No romance here... just sex.
Grace, main character, is hard to root for, actually pretty pathetic tbh.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

3 ⭐️Single POV, Vacation Fling. This book was a quick easy read and was pretty enjoyable. I found the FMC likable enough but also felt that I’ve lived a similar story when I was young and in college, so very relatable. However, like Grace, I didn’t stick up for myself back then when in a similar situation-ship so it was hard to fully like the FMC because I didn’t like myself much at that age either or my choices.

Thank you NetGalley, Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing, and MTV Books for the eARC of The Breakup Vacation by Anna Garcia in exchange for my honest review.

Grace is going into her senior year of college, she had a big LA trip planned with her boyfriend Josh, but he instead dumped her.

Grace's best friends Camille and Tiff go into full repair mode to get Grace out through her heartbreak by going on a beach vacation to Cancun. Grace was fully prepared to get over Josh during this trip but instead he is there as well with a new girlfriend. Grace now wants to get Josh back somehow but she keeps running into Daniel who seems like a better fit for her.

I had a hard time liking the main character Grace. She seemed very shallow, spoiled, and bratty. When she was in Cancun, the way she was obsessing over getting Josh back was a bit much at times. Grace also had no character growth throughout the story, I kept thinking she would change by the end, but she didn't.

Overall, I think I was expecting more from this story but it just missed the mark for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster MTV books for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This story was a mess. I wanted to like it, but the characters in this story were just so stereotypical and unlikable. This story would have so much more potential if it was a bit longer and the characters were fleshed out more.
This group of friends kept making mistake after mistake. I mean maybe it's just me but being drunk all the time is not cool. Maybe if they drank less they might make less mistakes.

I really wanted to love this, because the premise was really interesting, but sadly this was just not it.

That being said it was an easy read and somewhat entertaining. If you like drama and messy characters then this book is one you will enjoy.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc, in return these are my honest thoughts.

dnf @ 12%

Just not my cup of tea. I was intrugued by the premise of it being a gender flipped Forgetting Sarah Marshell, but I felt like none of the characters grabbed a hold of me and made me root for them. The dialogue seems very middle school and the characters came off one-dimensional. The main character, Grace, came off a little unlikable lol and I just couldn't find myself to root for her.

This eARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

the breakup vacation just... didn't do it for me. i really thought I would love this and just didn't. it lacks in a few different ways, in my opinion. first, the dialogue was borderline boring and cringy. i will say the quotes at the beginning of the chapters made me like it a little bit more because it reminded me of better than the movies, which I enjoyed! second, why was there so much drinking? like seriously, so. much. drinking.

i think it really had potential to be amazing, it just wasn't.

The Breakup Vacation has the most perfectly crafted, on-point new adult voice I have ever read. The main character, Grace, was delightfully messy and realistic, and she felt like a real person, making mistakes and figuring out how to do adult friendship and relationships. Her initial overlooking of red flags in an ex situationship felt so relatable for anyone who has ever had the misfortune of having a Josh in their life, and I was impressed at the emotional growth and depth in a book that took place over the course of one vacation trip. Josh is my new enemy, even though I also despise Caity, his wannabe new girlfriend, because I am on board with every qualm Grace has, even the petty ones. Ride or die. This was a romance and a fun romp to read, and it also felt restorative in its discussion of everything from consent to racism to representation in the film industry. Finally, there are truly few things in this world more compelling than a consent king like Daniel, but a tattooed consent king is one of them, so obviously in the future, I will immediately run to buy anything Anna Gracia writes.

Thank you to Netgalley, MTV Books, and Anna Gracia for this eARC. This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Breakup vacation gives the perfect mix of fun, heartbreak and fantasy. Grace is having trouble letting go of her ex, so instead follows him to Cancun for a girls trip, except no one else knows the true motive behind her trip. She thinks her plan is working, with a few road bumps - including one named Daniel. He's the perfect mix of masculinity and spice that has Grace questioning everything. Will her friends be able to forgive her betrayal? Will she land her ex back in commitment? Anna Garcia delivers a fun and quick read about discovering what you truly want.

Great message in the book, my only complaint is the ending that came a bit too soon.

