Member Reviews
Merry smiles as she watches her little sister marry her best friend. The only problem, is Merry is in love with him, too. And the best man, Noah, can see it on her face. After a night she can't remember with Noah (although she gets the gist of what went down looking around the room the next morning as she is putting on her clothes), she knows she needs to regroup. Her godmother offers her the chance to look after her French chateau. And what could be a better way to nurse a broken heart and wounded pride than escape to a picturesque French chateau? Until she sees the state of disrepair it is in. And that Noah is there too!
She and Noah come to a truce so they can both stay and they form a sweet friendship. Merry tries to have a passionate affair with a Frenchman, but that doesn't quite go to plan. Especially when she realizes she is falling for Noah. But Noah seems to be searching for something more than just his next documentary. And when her sister says Noah is dangerous, she doesn't quite know what to think.
This book was a fun escape and a slow burn. I truly enjoyed the blending of rom com and cozy mystery.
I am thankful for the electronic copy of the book that I received from @Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book deserves to go viral! A charming rom-com set in France, full of heartwarming romance, a family mystery, and the cutest bantering ever. The romance! The jealousy! This book was simply everything!
Merry is crazy stupid in love with her best friend, the catch? He is marrying her perfect younger sister. No one knows Leo is the love of her life except her nemesis and also Leo’s groomsman Mr. Noah Wright. With a broken heart, Merry decides to take on her godmother's offer to spend a perfect holiday at her favorite getaway, a French chateau for three months. What she didn't expect was to find Noah there as well. They are now stuck together for three months in one of the most romantic sceneries of France, and guess what? There's only one bed!
I genuinely loved this book. It was extremely engaging from the first page. I was expecting a cute cliche rom-com but ended up with so much more!
The narration was perfect. Kelsey Navarro's voice was an incredible fit for our girl Merry. I really loved her reading style and the pace it gives to the whole reading experience.
The flow of this book was extremely good and the whole experience was super enjoyable. A charming and lovely novel.
French Holiday-⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ok this Rom Com was exactly what I needed after the heaviness of Im Glad My Mom Died. It’s the perfect enemies to lovers/one bed trope love story. It was a breath of fresh air and so dang funny. Both main characters were great together and each had individual back story’s that brought the two together in the end. I love that the story begins and ends the same, but with an entirely different outlook.
Thank you @netgalley @sarahreadyauthor , and #swiftandlewispublishingllc for this ARC. I absolutely loved it!
My first book by this author and I'll be listening/reading more!
A sweet romance with great, likable characters and laugh out loud scenes.
The standout for me was Kelsey Navarro's narration. I had tears, tears of laughter at certain points ("Why France, WHY???", Sweet Kitty).
This is not my first book narrated by this talented woman and it won't be my last.
Thank you NetGalley for the audio ARC.
This book made me laugh out loud so much!
I absolutely love the narrator! She was perfect! I feel like she took this book one more level up with how she portrayed it.
The plot was cool, funny and a bit of a twist towards the end I didn’t see coming. Very enjoyable!
this book was so romantic. you don't just get romance from the main couple, you get it from a bunch of other side characters. and it kept the book super fun. i liked this book a good amount, its not a life changing romance book, but i had a rlly good time. this book delivered more than just a romance plot, there was some side mysteries that were interesting. i also rlly liked how this book discussed the importance of love and how it can affect a person. Mary and Noah were very cute.
I've become a bit of a follower of Sarah Ready after the Josh and Gemma series and "French Holiday" lives up to her name. Escapism fiction at its best, these romantic comedies with-some-twist are great palate cleansers after a more serious read. I enjoy the banter, the hijinks, and the tame but juicy lust. I especially enjoyed the fantastical setting of a run-down French chateau. Sounds corny but somehow, it's modern and you forget it sounds like a child's fairytale. Mary and Noah are very relatable sufferers of unrequited love and I couldn't help but root for them.
Such a fun read! I loved getting to watch Merry experience life in France & fall in love the correct way - organically.
Sarah Ready absolutely charmed me with this adorable romantic comedy. This one had so much going for it! First, a crumbling French chateau with bats, rats, and roaches. Second, a broody, aloof and sexy man. And a sweet and heartbroken woman looking to find herself. Throw them all together, and you have this delightful tale. I adored Merry and Noah. Their snarky banter and bickering were a delight! The simmering attraction between them had me begging for more. I wanted these two hurt and broken people to find the love they both deserved. This one had some of my favorite romance tropes. I love an enemies-to-lovers storyline, especially when they have to share one bed. The added mystery and intrigue made this a fast-paced and exciting tale. The narrator, Kelsey Navarro, delivered an excellent reading of this book. She did a fantastic job with the narration, and I loved how she brought the characters to life! I definitely recommend this audiobook to all of my romance-loving friends! French Holiday was such a fun book to listen to!
Thank you, Swift & Lewis Publishing, LLC and NetGalley, for an Advance Listener Copy of this audiobook!
This was exactly what I needed.A cutsie love story that made me giggly and happy and that I couldn’t put down. I finished the book within 1 1/2d. I think this says everything. I regret not listening to it while on holiday, I think it would be the most perfect combination. All of this being said I don’t think that I will remember anything about this book in a week. It’s great and perfect but not life changing.
Also the main character is a little bit annoying at times but over all very loveable.
It is also perfect for people that hate unnecessary break ups and bad communication. It is a tiny time but angsty at times but it never last long enough to be annoying.
The setting is also really pretty and almost enchanted.
The characters also have thought out backstories and it feels like they have passions and lives outside of this story. They have a past and hopefully a beautiful future and I was rooting for them from the get go.
Also there is a little bit of mystery included.
