This was so adorable! I was already a fan of Uzma Jalaluddin, so I was really excited to see this on NetGalley. I actually think it would make an excellent holiday movie. I appreciated that it didn’t completely center Christmas, because there are already so many books that do. It was festive & a great book to read at the holidays!

I absolutely loved this holiday read. The cozy, family (plus found family!), stranded in a snowstorm in a perfect holiday town was perfectly written. I loved each character in this book and was rooting for them from the start. The romances felt exciting and I found myself excited to read more to find out who ends up with who! I loved learning and reading about different holidays and combining them all into a book that felt like a warm, holiday hug.

This was a sweet Christmas read. I loved the different culture and the very sweet parents. I will read other books by this Author.

This one wasn't a hit for me. I can appreciate the melding of three major holidays and the perfect storm of festivity that can bring. What I didn't understand was the choice to set this story in the year 2000. Near as I can tell, the only impact that it had on the story was the lack of ability to use a smartphone. The slang and mannerisms seemed no different than a story set in the present day. It seemed like a gimmick that was added to allow them to be cut off from others, but not fully embraced. I don't need likable characters, but I do like it when we get some depth. I just wasn't drawn in by the characters in this book. In a sea of holiday romances, this one just wasn't a success for me.

I was really excited for how this book pitched bringing different winter celebrations together in one story, but after reading a chapter or two of Anna's story, I just was annoyed by her. She didn't feel authentic and the lack of honesty between her and her boyfriend (fiancee?) was just kind of annoying. Life's too short to read holiday books with an annoying character.

Alright, you have to escape reality a bit for this one - it is fiction after all. AFTER you do, this was super cute! Super Hallmark-ey and I loved it. I was so invested in the cheesiness of it all. I loved that it felt diverse enough with Christmas, Hanukkah, and Ramadan. I would say it is more heavy on the Ramadan side because one of the FMC was Muslim whereas the other FMC and MMC celebrated Hanukkah. I am such a fan of different religions and cultures so both authors made this informative!

Needless to say that I loved having a diverse cast of characters (Dadu)!! These two authors were able to combine different traditions into one holiday romance.

Stranded at the airport during a snow storm on the way to a wedding = family drama
Meeting a new airplane buddy = friendship
Childhood crush and small town connection = romance

I think Snow Falls should be visited more times :) Maybe for a future holiday or wedding....

Honestly, this is quite a good book, but I was just so incredibly bored while reading it. This book tried to do quite a lot, and therefore it never did any of it paticularly well. Okay, I sound like I'm contradicting myself, I know.
I think this book did a great job at representing the different holidays, and I loved the focus on what those holidays mean to our different characters. I do think it sometimes overexplained some of the traditions, but I guess for people reading this book who aren't familair with them that might have been a nice element. I also loved how this celebrated all the different holidays, and cultures. Christmas was definitely the least important of the three holidays within this book, but it kind of deserves that. There's been plenty of Christmas focussed stories already.
I just feel like the characters were a bit one dimensional, especially the two love interests. Damn, I could barely tell you anything about them, despite there being several deep conversations too many in this book. Honestly, the amount of "deep" conversations in this book is absolutely uncountable, and any combination of characters you can think of had one of those conversations. It really wasn't necacary, and it bogged down the book quite a book, in my opinion. The romances at the centre of this book were also just not it. I don't know, there isn't anything bad about it, but I just didn't feel it. I guess, that is because of the underdeveloped characters.
The main thing I loved in this book is the friendship between these two main characters. They form such a deep connection and natural friendship over such a short amount of time. I also like how despite having very different struggles, they do relate to each other a whole lot. It honestly was such a strong part of this book, that I'd recommend reading this book just for their friendship, despite me being bored by the rest of it.