In this book, we follow Grace and her two best friends Tiff and Camille as they go on a girls trip to Cancun (which actually isn't a girls trip - it's Grace's ploy to follow her ex boyfriend/current friends-with-benefits partner Josh on a work trip in hopes to win him back). She doesn't tell her friends the real reason behind the trip because neither of them like Josh. The trip is a booze fueled party marathon in which Grace keeps running into Daniel, with whom she has instant chemistry. At the same time, however, she is meeting up with Josh. As she and Daniel get closer, she starts to question everything.

Things I liked: the discussion of being multiracial, the (surprisingly) nuanced exploration of consent and pleasure and how often their importance is not honored for women in many hetero relationships, Daniel was a great character, Josh was a great character to hate.

Things I didn't like: the female friendships felt a little juvenile, which was maybe just because they are in college, but still. Why were they always "boob punching?" Also, I'm pretty sure the amount of alcohol consumed would actually kill a person. I'll show myself to my retirement facility now.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, MTV Books and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to like this one, and I gave it a lot of leeway because it's supposed to be young people messing up and figuring out who they are, but I cannot in good conscience recommend this book. Cancun is fun! Girlfriends on the beach are fun! Romance too! But this book is not fun.

Besides the fact that so many of these characters make terrible decisions--and actually most of their decisions--while extremely drunk, I cannot get past the micro and macro aggressions in this text. Before even 20% of the book is through, the main character judges and prejudices a girl who is half Asian. She is not Asian enough for our main character, who is herself Asian. She seems to have a lot of self-hate, and talks about how she cannot abide slimey Asian food. Does the main character "grow" by the end of the book? Sure? Maybe. She's pretty hard to forgive though. And the romance that is supposed to be central seems unearned because the Asian dude is a decent human, and definitely deserves better.

There are many ways you can write characters who struggle with different parts of their identity. From what I can tell, this book does not attempt to do so, and if it does, it fails.

Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The summary got me. I was expecting an adventure-filled girl's trip. I was sorely disappointed. There was lots of ugh will reading and I wanted to stop, but I powered through. Entirely too much drinking for me. And are girls out here punching their friends in the boob? Maybe it would've appealed to me if I were younger.

*I did receive this as an eARC from NetGalley*

The Breakup Vacation is about Grace, Tiff, and Camille. Grace is still in love with Josh, a guy that used to be her boyfriend but is now just someone who Graces occasionally sleeps with, much to Grace's dismay. Grace is still head over heels in love with Josh even when he says that he is not ready for a relationship. Grace finds out that Josh is going to Cancun with her "nemesis" and devises a "girls trip" with Tiff and Camille that just happens to also be in Cancun. In Cancun while trying to win back Josh behind Tiff and Camilles' back, she meets Daniel. Grace has to decide if her love for Josh is worth it, or should she try her shot a guy that is right in front of her.

I was really hoping to love this book. I think the cover is absolutely gorgeous and the title and description really sounded interesting to me. Unfortunately, this book was just not it for me. Right off the bat, Josh irritated me and I could not understand why Grace was in love with someone who clearly did not care about her. I understand that it was her first real relationship and you always hold onto that first love, but her best friends did not like him, she knew he had faults, he was using another girl to make her jealous, etc. Also, the girl friend group itself seriously annoyed me. They were getting in fights every two seconds, and like some of it was justified, but it felt like the entire time they were fighting and there was no growth in any of their characters or their friendship. With Daniel, there was also no romantic attraction. Most of the times that she was with Daniel she was still thinking about Josh in one way or the other. I wish it switched points of views during the book because I would have loved chapters from Daniel, Josh, Tiff, and/or Camille's perspectives because I think there would have been more depth to literally any of the characters.

Overall, it was a quick, easy read, but it was just not for me.

Good story, reminded me of some 90's movies that I loved so much with a boy breaks girls heart and she wants to win him back setup. This was also very funny and had a bit more sexy to it then I expected but loved it.

I want to start by saying this is kinda a messy story. I personally give a low rating to a book that I enjoyed, and at the end of the day I enjoyed reading this book.
It’s not a piece of perfect literature and I see a lot of poor reviews but for me reading just isn’t that serious.

The FMC Grace is going through a MESSY break-up with honestly a pretty crappy guy (Josh), but she’s young and in love. When she finds out his ditching their vacation for a “work trip” in Cancun with her nemeses. She’s devastated…. Until her best friends suggests a girls trip to help get her over it.
She uses the opportunity to follow him to Mexico… even though her friends hate her ex. (What could go wrong?)
The story follows her through her time there, trying to get Josh back, and finding someone who shows her how a woman should be treated.

