Title: In a Holidaze
Author: Christina Lauren
Publisher: Gallery Books
Year: 2020
Genre(s): contemporary fiction, romance, Christmas story, some fantastical elements
Part of a Series: No
Rating: 
Why I Read It: Once Upon a Book Club holiday box selection
Summary: Mae and her family has spent every Christmas with family friends in a cabin in Colorado her entire life. But this year, it’s announced that the cabin is going to be sold and it’s likely the last Christmas they will all spend together. As Mae and her family drive away, she feels nothing but despair as she feels just stuck in her life. She makes a wish to find happiness just as the car gets into a terrible accident.
Mae then finds herself on the plane to Colorado, ready to celebrate Christmas all over again. She is given a second chance to find her happiness – but will she be brave enough to grab it?
Review: This was a cute story and very Christmassy, a very good read for the holidays. Is it predictable? Yes. But like a Hallmark Christmas movie, there’s comfort in the predictability. And the authors (yes, there are two) do a good job making the journey to the ending a lot of fun to go on.
Our main character, Mae, is an interesting character and relatable. She feels stuck in her life – she’s in a job she doesn’t like with no chance of growth, she’s living with her mother and stepfather and doesn’t have a boyfriend. She’s just floating through life and isn’t really happy, but doesn’t know how to change it. So she makes a wish and the universe decides to grant it.
,By essentially making her go through the plot of Groundhog’s Day.
Hey, if Bill Murray could a learn a lesson by the end of the movie, anyone can.
The characters surrounding Mae are pretty quirky but the focus is only on three: brothers Theo and Andrew as well as family friend who pretty much serves as the fun uncle Benny. At the start of the book, Mae has drunkenly made out with Theo and it got awkward. Especially since she’s been pining for his brother since she was a teenager. But when she goes back, she and Andrew spend a lot more time together and they start a relationship. There were some hints that maybe Theo’s feelings for Mae were more than she thought and I worried that there would be a bait and switch. But Mae ends up with the right brother and the authors really built up that romance very well.
Watching Mae’s character arc was really fun and I loved how she grew throughout the book. I wasn’t a fan of the cause of some tense moments toward the ends. It felt like it was thrown in just to mirror some Hallmark Christmas movies and didn’t seem like a big deal to me. I felt it was definitely overblown.
Benny is a fun character and a great confidant for Mae. And all the other characters are unique and lovable in their own ways. Christina Lauren did a great job making them feel like a found family bound by history and love. And their descriptions of the cabin, the area around it and the city is is near also worked to create a realistic setting. It felt like I was sitting in that cabin watching the story unfold.
Bravo.
Bottom line: A fun holiday read full of family and romance.
Sex: Some with some description.
Moonlight Musing
If you got a chance to do something over again, what would it be and what would you change?
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