Oof, this one fizzled fast. I struggle with books that have two FMC, but then also add in two MMC and a few other people, and you’ve lost me. The author also tried to make this a cutesy little town on the side of the road that they all visit when stranded, yet there’s also some incredibly famous people there at the exact same time filming a mega movie. I think that’s a bit hard to truly believe and go for. Then, at the same time, there’s all kinds of holiday celebrations, a giant fashion show (in the small town…), and other things. I think the idea was to be small, but it went grand and it went grand QUICK! Not my cup of tea, but might be someone else’s who enjoys all the turmoil and multiple vantage points. Thanks for the opportunity!

The year 2000 was special not only for being the dawn of a new millennium, but also for being a year in which the holiday seasons of Christmas, Ramadan, and Hanukkah all fell within days of each other … meaning people of all walks of life were making memories and celebrating meaningful moments at the same time. Authors Uzma Jalauddin and Marissa Stapley have taken us back over 20 years to that unique moment in time with their co-authored seasonal novel Three Holidays and a Wedding.

Three Holidays and a Wedding follows two protagonists - dutiful Muslim daughter Maryam who is headed to Toronto with her family for her younger sister’s wedding and fish-out-of-water Anna who is on her way to the same destination to meet her boyfriend’s affluent family for the first time. On the same plane and seated next to each other, Maryam and Anna meet, but don’t exactly hit it off at first. However, that all changes when their plane is diverted due to a snowstorm and they find themselves grounded in the tiny Canadian town of Snow Falls.

Stuck in Snow Falls for the unforeseeable future, the two woman explore the village and discover that it is actually a melting pot of cultures and religions. Maryam, a follower of Islam, and Anna, who grew up celebrating both Christmas and Hanukkah, are delighted to discover that there’s a little something for everyone in this quaint town. As the women become assimilated with their surroundings, they learn more about themselves and what they want for their futures. And what would be a holiday novel without a little romance? You can bet that both Maryam and Anna may also cross paths with love as they set out on this journey of seasonal self-discovery.

Three Holidays and a Wedding succeeds in what it sets out to do - to highlight other religions and seasonal celebrations in addition to Christmas. In fact, Christmas completely takes a back seat in this diverse and informative novel with Ramadan/Eid and Hanukkah holding the spotlight. However, despite offering up tons of facts about these celebrations (I did learn quite a bit about Muslim and Jewish traditions from this book), this novel didn’t make me fall in love with these holidays. I never quite felt enveloped in the celebrations as Three Holidays and a Wedding failed to evoke any meaningful feelings from me in that regard. Rather, the book felt a bit preachy, as if it was trying too hard to be diverse and different, as opposed to letting this story follow a more natural progression.

Recommended to readers looking for a holiday novel that is NOT about Christmas, featuring a diverse cast of characters and small town vibes.

This is Hallmark vibes- but on steroids. I don't mean it in a bad way- I love the holiday feels but when so many POV's get added.. I feel lost while reading. For someone with ADHD it's hard to keep up when POV's change. I love the representation throughout the story, I feel that it's so important especially as someone who doesn't see their culture/religion represented enough. I went into this with such HIGH hopes and it fell sort of flat.

I enjoyed this very much! It was fun to read about all the Holidays coming together and the different celebrations.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This one started off pretty stressful. But I tend to be a stressed traveler and one of the characters was really having all the worst luck. Luckily my husband has taken over all the planning and our schedule on travel days so I don’t flip out and ruin everyone's day lol. But even though the weather was bad and they were diverted to a small Christmas town it was delightful.
Loved the family dynamics, found family and new romances. This was set when Christmas, Ramadan and Hanukkah were during the same week or at least very close together. Loved the detail and inclusion of all the holidays tradition and practices.
But also very lighthearted with a Hallmark type movie being shot nearby.

I thought it was a cute holiday book. I enjoyed learning about all three holidays the most. Snow Falls seemed a bit far-fetched but I loved how everybody stranded there became a family.
The only thing I didn’t like about the book was Nick and Saima’s attitudes. Saima made me really mad throughout the story.
Overall, I’d recommend this book to readers for the holidays!

