I had high hopes for this book, as the premise sounded like a perfect beach read. I loved the setting at the French chateau, and the enemies to lovers trope.
However, I felt the author didn’t quite hit the mark with how Noah progressed to his absolute, “forever love” for Merry. They both seemed to fall in love way too quickly.
Also, the writing was at times lovely and enjoyable, but other times it derailed the story. The lobster scene was so slapstick, it became annoying in a hurry. Completely unbelievable. And then the lobster actually reappeared days later. It was supposed to be kitschy, but didn’t work for this reader.

Thank you to Swift & Lewis Publishing LLC, and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my review.

A sweet and funny rom com that takes place mostly in France. Merry is searching for what she really wants now that she can make herself a priority, and she ends up at the same chateau as her nemesis Noah. As the peel the layers back of who they are and what they want, Merry realizes there is more to Noah than meets the eye. With a few side plots this charming novel is rounded out, and Merry and Noah get their happily ever after.

This was a fun summer read. It was cute and funny. I really enjoyed the back and forth between Noah and Merry.

The absolutely perfect summer read!!! Really enjoyed the book!!


Thank you soooooo much netgalley, the author and the publisher for the advanced review copy if this book💗

Perfect!!! Really enjoyed the book!!!

Thank you soooooo much netgalley, the author and the publisher for the advanced review copy if this book💗
"I voluntarily read and reviewed the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

I love a cute rom com in the French countryside, and add to that a little enemies to lovers trope and I am THERE! Merry as the main character is hilarious and is very genuine to herself and I love that she is also relatable in the way that she struggles with insecurities just like we all do. Another thing that I really enjoyed about this book was that the MCs started out as friends and their relationship grew and matured naturally which I love to read about because I think thats one of the best ways that a great relationship can from. GO READ THIS BOOK!

Thank you so much NetGalley and Sarah Ready for this opportunity to read and review this book!

Firstly , thank you netgalley and ofcourse publisher for providing this book....

3.5 stars for me.

One (crumbling) French castle. Two enemies-at-first-sight. The holiday of a lifetime.

Merry DeLuca has a problem—a big problem. Her sister just married her best friend and the only man she’s ever loved. Her life is rapidly spiraling down the drain and she doesn’t have an escape plan.

So when Merry is offered a three-month holiday living in a romantic castle in the French countryside she leaps at the chance. Merry knows her French holiday will fix everything—there will be mouthwatering pastries, delicious (meaningless) flirtations, and languid strolls through vineyards at sunset. Her holiday will be perfect.

At least, Merry believes that until she arrives and finds Noah Wright—the best man at her sister’s wedding and the worst man she’s ever known—staying in her castle.

Famous travel documentarian by day and arrogant devil by night, Noah refuses to leave the castle. Which means that Merry and Noah are stuck together in France, in a crumbling castle, in a holiday where nothing goes right. Not for Merry and not for Noah.

So they strike a truce—they’ll live as cohabitating friends for three-months, and then they’ll amicably part ways, never to see each other again.

But the thing about friendship? Sometimes secrets are uncovered. Mysteries revealed. Hearts laid bare. And friendship can start to feel a lot like caring. A lot like love. It can even make you wish that the holiday never has to end.

I REALLY liked this, the narrator was amazing, and although in the beginning I wasn’t sure how will I even complete the book as the first half of the book is quite slow pace.
I actually like the second half of the book more as the romantic part was quite prominent but it end quite abruptly. I guess ,It one time read for me.

At times I became frustrated by the characters. It might have been that there was too much inner monologue, but I felt I couldn’t get invested in the story. I believe it is just me though as I have come off of reading a large number of thrillers and still might have been in that mindset. I will definitely be coming back to this book later in the summer during vacation as I liked the authors writing style.

I want to thank NetGalley, Sarah Ready and Swift & Lewis Publishing LLC, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles for the e-ARC of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are honest, my own and left voluntarily.

This was my first Sarah Ready book and was so good I'm now on the look for other books by her. Very cute enemies to lovers rom-com.

Thank you Swift & Lewis Publishing LLC and NetGalley for the copy.

The Magic of finding love in France. Who hasn’t thought about taking an extended holiday? Noah and merry are the perfect escape for a vacation or beach read. This was my first Sarah ready book and I’m hooked, this story had everything from friendship, humor and romance dont hesitant reading this!!

Girl is in love with best friend. Best friend marries girl's sister. Girl spends the night with best friend's best man. They go their separate ways but meet unexpectedly in a run down French castle.

Cute rom-com. Just the pallet cleanser that I needed after reading so many "heavy" books.

This book was a delight! I wanted something fun and light to get me out of a reading slump, and I was drawn to the bright, fun cover of this one. It's packed full of tropes (enemies to lovers, forced proximity, one bed), witty dialogue, dream scenery and a fairy godmother (after all, who DOESN'T want to be gifted a free vacation at a chateau in France?!) It had a fun mystery subplot that I didn't expect but it added a lot to the character development. If you are looking for a fun beach read, this is it!

This was a heartwarming enemies to lovers romance with a little mystery tossed in. I loved the atmospheric scenes and the humor.
Many thanks to Swift & Lewis Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a wonderfully immersive read with a setting that was incredibly vivid with a storyline that was just as vibrant. The intertwining of the budding relationship between Noah and Merry along with a love story from a different time in the same setting was unexpected and made me invested in how it all fits together. The way that Noah and Merry played off of each other and really saw each other underneath what everyone else expected them to be was what created a really lovely foundation for a heartfelt connection between them, and I absolutely loved reading every second of it. Although the pacing was sometimes uneven, and the ending in particular felt a bit rushed, this was a perfect summer read that instantly captured the richness of a European getaway complete with equal parts romance and atmosphere.

