Reading this books makes you feel like you are in an early 2000's rom-com. It's messy, it's funny, it's spicy. I identified with Grace probably more than I should have. I saw that it was written under MTV books (which I didn't realize was a thing) and it feels like MTV, in the best way. The Varsity Blues, Van Wilder of it all.
I would definitely read from this author again.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I am so so appreciative to have received this arc as it truly sounded like something I would thoroughly enjoy, however, this fell extremely flat for me. I found the characters really difficult to care for or want to read about and was forcing myself to finish this one. I thought this would be a fun cute YA rom com, but it was just all over the place and not easily digestible as I find most YA books to be.

Generously received ARC, provided by NetGalley.
Synopsis; Grace has just been dumped, the summer before Senior year of College, how rude! Her friends come up with a fun girls trip, post-break-up vacation, trying to help her continue on from Josh. However unbeknownst to her friends Josh will just so happen to be in the same vaca area, and it's Graces opportunity to get him back right? So what if Grace meets Daniel on night one, and then again and again? Seeing Daniel is everything Josh isn't does she really know what she wants?
This was such a FUN read! 4 stars! The initial opening scene, had me relating empathetically and slightly cringing with embarrassment but in a good way. This played in my head like a movie on a screen instead of words on the pages and that's not usually so easy for me. The friend group works, the energies vibing. Grace and Daniel's banter was immaculate and I was thoroughly enjoying every scene with it. I think the overall message you could collect from this Funny, Rom-Com book is, You don't have to lessen or remove traits of yourself, to be appreciated and loved.

I want to start off by thanking Netgalley, the author, and publishers for allowing me the wonderful opportunity of ARC reading this book, with that being said this review is my honest opinion:

The Breakup Vaction by Anna Garcia is about a college student who escapes to Mexico with her girlfriends to get over her ex...only to purposely plot to stay nearby so she can casually run into him. This book was good however not my favorite. I love a good romance book, especially one easy to read, but it might have been a little too young for my taste.

I went into The Breakup Vacation a little blind since it had been some time between requesting it and starting it, and I have some mixed feeling for it. Grace is determined she can win back her ex Josh, if only she could crash his Cancun trip and have him see what he’s missing, so when her friends asks her friends on a trip to cheer up her breakup blues, she suggests Cancun, without telling them Josh will be there. And when she meets gorgeous Hawaiian soccer player Daniel, she starts to rethink what she might want out of her life. This was an easy book to get lost in. There’s a lot of heart and talk about self identity and self discovery that I thought was beautifully developed and added so much. But I did have trouble with the characters. They’re all just a lot. Grace is pretty selfish and the stalking her ex to Mexico felt like a lot, especially when her friends don’t know. It felt super selfish and she doesn’t do enough to make it up to them. Her relationship with Josh is interesting, while there isn’t a lot to make him appealing, this is her ex, and I think that heartbreak and desire to stay is relatable and well done. Daniel too is sexy and their banter is so good. And I like they’re related in the self identity issues Grace struggled with as someone who is half Asian and trying to find where she fits as an aspiring actress. The parts with Daniel were my favorite in this story. There were also Grace’s two best friends, Tiff and Camille. Tiff drove me nuts. While I loved her protective instinct for her friends, she was crash and loud and abrasive and I would’ve loved just a little more vulnerability from her. Camille is a gem though, sweet and understated and kind. The self reflection for Grace was good and this would make for a fun beach read overall. There were moments I laughed and smiled and I was happy with how everything resolved.

Cancun for spring break during college? Count me in.

The characters were a bit unlikeable and immature. And the story was simply just a no for me. It had way too many shots and the worsts aspects of being girly.

The Breakup Vacation
By: Anna Gracia
Review Score: 3 1/2 Stars

Why Was This Book “Just Ok”?
This book felt chaotic. The story is engaging, but the ideas are all over the place. There were conversations that I felt like were only meant to be sensational, but they didn’t really add to the story itself. The characters also seem to be mixing up love and sex, and so it felt hard to follow what Grace was after.