Maryam and Anna are two women from Denver just trying to get to Toronto for the holidays. They meet as seatmates on the plane, which strands them in a small town near Ottowa after it makes an emergency landing due to a mega-blizzard. This is the blizzardiest blizzard that has ever blizzard as it strands them in this quaint, perfect, ethnically diverse town for almost a week. This down has a ton of diversity, but apparently zero snow plows. While the two women are seemingly vastly different with differing religions, ethnicities, races, and family structure, they share a great deal in common in that they are both super unhappy and unfulfilled in life and are both surrounded by inflexible, selfish adult toddlers who expect them to be able to fix the weather. Hot take- that is impossible.

The book takes place in 2000, when Ramadan, Christmas, and Hanukkah occur all at the same time. Maryam and her family are in the midst of Ramadan as they head to Toronto for her sister’s (who is a bit of an asshole) wedding. Anna is going to Toronto to spend Christmas with her boyfriend’s (who is a lot of an asshole) family. Both women use their time stranded in the little town to fix their shit and fall in love. Anna perhaps moves on from her shitty BF a little fast but he sucks so she’s forgiven.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I loved the two women’s stories and found friendship. I loved that Ramadan was the main holiday- I learned so much! It’s so nice to see diversity in romance books. The story itself dragged for me in the second half and there is zero smut. If you are looking for a low smut, nice holiday romance that focuses on other holidays- this is the book for you.

Smut- 0.5 stars
Romance- 4.1 stars
Story- 3.8 stars
Having a weather travel delay that lasts 6 days- neg 13 stars

Three Holidays and a Wedding
Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley, 2023
New Release! A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley for the purpose of review.

I joke sometimes about how modern romance novels of a certain type are more movie pitches than books. This one definitely started out that way, but by the end, it was at least a corny movie I think I'd enjoy. I guess the authors know what they're doing there, both have had projects optioned for film or TV according to the bios in the back.

In the first chapter, we meet Anna. Anna is ready for her perfect Christmas with her boyfriend's perfect family, she has to be. Otherwise her perfect boyfriend's perfect family won't be happy if everything doesn't go perfectly.

If you guessed that Anna's boyfriend is like a parody of "the guy who is bad for our heroine," you'd be right. But after a whole scene of me wincing at everything he says, he leaves ahead of her because she has to complete a work project (to keep the job she hates in order to keep up the facade of her perfect life) before she can catch her flight to Toronto for Christmas.

Meanwhile, we meet our second main character. Maryam is shepherding her whole family toward her sister's 12/26 wedding in Toronto and she's stressed beyond belief.

Maryam and Anna end up sitting together on the plane and unexpectedly bond when some frightening turbulence shakes something loose in both women, causing them to reassess whether they're really happy with the way their lives are going. A major storm redirects the plane and everyone on board is stranded in a tiny Canadian town which is apparently a ridiculous multi-cultural melting pot because it's built around the Christmas film industry and film people be like that and Canadians are all nice and wonderful people. It's all very silly and sugary. We can move on.

While stranded, the two women each strike up new romances: Anna with a mysterious charming stranger who turns out to be a movie star and Maryam with her childhood crush who was attending her sister's wedding. Wait, you didn't think this was an LGBT book, did you? Nope, this is a Hallmark-ready story about two women who rediscover themselves with new boyfriends that also features a token lesbian couple as very minor characters.

Maryam's romance feels a lot more real, not just because she and Saif have known each other a long time, but because their characters feel more like real people than Anna and Josh. While both new beaus are fantasy-land perfect for our girls, Saif is perfect because he's patient and kind and understands Maryam's role in her family and her struggles, while Josh is perfect because he just wants to be with someone "real." So both Anna's love interests are ridiculous caricatures.

Anywho, why is the title "Three Holidays and a Wedding"? The book is set very specifically in the year 2000 (although establishing this fact seems to be relegated to a few jokes for the audience and otherwise ignored) because that was the year that Christmas, Hanukkah, and Ramadan overlapped.

