This book by Julia McKay is sweet, funny, and well written. From cover to cover, McKay takes you on not one but two journeys reminiscent of a Hallmark Christmas movie. The charming, quaint, and adorable Christmas town with snow and Santa, and the beautiful lumberjack looking man that sweeps you off your feet. As well as the jaw dropping island Christmas at the most beautiful beach resort you could ever imagine, complete with the drop dead gorgeous bartender.

Besides the awesome settings, some of the things that I enjoyed about this book were the depth of characters, the fast pacing, and the use of text messages for communication between the two main characters. For the relatively short length of this book and the quick moving pace, the author was able to provide an abundance of information on the main characters personality traits, relationships, family members and their personalities, work ethic, and more. The relationship and dynamic between Holly and Ivy was amazing and left me feeling jealous. Everyone should have a friend like Ivy!

The only gripe that I have with this book is that it was almost too sweet and easy going. There was no angst! I kept waiting for there to be this big drama that left me shocked, but it never came. There were a few situations that arose that were leading in that direction, but they were resolved too quickly and easily for my taste.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I’m looking forward to curling up on the couch, in front of the fireplace, with a cup of hot cocoa next holiday season and reading it again after its official release.

I greatly appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book as an ARC. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher, Penguin Group Putnam.

Can’t lie, I requested this ARC as I’m a sucker for books set in The Hudson Valley AND The Holiday is one of my all time favorite movies.

If you are a Hallmark at Christmas Time/Anytime fan, this is your book.

Holly and Ivy met in college at a frat party and have been best friends ever since. They adopted a friendship motto of “chacun son goût: to each their own/I’ll never judge you.” This is absolutely not just a HEA, but a story about the female friendship.

Holly goes on to get engaged to her college boyfriend, Matt. After being together for nearly a decade, Matt calls off their engagement the night before their wedding, Ivy changes up her annual holiday plans to give Holly her Hudson Valley cabin, and opts to take the Hawaii honeymoon. When Ivy gets to Hawaii — it doesn’t go as planned, but she is so grateful Holly is having a relaxing time.

Outside of the initial scenes, everything else is closed door, implied, or briefly mentioned.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/🌶️

*confirming the town is a made up place in the Hudson Valley/Catskills set 2 hours outside of NYC/LaGuardia.


SPOILERS BELOW:


The Hudson Valley brings an old high school rival/admirer back into Holly’s life.

In Hawaii, Ivy catches Matt with the woman he swore was only an emotional affair and has to scramble for new plans as the room is taken. The resort bartender offers her a rental that she happily accepts.

What kept this from being a 5 star read for me:
The whole mysterious letter in Holly’s high school locker was brushed over and oddly placed, and Holly never once focused on how after wearing a ring for years on THAT finger, it is like a phantom ring there.
It’s all incredibly fast paced, taking place over about 2-3 weeks. (But again, perfect Hallmark set up!)

As Julia’s debut novel, I look forward to reading future works and seeing her writing and pacing grow.

Thank you GP Putnam’s Sons/Penguin Random House and NetGalley for this eARC.

Holiday Hallwark movie vibes for April! Love how this book transported me right to the holiday season. Easy read and I really enjoyed the dual POV of Holly and Ivy.

Wow, what a cute one! This book was so wholesome and made my heart so happy. Very thankful that I gave it a chance :)
(Unfortunately this title is not eligible for an Amazon review).

2 ⭐️. I really did not enjoy this book, it was poorly written, been there story line (The Holiday movie) with no compelling uniqueness, completely predictable with truly bad dialogue. I wish there was something about this book I liked besides the fact that it was a very quick read and I enjoyed the Christmas vibes. I feel bad for negative reviews but I really did not like this writing style. I strongly dislike 3rd person POV especially in dual POV which is supposed to be fun. I started highlighting all the attempts to be relevant to pop culture, movies, memes and celebrities, spoiler alert it was way too many. Did we really need to describe our main characters as perfect celebrity lookalikes? I don’t know if I’ve ever met a Henry Cavill, Rachel Bilson, Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling level of gorgeousness let alone they all meet and fall for one another? By the way Eva Mendes is Cuban and they use it to describe a Latina woman from Mexico City, it doesn’t sit well with me. Also the dialogue is so cringe! It does way too much telling and not showing and these characters have zero personality. If you like Christmas setting Hallmark movies then maybe you’ve got a chance at liking this one. Nothing is believable in this instalove mess.

Thank you NetGalley, Penguin Group Putnam for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will publish October 8, 2024.

Note for the publisher:
I really hope you fix the very inconsistent way this book presents text messages, it was either bold or ALL CAPS or quoted. Sometimes all 3 in a single page. It makes zero sense and is incredibly hard to read/follow.
I really hope you decide to fix the description of Larry as Eva Mendes, who is Cuban, not Mexican. It shows you don’t respect or understand different ethnicities (not all Latinx people are the same).

What is more perfect than a hallmark Christmas book? Nothing all the feel good holiday vibes my absolute favorite! Bestfirnds, dual pov, travel and romance can’t get any better!!

This book was so cute! My only complaint is Holly, lol. She seemed a little selfish and was hard to relate to. However, Ivy. Sweet Ivy. I loved her! Overall, the switching of the holiday vacations was such a cute idea and how the story unfolded for both vacations.

Overall I enjoyed this book and the Hallmark Christmas vibes it gave. I do agree with some others that I almost wish each FMC had their own book so that the building of the relationships could have been flushed out more appropriately. The contrasting Hawaii and New York settings made it a good read for both Christmas and summer time. I always enjoy the movies where characters who are related or look identical pull a switcheroo so it was fun to read in book form as well.
Review is posted to Goodreads and I will recommend this on my Instagram on or prior to release @thatbookishteach

This book gave me all the holiday vibes! Seriously best friends switching vacations and falling in love ugh it was so good! I loved Holly and Ivy’s friendship and how supportive they were of each other and of course who wouldn’t love Aiden and Oliver. This book was such a fun read. This would be the perfect read for Christmas time!

