I give this a 3/5 it's good. The narrator is fantastic. It definitely is a slow start for me, it took awhile to really invest in the story. I am definitely not someone who loves insta love and pretty much insta outta love. But the way this was done was not cringeworthy. I do think that the other could develop her character a little more but it's definitely a cute story and absolutely love juniper!

I gave this book 5 stars because it made me smile and happy. It is a well developed love story with a little intriguing mystery and a connection you knew would happen but enjoyed reading the slow burn of it happening. From the start you wanted our heroine to have all the things. You want her to have love and revenge! But you get love and fulfillment and reading this is just wonderful. Perfect beach read!

Merry DeLuca has been in unrequited love with her best friend, Leo, for years. The night she's about to profess her love to Leo, her sister, Angela, shows up. Leo instantly falls in love with Angela and proposes to her that same night. Heartbroken, Merry steps to the side and watches her sister marry her best friend.

After Leo and Angela come back from their honeymoon with shocking news, Merry decides it's time to escape and start focusing on her own life. Her godmother, Jupiter, has a castle in France and Merry decides it's the perfect place to get over her unrequited love. Arriving in France, who does she find but Noah Wright.

Noah was the best man in Leo and Angela's wedding. To Merry, it was hate at first sight with Noah. Noah just seemed to really dislike Merry when they first met. But now they'll be residing together in this chateau for 3 months. Noah is a travel documentarian and he's in France researching and working on his new project.

When Merry and Noah decide to put their differences aside and be friends, the story takes off. There's a bit of mystery, a whole lot of slow burn, and a really sweet happy ever after.

I thought this was a really cute story. At times, it was a bit predictable, but I enjoyed it. Sometimes you just need a sweet, funny, easy read as a palate cleanser. This did the trick nicely!

I want to book my flight right now!

Mary is trying to grapple with her feelings regarding her best friend marrying her sister. Her best friend whom she herself also loves.

The only cure for this is a romantic getaway to the France countryside. A castle stay, fresh food and a variety of wine should help her move on, right?

Well immediately Mary knows that things are not going according to her vision. The getaway is not what she pictured and the company is worse than she could have imagined.

This was a great romance mixed in with a mystery and lots of talk about unrequited love and heartbreak. Very Parisian

I read the book then listened to the audiobook .
For the audiobook I enjoyed listening to the narrator, she kept my interest and found it easy to listen to. I would listen to other books she narrated. It was easy to follow the storyline and the emotion of the story
For the story
I have loved all books I’ve read by Sarah Ready and this was no exception. It’s a great enemies to lovers story , there was a lot of depth to this romance, I loved the back story on Noah . All characters were relatable and the quirks they had fit well into the story. There were some laughable moments as well. The story wrapped up beautifully and all characters found their footings and learned to embrace life and love and all the beautiful and ugly times that come with it .

I voluntarily received a free copy from NetGalley and all opinions are my own .

I would recommend this book to family, friends and my book clubs

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC of “The French Holiday” in exchange for my honest review! First off WOW, I read a lot of arc’s and there are ones every so often that are clear stand outs and the French holiday was that, Merry is a hilarious main character and I was blessed with not only an arc but an audio book and I loved the narrator!

Noah was the perfect man, seriously one of my favorite characters, Camilla, the girl next door, was adorable, I wanted to not like Merry’s sister but I even liked her character! Leo was of course, hate-able.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who’s a fan of Rom-Coms.

Amazing audiobook. Narrator delivered the main characters inner monologue PERFECTLY and I was laughing out loud. I just struggled with how slow of a burn it was to be rushed once the romance came to a head. I felt like a completely different plot took over in the middle of the book. It could’ve been two separate books!

• Forced proximity
• One bed trope
• Enemies at first sight
• Banter
• Tension
• 1 Chilli for spice


I firstly want to thank Sarah Ready, Kelsey Navarro, Net Galley and Swift & Lewis Publishing, for giving me the opportunity to listen to this audio book early.
What do you do when your best friend/unrequited love married your sister? And on the wedding day you maybe or maybe not have a ONS with your enemy/best man to the wedding!

You escape to France to house sit your Grandmothers French home! But who else is there? Your enemy! What's he doing here?

Merry (Meredith) just cannot catch a break. Not only has she got to share a bed with Noah but something is bubbling between them.

Many funny moments including a lobster, a "kitten" and an allergic reaction. (Everyone was ok no worries!)

I really enjoyed listening to this as an audiobook and finished it in one day! It had me loling and wondering "ohh what's gonna happen next?!"

#FrenchHoliday #NetGalley

This was a cute and easy read. It’s giving hallmark love story. The characters were nice enough, but not the most memorable. I’d recommend this book for when you’re looking for a casual read you don’t have to think too much about. 3.5/5

I really enjoyed this audio of French Holiday, thank you for the ARC.
French Holiday is a classic rom com and doesn’t disappoint- great characters and story line with a real dry humour that gave me lots of laughs. The story has a deeper side to it too and the combination make a great book- well recommend as a perfect summer read.