Do I still recommend it?
Yes, but I feel as though only a certain niche would like this book.

——--------

The Breakup Vacation was kindly provided as an ARC by Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing, MTV Books. Thank you for allowing me to read this book!

Release Date: 3/5/24

Today’s “Just OK Wednesday” is about The Breakup Vacation. I went into this book with high hopes. It seemed like a fun, breezy, summer story about a girl who goes on a vacation with her friends to get over her ex. And while yes, that was the premise, the execution just was not there.

I struggled with Grace’s feelings, for literally everyone, Josh, Daniel, and her best friends. She seems so unsure of who she wants, but has no problem with jumping back and forth between Josh and Daniel, all while lying to her friends. There also seems to be a level of drinking and partying that, quite honestly, I don’t think most people would survive lol.

My bigger issue with this book is, I don’t know who should read it. It’s definitely too mature for a young teen audience. And yet for those in their late 20’s/early 30’s and beyond, most of the story doesn’t resonate either. It seems to really only work for those currently in college, and it’s hard to be a book only for that group.

In the end, I did like this book. It was fun and flirty. But it was also rather disjointed, and not relatable.

#bookstagram #books #readingnow #boogiereadsbooks #fivekeyfeels #audiobooks #audiobook #fiction #arcreview #netgalley #boogiesbulletpoints #justokwednesday #thebreakupvacation #annagarcia

An interesting read but it didn’t reach out and grab me. There was no umph.
Many thanks to Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I should have realized I wasn't going to enjoy this book when it was called a genre-swap "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." For me I never understood why Grace would want Josh back, so spending the time/money to go to Cancun to "win" him back - there was not one redeemable quality to him. Also, the entire relationship with Daniel was so rushed, they were only in Cancun for five days and although she met him the first night there was so much back and forth I did not feel the attraction (not a fan of instalove/lust) and I wasn't convinced that it wasn't just instalust. Going into a romance novel I expect an HEA or HFN, but I could not see either of those situations happening. I was hoping for something different, and it just didn't hit for me.

I was unable to finish this book and thus will not be posting a full review on my blog. I found the MC Grace to be absurd, in a bad way. She was so whiny and focused on such trivial things that I could not connect to her and I did not enjoy reading the book. Thank you for the opportunity and your consideration.

I was so hopeful for this book. I really loved the cover and the blurb was extremely enticing. But y'all, this one fell so flat. I want to start out with the most shocking, this book hates women? That may be a stretch, but it is alarmingly misogynistic. Other women are not your enemy! Secondly, this may have been women's fiction, but it wasn't a romance. There needs to be more in a story than two people who used to date to be a romance. The characters all also just felt so flat. They felt stereotypical and overly trope built, and I just didn't feel like I knew any of them. I had a hard time remembering who was who at times because there was not much memorable about any of them. Beyond not knowing any of them, I genuinely disliked Grace. She was immature, manipulative, and I just thought she was the worst.

This book is the definition of the cover made me do it but unfortunately, the story itself wasn’t able to live up to my expectations fully.

Grace was a hard FMC to like and I’m not sure if that was the intent of the author, or just how she came across to me as the reader.

I couldn't understand why Grace was so obsessed with Josh from the beginning. Regardless, I was still holding out hope that the Cancun setting would breathe new life into the story, and maybe we'd see a well-developed love story unfold with the introduction of the hot Hawaiian soccer player, Daniel, who would show Grace what a real love story should be. However, the character of Daniel wasn’t it either.

Overall, I couldn't fathom why Grace was so obsessed with Josh from the beginning, and I also couldn't understand why Daniel liked Grace so much.

Unfortunately, by the end, Grace remained the same unlikable stereotype, making it challenging to engage with the story.

Thank you to the publisher for my ARC in exchange for my review.