I feel like I was reading a book based on a hallmark movie but like not in a great way? I almost got stalker vibes from Aiden. It was a little weird. I feel like it had potential it just didn’t get there

Holly and Ivy are best friends, so of course when Holly’s fiancé calls of their wedding right beforehand, Ivy wants to support her. But Holly wants alone time, so instead of going on her honeymoon, she switches vacations with Ivy. Now Holly is off on Ivy’s remote cabin retreat and Ivy is on Holly’s Hawaiian honeymoon.

Both women meet men pretty much immediately but neither are ready to date right now. The book is both romance as well as a story of two best friends.

The perspectives alternate between Holly and Ivy. It’s interesting that their stories are told together rather than giving them their own books. Since each story is happening at the same time, it makes sense, but it did make it confusing to keep track of who was who in the beginning.

Thanks to Netgalley for sending me any eARC! The book had a cute story line but I felt like it was missing something. I love Holly and Ivy’s friendship, it’s truly something everyone wished they had. I didn’t like that Ivy ignored “the issue” for a week before confronting it because she came off as a no nonsense type of girl and it felt out of character for her. The book didn’t really have any spice. I liked the ending but hated that Ivy and Holly weren’t really honest with each other about their situations, it ended up having a purpose but felt like it could have been done a different way. Overall, the book was cute but just felt like it was lacking in some areas.

Not a bad book, but it felt overly verbose at times. It’s actually TOO descriptive and the story falters at times because of it.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘗𝘌𝘕𝘎𝘜𝘐𝘕 𝘎𝘙𝘖𝘜𝘗 𝘗𝘶𝘵𝘯𝘢𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.

Cute plot but not the book for me.

Two best friends agree to swap vacation plans when Holly is dumped the night before her wedding.
Ivy will enjoy Holly's honeymoon suite in Kauai and Holly will in turn head to Ivy's cabin in the Hudson Valley. Both Holly and Ivy are pleasantly surprised when they both find love where the least expected it. This felt much like a Hallmark Christmas movie with just a dash of spice. I think the book overall was fine... but is not "my type".
Probably would be appealing to young adults.
Was a quick and easy read just was not what I look for in a romance novel.

Thank you, Putnam, Julia McKay and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This novel is the perfect holiday romance! I enjoyed reading it even in the middle of April.

We follow two friends as they switch trips after Holly is dumped by her terrible fiancé the day before her Christmas themed wedding. When Ivy arrives on Holly's honeymoon and finds Holly's thumb of an ex-fiancé there with the girl he cheated on her with, she has to find other accommodations. Luckily, the resort's cute bartender has an extra room for rent where he stays. While Ivy is actively trying to avoid temptation in Hawaii, Holly accidentally runs into someone she knows from high school at an off-grid cabin in New York. He just happens to own it and has had a long-time crush on Holly. It seems a bit soon after coming off an engagement, but Holly and Matt never belonged together so it's fine. Adrien is definitely a step up!

The two friends discover the love they always watched in movies and never thought was for them.

This is the perfect book for anyone looking for a holiday romance focusing on two best friends who not only look alike, but also have almost the exact same personalities who both find love when they decide two switch vacations after one of them is dumped the night before her wedding for another woman.

This has several things I usually look for in romance books like dual pov, small town holiday romance with fun Christmas traditions, and no 3rd act breakups but overall this book didn't seem to be for me.

It is written in 3rd person which seemed out of place in a dual pov novel in my opinion.
I also felt that the characters were very flat. There was no 3rd act breakup but not because there was never a conflict, both couples and the 2 women all had moments where you expected there to be at least a big fight however it just didn't happen. Maybe the characters are meant to be the 4 most level-headed characters ever but it came across as very unrealistic.
My last complaint would be the epilogue. It starts with our 2 best friends having a conversation where they basically just tie up any loose ends/answer any questions you may have had about anything in the story. It just felt extremely forced.

I feel like both of these stories would have been good as individual books but in meshing them together there wasn't enough book to truly give the reader an adequat amount of time to feel connected to the characters or build the relationships between characters.

Thank you to G.P. Putnam's Sons, netgally, and Julia McKay for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn't my cup of tea. I wasn't able to fully connect with the main character enough to dive into the narrative. (I'm sure plenty of readers will enjoy this book, and it definitely has an interesting premise. I'll try to give it another read in the future.

The friendship of holly and ivy made this such a fun read. I definitely want to read it again around Christmas time! However, with one of the settings being Hawaii, it is also a fun beach read. I love the friendship between the two girls and the epilogue. Sweet read!

A sweet friendship between Holly and Ivy. They meet randomly and become the best of friends. Ivy supports Holly when her finance dumps her the night before their wedding. Ivy swaps her two week art retreat for Holly’s honeymoon trip to Hawaii and they both meet someone to change their paths.

This was my first book from this author and I loveddddd it. It was like a big warm hug. It is a holiday romance that would honestly make an amazing film. Holly and Ivy met in college through hollys then boyfriend Matt and ivys fling. They became instant bffs, years later on the eve of holly and Matt’s wedding, Matt calls off the wedding and leaves holly completely caught off guard. Not wanting her Hawaiian honeymoon to go to waste she gifts it to her best friend ivy who had planned to go in her art retreat 2 hours outside of NYC. Ivy goes to Hawaii and holly to Krimbo to be off the grid and alone. The ending was a little rushed and I just wanted more, but so thankful for the epilogue! Such a cute book that takes place during the holidays. Definitely read if you love small town romance, he falls first, and friendship.