🎧Song Pairing: Vacation - The Go-Go’s (I wanted something fun ands cheeky!

💭What I thought would happen:

I 💯 came for the gorgeous cover.

📖What actually happens:

Merry (Meredith) is the maid of honour to her sister and has just watched the love of her life marry said sister. What an absolute devastation. Even worse, they get pregnant on the honeymoon without even trying. Merry isn't shocked, her sister has always taken whatever she wants and that’s anything and everything Merry ever wish for.

When the opportunity comes up for Merry to house sit her her godmothers French country home, Merry books a flight asap. To her dismay, her enemy/best man of the wedding is also staying there, one bed and forced proximity…will they survive each other?

🗯Thoughts:

This was a cutie cute and I would like to recommend/give it a big shout out that I think is well deserved! Plus that cover…dang.

This book is like a collaboration of Katherine Heigl movies (in the best way). Think 27 Dresses meets Life as we Know It x The Ugly Truth

There is a LOL moment with a lobster named Louis whom was supposed to be dinner and the words “lobster legs molesting my breasts” worth the read just for this moment. 😂

I had read this back to back with the book Kismet, so similar in the sense of an angelic sister getting married, vacation setting and summer vibes. But truly can I ever get enough summer reading? Never!

Read if you enjoy:

🤭Forced proximity
🛏️One bed
🇫🇷French vacation

Genre/tropes: romance, forced proximity, grumpy/sunshine, enemies-to-lovers, open door
CW/TW: mention of parent with cancer

What should a broken-hearted girl do when her best friend and unrequited love marries her younger sister? Escape to France and stay in a castle! That’s what! Except when Merry arrives she finds a 300 year-old castle that’s best described as a ‘fixer upper’. Worse yet, the grumpy best friend of her new brother-in-law is staying there, too, so they agree to a truce. Noah’s there to work and research (he’s a famous travel documentarian), she’s there to be adventurous, and perhaps fall in love with a hot Frenchman, and forget about her heartbreak.

This was an entertaining romcom that had many comical situations including one with a lobster that had me in a laughing fit! I loved how Merry and Noah’s relationship went from antagonistic to “I’ll tolerate you” to “I miss you when you’re not here”. In the midst of it, a mystery to do with Noah’s research comes to the forefront. I liked the direction and how it brought them closer.

The narrator’s voice wasn’t what I expected for Merry’s character, but she grew on me, and was actually perfect for it. She was also excellent at portraying Merry’s sister making her at once sweet but also spoilt. To that point I wasn’t a fan of that character.

I had a blast listening to this! It felt like a true romcom with ridiculous scenarios and ‘almost’ moments that’d be interrupted thereby drawing out the inevitable for Merry and Noah. But hey, it just makes things spicier between them! I’ll gladly read or listen to more from Sarah Ready in the future.

Thanks to @netgalley & #SwiftAndLewisPublishing #IBPA for my ALC. This is my honest review.

𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗵 𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 is available April 26th.

Genre: Contemporary Romance
TW: Mention of Cancer
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️[4/5]
Spice: Open Door (Minimal Spice)
Review written by: M
*Thank you NetGalley & Swift & Lewis Publishing LLC for the Audio & E-Book of this ARC*
 
Plot:
Merry DeLuca’s life was falling apart, and she needed to get away. The perfect opportunity comes when her Godmother offers her a 3-month stay at her Romantic Castle in France. Merry envisions how her epic movie moments in France will play out, but they come crashing down quickly when she realizes that Noah Wright is also staying at the Castle. Noah is the worst man she has ever met, Mr. Grumpy, a jerk, and just plain arrogant. Being stuck in a castle together, with no other viable options, they strike a truce. You stay out of my way, and I will stay out of yours! But that never truly works out does it, especially when there is only one bed?

Thoughts: 
If you are a sucker for a slow burn romance with Enemies-to-lovers, grumpy vs sunshine, & one bed tropes? Then this book has every ingredient in your checklist. I went into this book with no expectations since it was my first time reading a Sarah Ready book and I have to say I LOVED it! It was the perfect cozy romance read that just gives you fairy-tale feels. This book can easily be picked up by Netflix. There are quite a few tropes checked off in this book (a few more than mentioned above). That would have usually annoyed me causing me to just become overwhelmed and DNF a book, but here it just worked. The narrator did a fantastic job with this book. Her accent change, the way she carefully crafted each characters voices just sold it for me. I will be on the lookout for more audiobooks with this narrator.
 
This book had a LOT going on all, various plot branches throughout making it land more on the “unrealistic” spectrum of things, but what cute, comfy read doesn’t benefit from some over the top unrealism. Be warned, if this is something that you do not like in books, this may not be it for you.
 
I do have an honorable mention. Louis/Louise is MVP! By far my favorite character of the entire book. I laughed so hard with Louis and I could vividly just picture the chaos. It was cute, it was funny & I loved it.
 