The first few pages made me groan. I love a rom-com, and this has all the makings of a good one. Three friends go on vacation. but two of them don't know the third planned it all so she could follow an ex. Pros: I liked the friendships between the three young women, Grace, Tiff, and Camille. They have a myriad of different personalities. I also think the new guys are fun. Yes, it's cheesy but I don't mind that in a rom-com. It's an easy read.
Cons: Could I see myself making the decisions the characters did? honestly, rarely. Grace would say one thing, but her actions would lead the reader to believe the opposite. I just had a hard time believing that the characters were the ages they were supposed to be. They often came off as childish and immature. And there isn't a lot of character growth for Grace, like at the end of the plot.....it doesn't feel like we learned anything. I think this book has potential but the outcome doesn't match the promise of the cover.

Thank you to NetGalley and MTV books for the ARC

This book was ok. I kept putting it down to read something else so I can't give it a better score than 3 stars. The book wasn't very interesting and I didn't love the characters. Overall, this isn't a book that I can recommend.

The colorful cover and short synopsis made me think this book was going to be fabulous, but the characters let me down. They were stereotypical and never fully constructed. They were in college and I wanted them to emotionally develop, but that never quite happened.

Grace is heartbroken when she's dumped by her boyfriend, Josh, and instead of getting over him she continuously puts herself in situations where he can take advantage of her again and again to the extent of having her friend pay for a "Girls Trip" to Mexico so she can stalk Josh and attempt to win him back without her friends ever finding out. Her friend, Tiff, the benefactor of this trip mentions money anytime she's in the story and Camille the third in their group also mentions money and wonders if her parents will pay for her to stay in America and go to school instead of coming back at the end of her study abroad term. They're supposed to be best friends, but it never quite feels like it.

While Grace is sneaking around to see Josh she does meet a seemingly well-adjusted, hot, unicorn of a man who likes her, but even the development of their relationship over the week that she's in Mexico seems farfetched with her friends more interested in taking shots of tequila than anything else like wondering where their best friend keeps disappearing too in a foreign country.

I was glad when this book ended as my expectations for this title were much higher than what was delivered.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this ARC.

This was just OK - there was nothing wrong with it, I think I just was not the right audience for it. I found this to really just stall - the story was fine, but the writing just kept stalling out like an old stick shift...I couldn't get it to go and keep going.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC,

I was drawn in by the cover of the book and thought oh looks good, let's read. Unfortunately, I was not able to finish the book, The more I tried to push thru, I was not able to continue. The tone of the friendship and their conversations were a bit annoying and caused me to skim thru most of the pages.

I am sure this would be. a better read for someone else.

Thank you.

Thank you to Anna Garcia, MTV Books, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was lured in by the cover! But unfortunately, that was the only thing about this book that I liked. Grace was a feminist, but yet hated other women? Umm okay. She was rude, cringy, and extremely whiney.

There was absolutely no character growth with any of the characters. The amount of drinking they did in this book was ridiculous honestly. Tiff just punched her friends in the boob, and I wanted to punch her because of it. Camille had no other personality besides being French.

I wanted to DNF but stuck with it hoping it would redeem itself, But it didn't.

The felt a little bored during parts. The plot felt like it didn’t move enough in the middle but faster at the beginning. This mostly just wasn’t my jam when it came to common tropes.

I was a little scared when I checked the page for this book before starting it and it had a 2.86 average rating (which, granted, is out of very few reviews but still that is brutal for a pre-release), but I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt because I enjoyed this author's debut when so many other people didn't. And then I immediately understood people's issues with it...

There are just so many thick layers of internalized misogyny and microaggressions at the beginning of this book that it was difficult for me to believe that this was being published today. I had to delude myself into reading this as if it were a 90s raunchy film to get through it.

I kept reading though because I don't think this is necessarily a deal breaker as long as there's some growth past this attitude. And there was, so I wouldn't say this book is unreadable. I would say that there were so many unnecessary lines though; I get that Grace has complex feelings about being biracial etc etc, but some of her thoughts were just. so bad.

And then the internalized misogyny...we see less of this later in the book and I get that she hates the girl she thinks stole her boyfriend, but I don't think this was actually addressed so I wouldn't say there was development here.

All this being said, I enjoyed more of the second half of the book. If you want a book that's reminiscent of raunchy college-aged films in the 90s/00s, then maybe you'll enjoy this.