Maryam, Saif, and her whole family are fasting and preparing for Eid, which complicates the whole "being stranded" thing. They're also missing the lead up to her sister's wedding, which should be a big, Bollywood-style affair for this Pakistani family. Anna is struggling with the holidays because although she loves Christmas, she also used to celebrate Hannukah with her stepmom, and she's been feeling bereft since her father's passing a few years prior. Christmas is actually the least important holiday for any of the major characters, even as it's important for the setting and the other people in the town.

All ends well for all our leads of course, Maryam and Anna together even manage to save the sister's wedding and put on an event for the town on a ludicrously short timetable (montages to the rescue?)

By the end, I thought this book was nothing brilliant, but very sweet and silly with a few welcome moments of actual poignancy. Like I said at the start, not a bad choice for a movie.

This book was a caricature of cliches. I was really excited about the diverse representation, especially in a holiday romance. But everything felt so surface level or ridiculous it was hard to really get into it.

The writing wasn’t particularly good or captivating (it felt very 2000s fan fic and not in a good way) and the characters were lacking development. I really wanted to like it. And there were moments I thought I would, moments I connected with a character (really only Farrah and Dadu), but then something else shifted the tone back. Another reviewer said “it was set in the year 2000 but had absolutely no reason to be.” I couldn’t agree more. I read that this is the time when the three holidays actually coincided, but I feel like that’s a strange reality anchor when everything else was so unbelievable. Instead it felt like it was set in this timeline to capture millennials with nostalgia, but it didn’t work for me because it felt so disconnected from actually appreciating the era. Instead it threw in random 2000s tidbits and hoped they stirred some nostalgic feelings.

I really liked the friendship that develops between Maryam and Anna. But otherwise this book just tried too hard and created a setting that was too unbelievable (the most diverse small town in Canada during a snowstorm so bad no planes could fly, but a movie could be filmed and people could wander safely around town).

2.5 rounding down to a 2.

Thank you to Putnam/Penguin Group for the review copy of this title. This review contains some spoilers for the book.

I found many aspects of this novel to be very special. It is so important to incorporate different representations of cultural holidays in a holiday market that predominantly focuses on Christmas. I appreciated the nuanced discussions of the universal experience of feeling confined and pressured by family and friends' expectations for your life, and how those expectations are rooted in cultural norms and expectations. As a daughter of immigrant parents, I deeply related to that through line.

This being said, I did find some of the characters and plot points too be too caricature and contrived. For example, Anna's boyfriend Nick and his family were too stereotypically snooty, rich upperclass with completely unreasonable demands during this snowstorm. Anna's tension would have honestly been more impactful if they were actually a nice, "perfect" family but just not for her. Similarly, Marayam's sister prompting the wedding to be quickly *for* Marayam's "benefit" of getting her mind off her divorce would have been more impactful if her sister did not "see" the burdens she was placing.

Then on the other side of it, resolutions came too quickly. Intercultural understanding was easily achieved after a singular conversation, when many times these conversations take many trials and errors and navigating hurt feelings from mistakes. The Snow Falls community also existing in a remote location but surprisingly familiar and accepting of this blend of cultures and experiences. Both Anna and Marayam's storylines wrapping up too neatly takes away from the very real tensions that posed the plot motivation. I think many books can be successful if they live in the "ideal world" and provide a representation of what could be. I do not know this book benefits from that, as there were many great discussions of the nuances and difficulties. It almost tried to do both but would have served better to lean into one or the other.

Three holidays overlap and it leads to new directions for Maryam and Anna.

I feel like this should’ve been two separate books. I don’t feel like we really needed Maryam and Anna together or talking/friends to make their individual plots advance.

great for hallmark fans and those looking for a warm and fuzzy holiday read. i was interested in the premise of this one, but the writing didn't work for me. it went over great at book club, though, so it's found its audience!

While a bit predictable and unrealistic, I found the story very sweet and the town very charming. If you suspend reality for awhile and just enjoy escaping into a fantasy world, as we all should at times, this is a great choice. I enjoyed learning about the different three holidays and the traditions different from my own. Overall, a sweet multi-love story full of wholesome characters.