The beginning reminded me of the beginning of “the un honeymooners” but it was way better.
One bed and “enemies” to lovers.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Merry has some unrequited love that she needs to work through so she heads to France to stay in her godmother's chateau. Once she arrives, she discovers that her nemesis Noah has some how also found his way to the same chateau! Some hilarious hijinks follow as Noah and Merry work through their fraught relationship with one another.
This was a fun novel that had more depth than I was expecting when I first started reading it. The secondary characters Camille and Pierre, who are neighbors to the chateau, who had some fun interactions with Noah and Merry.
I truly disliked some characters like her self-absorbed sister, but adored other like Jupiter, Merry's godmother.
All-in-all, this was a good read by Ms. Ready. Also, I loved the cover art and the narrator of the story!
I am going to start off by saying we all need a Godmother like Jupiter. Her quote that all of us are artists designing our destiny just spoke to me.
The first part of the book was not a love for me. I didn’t believe how both Noah and Mary ended up at the same place. It felt too rushed. And I will also say that I felt this book tried to do too much.
That being said, I loved the second half. I love the adventure they were on to solve the mystery. I love how Mary finds herself. I love how this book is filled with many different kinds of love and I couldn’t put it down.
I loved the setting so much, there's something about a book in France that takes it to a whole other level. At times I really struggled liking Merry, I thought at times she was quite dramatic and her thoughts were a little much. Her sister was super needy and thought her opinion trumped everything and that was super annoying but I get that that was entirely how the character was supposed to be. The story all together was super cute and was great in a "you end up with you should" kind of way. I fell in love with Noah, he was so misunderstood for part of the book but truly is awesome, like I wish I had a Noah haha.
I....did not like this. I was uninterested in the 27 Dresses aspect of the sister relationship, I did not like the narrator, I did not like the main character. Also it made zero sense for Noah to have such an established career as a travel documentarian if he's their age? I found the romance unearned, the conflict overly curated.
I got all the feels reading this delightful story.. Loved the banter between Merry and Noah with their relationship getting off a to rocky start, since he called her out on her crush with his best friend and her sisters fiancé.. Little did they know soon they’d be spending 3 months in France, in a run down chateau full of with roaches, bats, a rat and a lobster. Their journey in discovering their inner selves and seeing each others true character was well worth the read. I was laughing out loud with Sarah Ready’s witty writing. I highly recommend it!
Pretty cute! This was a pretty fun romcom with a lovely backdrop of the French countryside.
The family dynamics was an interesting dynamic of the story, but it didn't really lean into it as heavily as it could have, keeping this as a fairly standard story.
Full of fun tropes.
I really liked how healthy the relationship between the main characters was. Towards the end, the story starting veering towards a problematic third act conflict, but everything was handled in a very mature and healthy way, which is always nice to see.
This is my 3rd Sarah Ready book (this year) I adored Josh and Gemma. This one was just as cute if not better.
Merry DeLuca is a people pleaser so instead of telling her sister she's in love with her best friend and the night shes going to tell him. Her sister meets him and its instant love and a fast wedding on top of it. Merry is happy for her but knows she has to get away to really let him go.
So when she gets offered a 3 month vacation in the French country side. She's like Perfect she can meet a French man all the pastries vineyard tours what could go wrong..... But when she gets there the detail of Noah her best friends best friend that hates her is also staying there for his next story.
Neither want to leave to lets make the best of a crap situation. She's not going to let him ruin her French holiday and maybe they can become friends? But the more time they spend together she realizes there is more to him and turns out he doesn't hate her and never has. Maybe something can happen but he doesn't want to be a 2nd choice the person you us to get over someone else.
This was a great read and its a grumpy sunshine story and I'm living for these right now. What I loved most is Merry growing a backbone and finally live for herself not for anyone else including her sister. Chiefs kiss.
Thank you NetGalley for this Audio Arc in exchange for my honest Review.
I can see this book will have fans. Unfortunately, I am not one of them. There were parts I liked, mostly the setting and the godmother. Noah would have been a better main character than Merry, especially if Merry was not his love interest. I just wasn't buying it. She's a twit. There were too many side stories that wouldn't have been missed.
The narrator was good but the MC was so annoying that I found the narrator annoying as well.
Merry has been in love with her best friend but he falls instantly in love with her sister. At their wedding Merry and the best man, Noah, who have always hated each other continue to clash but do share a kiss. Merry’s aunt offers her the chance to escape to chateau in France and Merry accepts only to find when she arrives that her aunt has also offered it to Noah. The chateau is in disrepair and the pair must share a bed and they become friends then fall in love while trying to uncover the mystery behind a painter in the region who disappeared.
It’s a romance set in a French chateau, I was always going to like it. I really liked both Merry and Noah and found both their journey’s to be interesting and full stories. While this book is all in Merry’s POV, it is very much Noah’s story as well. I found the A and various B plots to be compelling in a way that many books I’ve read recently have not been, making this book feel like a much fuller story. The only negative for me was that much of the drama felt over the top to the point of bing melodramatic, but it didn’t ruin the book for me. Overall I was very entertained and will have to keep an eye out for Sarah’s next book.
I listened to the audiobook more than I actually read it and really enjoyed myself. Kelsey Navarro was a wonderful reader. She did the voices well enough that I could always tell who was speaking and also managed to do very well with the French which is a skill a lot of narrators do not have.
Thank you to NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing LLC for the ARC and ALC in exchange for an honest review.
I’ve never had a book make me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. It was funny, enchanting, and overall beautiful. I’ve never been to France but Sarah Ready made me feel like I was right there with Noah and Mary. Now please excuse me while I plant my cucumber garden while pretending I live in a castle.