I am not a romance reader but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is clever with using the romance cliche tropes but then moving you in a different direction. There is humor sprinkled throughout. The author also wraps in a mystery to be solved which keeps the story moving. I found the characters lovable and contemporary. There are some steamy scenes but certainly not distracting or distasteful. Overall, this was a fantastic summer read and would fit well into anyone's travel holiday.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this book.

I loved this book! Not only was it absolutely adorable, it was so funny, I wishI could reread for the first time.

This book is perfect if you're looking for escapism! Because I'm not kidding when I say Sarah Ready provides just that in 'French Holiday'. I giggled, laughed and swooned my way through this book. I've got to be honest - I am very jealous of our main character, Merry, because I want to go to a French castle and find romance too! 🤣

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book. I wasn’t sure what to expect since I wasn’t familiar with this author. The book opens with a heartbreaking scene in which Merry’s best friend is marrying her sister Angela. Unfortunately, Merry is in love with Leo and this wedding is killing her. Noah is Leo’s other best friend and best man at the wedding and there seems to be some inexplicable animosity between him and Merry.

Luckily, Merry has a godmother, Jupiter, who is really more of a fairy godmother, who offers her the opportunity to escape everything in her life and stay at a chateau in France. Initially reluctant to do so, Merry eventually reaches a breaking point and decides to go. Of course, Jupiter fails to tell her that she has simultaneously rented the chateau to Noah. The moment she realizes this is quite funny.

In fact, there are a lot of funny things that happen in this story. There is one particular scene involving a lobster that is beyond farcical and had me laughing out loud (not to be confused with lol). There were also some wonderful descriptions. When Merry offers Noah a ride (back in NY), “He looked at me like he’d rather sit in a barrel full of oozing pus-filled slugs, and practically ran out of the restaurant to hail a cab.” When she gets to France and gets a chocolate croissant from the airport, she observes: “In New York, a baked good from an airport kiosk would taste like rubber shoe soles and dirty cardboard, but apparently in France, even the lowest of the low serves ambrosia.”

Merry, who has decided to go by Meredith in France as she strives to reinvent herself, does not speak French, but her explanation is so funny: “We already ascertained that I speak extremely limited French. Mainly, even with my translation guide, I can only seem to remember, ‘Bonjour,’ ‘comme ci, comme ça’ and ‘voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?’” As Noah finishes telling Merry she’s not in some rom-com where some handsome guy named Pierre is going to sweep her off her feet, a handsome guy named Pierre shows up on his motorcycle.

Meredith is determined she’s going to experience “love” while in France, and since Pierre is clearly interested in her, she’s going to make the effort. While getting ready for her date, she explains that she had to watch a tutorial to learn how to do a smokey eye before doing it. “It took about fifteen minutes…okay, two hours, but why don’t they tell you doing a smokey eye is impossible?”

Meanwhile, Merry and Noah are growing to know one another better and forming a grudging friendship, mostly pushed by Merry who is sunshiney and optimistic while Noah comes across as more of a curmudgeon. She appreciates every bit of joy she can drag out of him. “Noah gives a rusty laugh. It sounds out of practice, and unused, like a door that’s been shut for a long time and is only now creaking open.” And I loved this conversation. Noah has to leave for a few days. When he returns, Merry admits she used one of his books to try to kill a cockroach.
“Anyway, I used the book to scare the cockroach.”
“So it was a horror novel?”
I laugh and we share a grin. “No. It was some sort of giant history book. Four hundred pages or so. I was going to bore the cockroach to death.”

A word about Jupiter. This woman is a character, who calls herself a muse for artists, and I feel like a book could be written just about her. However, there are two things she says that I love:
“I like being a nude model, because the artists only think about the art. I dislike sitting for portraits, because then the artist is only thinking about me being nude.”
And:
“Without art, a soul becomes a barren desert. Art is rain for the parched earth.”

I loved this book and would gladly read it again. I hope to be given the opportunity to read more from Sarah Ready. I definitely recommend it and it’s going on my list of favorites.

This was my very first Sarah Ready book that I read and wow was I happy I read it and yes, I finished this book in less than two days! That is how much I loved the characters and the storyline. It reminded me a little of "27 dresses", but more funny.

Meet Meredith Deluca, aka Merry, who is in love with here best friend for 5 years, Leo. The only problem is that her best friend Leo is about to walk down the isle to marry her sister, Angela. Leo's best man Noah immediately notices Merry but he also notices the way Merry looks at Leo and knows right away that she is in love with her sisters soon to be husband. Merry gets drunk (obviously because what else would you do in that situation) and her and Noah, the best man, end up kissing and Merry wakes up in his bed not able to remember what happened the night before.

Fast forward to Merry getting an opportunity from her godmother to run away to France for a few months to escape the crazy in her life. She arrives and immediately loves the French Castle that she will be living in but is quickly dismayed when she realizes that she is not the only one staying there. Noah, the best man that she may or may or may not have slept with is there too doing research.

Lots of hilarious moments which involve a pet lobster names Louis and bats and animals and French neighbors, Pierre & Camille, this book had my attention and made me laugh out loud many times.

This was a true vacation or beach read and I loved it.

I cannot wait to read my next Sarah Ready book!

Thank you Netgalley and Sarah Reddy for my complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I honestly thoroughly enjoyed it!

Overall rating 4.3

The perfect sunny day read. This book will whisk you away to France, you will want to eat cheese and drink wine from the bottle as you fall in love with Merry. Not only did I laugh out loud while I read this but I stayed up reading long past my bedtime as I just had to know the ending. This book had it all, enemies to lovers, comedy and mystery. Definitely one to read this summer.