate slow burn! The protagonist’s banter was so funny and enjoyable. Louis, the lobster, was hilarious!!

This is my first Sarah Ready novel but it definitely will not be my last.

I really liked this book! I loved the French aesthetic, being in a run down old castle in the French wine country is my summer fantasy :)
As a romance, I thought Noah and Merry had a sweet story from about the 30% mark to the end. The first third of the book, however, I didn't love their interactions. Noah calls out Merry's unrequited love with her brother-in-law, and doesn't really offer her a kind word or gesture throughout the first part of the book. Now, for enemies-to-lovers, the antagonism was pretty tame, I didn't feel one character was particularly terrible to the other, but I just didn't see the transition part. Noah was kinda cold to Merry, and Merry didn't want to understand him at all, the first third of the book, then all of a sudden Merry is totally into Noah, and Noah is being nice (kinda) but still keeping up walls and boundaries so he doesn't become the rebound (understandable). I just had a hard time seeing that transition.
The second part of the book, the last two- thirds, were sweet and funny and mysterious and kept me reading for several straight hours without realizing it. I really liked Noah and Merry, individually and together, in this part. One thing I like about reformed enemies is that they already kinda know the worst parts of each other, leaving a love that is very honest and dedicated.
Overall, very cute and dreamy and intriguing story.
Thanks for the ARC!!!

I absolutely loved this. I went in expecting to be interested but not fully invested and I couldn't have been more wrong! Merry's life begins to fall apart when her long-time crush marries her sister. After a domino of setbacks, she decides to take her godmother up on a request to stay at her chateau in France. Unfortunately, her godmother also rented out the place to her now crush-in-law's best friend (and her current nemesis.) Hilarity, romance and lobsters ensue. I already ordered it for the library and can't wait to recommend it.

My first by this author and it was good! 3.5 stars rounded down. It’s light and fun and funny with a steamy scene. Merry and Noah are both fairly likeable and they kept my attention throughout. I would say the plot and overall tones are similar to Sophie kinsella books!

Thank you for the advanced e-copy!

This novel was really well written, the descriptions put you perfectly in the middle of a French countryside. Merry is clearly a little bit of an adult mess, but who can blame her? Her little sister marries her best friend who she was in love with. Oh, and just get rough at work, and with the encouragement of her godmother, she runs away to a French château. Noah Wright is there who happens to be her brother-in-law’s best friend, who she also hates. I love how things are just a little bit unexpected and the friendship that blooms between Merry and Noah. The middle of the book got to be too long and just felt like it wasn’t going to end at some points. However, once we got to the mystery of the château things got a lot more interesting and I didn’t want to stop listening. I think the growth Merry experiences is wonderful although some details and plot lines feel rushed. It annoys me somewhat that she wanted to find a purpose, and it became more about her finding someone she loves, and jumping on their purpose. However, the story was really sweet and it certainly gave me the travel bug. 4⭐️, 2.5🌶

This was such a fun travel-inspired read! I was instantly hooked and felt like the characters had so much chemistry, so it was really easy to get into this. Plus, it’s set in France, which made it feel even more exciting and fun. I really enjoyed the bit of mystery here as well, and even though I had a strong hunch that turned out to be correct, it’s a great story that makes you want to keep reading and find the answers. Having a little bit of mystery mixed in with the romance made this feel really unique, and I definitely recommend it if you’re a fan of traveling and want to pretend you’re somewhere else! Be sure to add this one to your TBR when it comes out on 4/26/23!

This is an ARC and my first novel by this author and I think I’m in love. She did an amazing job at making me feel like I was in France right along side of Merry. I love the way the novel outlined the scenery and the way the author’s words poured over the page in a beautiful and all encompassing way. I haven’t been this swept away by a romance novel since Emily Henry’s last book and Sarah Ready has the same kind of magic with her words that has me staying up past midnight, unable to pull myself out of the romantic story she’s created. 🥰

I also genuinely loved Merry’s character and saw a lot of myself in her. I too feel like I’m the background character in everyone else’s story and I desperately want to pull a Merry and move to France for three months. Unfortunately, my godmother doesn’t own a chateau, but I could work around that minor detail. Overall, Merry’s character was wonderfully structured and bold with a beautiful soul. I also had a deep understanding of why she did the things she did and the deeper meaning behind her thought process. Sometimes authors miss the mark and forget to round out their characters, but Merry was perfectly written. 🥹❤️

As for Noah—I loved him too of course. He was dark and brooding, but yet he was still emotionally mature and not a pyscho like some MMCs can be. Also I’m a sucker for a grumpy mysterious man so Noah was my bread and butter. Even though the story was from Merry’s POV, I still felt like I knew Noah on a personal level and I felt like the author did a great job of bringing his character to life.