The descriptions of the French landscapes had my fingers itching to purchase a ticket to France and finish reading this book at a cute cafe sipping a cup of coffee with my chocolate croissant. We have all been there, dreaming of our French getaway and the epic movie romance and this just spoke to the hopeless romantic in me. I loved the Emily in Paris vibes I got from this book. Now excuse me while I go binge Emily in Paris and continue my Duolingo French lessons to be ready for when I end up in on my own French Holiday.

The first 30% of the book was ok. I was interested and found the characters enjoyable and even though predictable, the story was amusing. The entertainment was short-lived though and suddenly I liked nothing. The story, the characters... the appeal about both just went away and there was nothing in the story to redeem them. Main characters Merry and Noah's relationship was obvious and easy and actually made sense, but I think the storylines/characters/relationships around them were just too much and didn't really add anything good. As far as character development goes, there was nothing in my opinion. When reading a rom-com/chick lit book just a regular boy-girl meet-hate (maybe one likes one hates)-fall in love formula is expected, but it's the story around it that makes it likable for me. There was an attempt at a serious back story here but it just didn't work because of the lead up to it. As I look for the words to explain what it was that lost me, I think it was the main character Merry. I just didn't trust her feelings and therefore when the love part happened I just didn't find it believable. Also, what is with the Angela (sister) storyline? Was she supposed to be the comedic relief? Because I didn't get it.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc.

Merry decides she needs to take a French holiday in a chateau with wine, French cheeses and romance in order to get over the fact that her sister married her best friend, and the man she's in love with.

I enjoyed listening to the characters development from 'somewhat' enemies, to friends, to lovers. The atmosphere and scenery of the French chateau was beautifully described. I enjoyed that the story was not only a romance, but it also had a hint of mystery as well as Noah searches for a part of his past.

I enjoyed the Narrator for the Audio book for this. I received an Audio book Arc of French Holiday on Netgalley.

Thank you, Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with this free audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

OH MY GOD. I LOVED THIS SO MUCH?! It started off with a bit of a 27 Dresses vibe and just ended in it as well, with a few changes of course. But omg, I was expecting it to be a sweet silly rom com but damn, it turned out to be so much better?

This is my first 5 star read since jan and I absolutely am going to get EVERYONE else to read it. Even if I have to put them at gunpoint.

French Holiday was a great easy read (or in my case listen). The narrator kept me engaged and moved the story forward. I kept going on walks for "me time" just to listen to the book.

Merry leaves the country to escape her crush who married her best friend and decides to go to France. What she didn't expect was her enemy Noah (who is also her crush's best friend) to also vacation at the same chateau. This is the perfect setup for an enemies-to-friend trope. I always want to roll my eyes at this trope, but I keep coming back for more of them, so clearly I don't hate them.

I will be keeping my eye for the next book by this author.

Thank you Swift & Lewis Publishing and Netgalley for my ALC.

4.5 stars rounded up!

Salut j'ai adoré ce livre! 😍
Oh sorry - I’m so deep in the impeccable French vibes we got from French Holiday that I forgot I’m not actually in France (I also don’t actually know French, despite 4 years of it in high school. 🤪)

But seriously - French Holiday was CUTE! I absolutely loved Merry as our MC and I loved the almost grumpy/sunshine we got between her and Noah. Speaking of Noah…what incredible character development! We love a character that comes full circle. But truly everything about this book was lovely: the setting, the side characters, the various storylines - it was all so nice and kept me entertained the whole time. My only complaint, albeit very VERY minor, is the story was a little unnecessarily long but, for how much fun I had with it, it’s really not a big deal so don’t let that deter you. I also got to take a second to throw all the praise at Kelsey Navarro, the narrator of this book. She is one of my favorite audio narrators and I absolutely loved her as Merry!

A huge thank you goes out to NetGalley and Swift and Lewis Publishing for an advanced copy of this audiobook. French Holiday drops April 26 so get it on your tbr! ❤️🇫🇷

I'd like to preface this by saying I really do love a good romcom. However, this was a complete miss for me. I found the plot to be all over the place with too many side stories that I felt were unnecessary. The main character was unrelatable, unlikable, and very immature for being a woman in her 30s.

I will note that there were some funny parts in this book that involved a lobster trying escape. I did like it enough to finish but felt the book was a bit long.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC for an honest review.

<i>3.5/5</i>


I REALLY liked this, the narrator was amazing, and although in the beginning I wasn’t sure I would, I ended up liking Merry. I also liked Noah.

I loved Camille and Pierre’s story too, I admit when I thought Camille liked Noah I kind of hated her..

But I did really like this, thank you Netgalley for an arc!!

-

<i> rtc and thank you netgalley!!</i>


I got an arc from netgalley!! I’ve read A LOT of sarah ready’s books but I wouldn’t say I’m a fan, let’s see if this one changes my mind bc I actually like this way more alr