Daniel our official MMC is a football (soccer for my American, like myself folks) player in Mexico that finds himself attracted to the Grace.

Their story is a MESS. But the growth on graces part was pretty good.

It’s a light unserious dramatic read, with decent low level spice.

Will I hold this story close to my heart? Probably not, but I definitely recommend.

"The Breakup Vacation" follows Grace, a college student studying acting, dealing with her breakup with Josh. She convinces her friends to plan a trip to Cancun, where Josh will be working (without her friends knowing). Hoping to patch things up with Josh, she meets someone else who makes her question her feelings. It's an okay read, but it didn't really pull me in.

I couldn’t finish it. The characters are so unlikable in the worst way. The writing is nonsensical. It’s hard to concentrate on what’s happening. The premise is even kind of boring- girl gets broken up with and chases the guy. Yuck.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advanced reader copy of the Breakup Vacation by
Anna Gracia. I gave this book many tries, but I eventually DNF’d it at 20%. I had a really hard time connecting with this book and the characters. The book idea is a fun one, but it just didn’t work for me. Grace is devastated that her hookup, Josh, dumped her. So when she hears Josh is going on a trip to Cancun with another girl, Grace gets jealous and plans a girls vacation trip to Cancun in hopes of running into Josh and getting him back. (Think Forgetting Sarah Marshall). The best part of the book was the supportive friends, they didn’t want Grace pining over or trying to get Josh back. However, Grace was a character that I struggled with, she was so insecure that she became desperate for a man’s attention. In todays world of female empowerment, it just didn’t seem like a good quality for the protagonist. Thanks again to NetGalley and Atria books for the ARC.

The characters were immature, and I just wasn't interested in hate-reading this. This was not it for me - I could not finish after multiple attempts.

Grace had things planned out. She was going to be an actress, her boyfriend Josh was going to be a director. They had planned a trip to L.A. to meet Josh’s father, a producer, and she was hoping that would give her professional career the kickstart she needed. She had one more year of college, but she was focused on what she wanted.

And then Josh broke up with her.

Her relationship was gone. Her plans were gone. Her trip to L.A. was gone. Instead, Josh was going with Caity to Cancun, to meet Caity’s father, a director, and shadow him on set. Of all the people in their film program, it had to be Caity. She was the one who got the lead in the play, even through everyone said Grace’s audition was better.

But Grace is having trouble walking away from Josh. He was her first real boyfriend. And they’d still been hooking up. So when her two best friends suggested a girls trip to help Grace get over Josh, she was all in. She offered to plan the whole thing, which is how they ended up in Cancun.

Again, Grace had it all planned out. But what she couldn’t plan for was the soccer player named Daniel who was half-Taiwanese, just like Grace, and who took her breath away just looking her in the eyes. And she couldn’t plan that Daniel was not only smoking hot but also kind, thoughtful, and respectful. And she couldn’t plan how that made her rethink her entire relationship with Josh.

And when all her plans blow up and she’s faced with all her lies, and her friends knowing all her lies, then Grace will have to be the one to decide what the plans for her future really are, and with whom.

The Breakup Vacation is the perfect beach read for fans of Hollywood’s rom coms. It has humor and spice and some mild stalking and good friends and the kind of self-discovery that helps people take responsibility for putting themselves in bad situations and moving on to something better. It’s smart and savvy and fun, with too much alcohol and not quite enough yoga on the beach.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s all about the mistakes you make in your 20s and how to grow through them to be better people by your 30s. It’s about the power of good friends to lift you to higher ground and taking your power back in order to get to that higher ground. Grace makes a lot of bad decisions at first, but, just like a classic ‘90s rom com lead, she figures things out and turns things around in the end. The Breakup Vacation is a fun read, perfect for spring break or a time when you’re craving a few days in Cancun yourself.

Egalleys for The Breakup Vacation were provided by Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing through NetGalley, with many thanks.

I liked this book so much! I loved the banter between the friends and parts of this book made me laugh! I do feel like it’s missing something but I have no idea what..

I loved that there’s no 3rd act break up!