I could go on for pages about how much I liked this book, but to conclude my review, I’d like to say I’m not a fan of fast whirlwind romance BUT this novel made it work in every way possible. I can’t wait to read more from Sarah Ready and I’m already adding some of her stand-alone novels to my TBR. 💁🏼‍♀️✨

From the moment I started reading French Holiday I was hooked.

French Holiday by Sarah Ready was a brilliantly executed story that was filled with so much passion and emotion, I honestly couldn't put it down. I was mesmerized by the intriguing and complicated characters. A truly amazing read!
The two main characters Merry and Noah were really fun to get to know. Along with the side characters.
I thought the build and pace to the story was amazing and the descriptions were spot on
A fun enemies to lovers story and one I couldn’t get enough of.

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Thank You NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

This is a very light predictable romance that didn't really grab my attention. Merry DeLuca is in love with her best friend Leo but never had the courage to tell him. When Leo meets her younger sister Angela, they fall madly in love and get married very quickly. At their wedding, Merry is forced to spend some time with Leo's best man Noah Wright - a famous travel writer.
To spend some time away from all this she goes on a three month holiday to France. As she arrives, she finds the castle is unexpectedly dilapidated. Worse than that, Noah Wright is also at the castle.

The book was a good quick and fun read. I loved the idea of unrequited love being a theme through the book. It was fun how the book switched into a slight mystery with the search for the MMC father. I will/have recommended the book to other friends with similar taste.

Merry is having an existential crisis. Not only did she just attend the wedding of her sister to her best friend (who Merry has been in love with for years), but she loathes the best man at the wedding. Every time she and Noah have interacting, he's been cold, judgmental, or downright rude.

And he sees right through her and her love for the groom. Somehow, despite this, they end up spending the night together, starting a chain reaction of events that all lead to a castle in France.

There's always a risk that the plot will be predictable in enemies-to-lovers books. After all, you KNOW the enemies will eventually become lovers; the question is, how will it happen?? I didn't find Noah and Merry's path to be predictable at all. The author did a great job of dropping a few red herrings then allowing the characters to build a solid relationship together.

Speaking of Noah...can we just take a moment to appreciate this man? He was kind, intelligent, dedicated, had an interesting, unique career, and he kept Merry on her toes. His references to gothic romances was such a clever way of weaving his past into the story without being totally obvious, and the scene on the bridge...::fans self::

French Holiday by Sarah Ready was hilarious, romantic, with just the right amount of cheese. The mystery aspect of the novel was unexpected but welcome. It was fun watching Noah and Merry work together to uncover the mystery! It added some fun layers to the story, as did every interaction with Pierre and Camille.

I was given an e-ARC of this book for an honest review. Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the opportunity!

Favorite quotes:

"I’ve never felt anything so repulsive in my life as lobster legs molesting my breasts."

"His face twists into a startled expression and then he steps toward me, reaching, and I do what any sensible person would do, I smack him over the head with my elongated cucumber."

Ahhhhhhhhhh 😭🥹😩
What a book!! Omg i wasn’t expecting it to be honest. This was such a funny, warm and thundering read! I couldn’t put it down for real. I loved merry and Noah so much! Especially Noah!!!( for instance, there was this part were he said such a cute warm thing that I bawled my eyes out!!! I wish I was kidding)!!! I couldn’t ask for me even if I wanted to. We’re presented with enemies to lovers, one bed, forced proximity, a lovely fc/mc, this beautiful chateau 😍😍, the city of love. It seams a bit cliche but it seams like I was reading a romance novel 😭😂. Sorry. But really, this book gave me a lot of feelings and in all it was amazing! 😭🥹😍

Enemies to lovers

Merry’s sister married Merry’s best friend who she also loves. Her godmother offers her a stay at her French castle, and she has also forgotten that she was going to let Noah stay there too.

This book felt very rushed, seemingly to get to a situation that seemed to get to a situation that comes out of nowhere. Even though this written in first person, I didn’t feel like I knew who Merry was let alone anyone else. It’s a quick jump from hate to love. It’s a quick read