Decked With Holly

by Marni Bates

"Taking a Christmas cruise with her two cousins from hell isn't Holly's idea of a good time. And when seasickness forces her into an open suite, she's pepper-sprayed by a gorgeous guy called Nick. But when Holly makes her exit, she's greeted by a horde of screaming teenage fans. Because Nick happens to be Dominic Wyatt, drummer for one of the hottest bands in America. Suddenly rumours are swirling and Holly's face is plastered all over the Internet. The band can't risk a scandal destroying their family-friendly image, so Dominic convinces Holly to be his fake girlfriend--just for two weeks. How bad could it be to be 'fauxmantically' involved with a cute rock star? She's about to find out ..."--Amazon.com.

• ISBN13: 9780758274854
• Publish Date: 25 September 2012 (first published 1 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 29 June 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Kensington Publishing
• Imprint: KTeen
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

2.5 stars
"I've got a security escort. I'm wearing a slutty elf costume, and Santa just groped me. Now might not be the best time to tell me it was all for nothing!"

See Reviews first on my blog



And that's how Holly's Christmas Break started out. With being humiliated in front of all her family, and becoming grounded just days before going on a Christmas cruise. As for why they are going on a Christmas cruise? Well that's because her grandfather want to his for his birthday. It sounds like such a great idea, until you meet Holly's cousins and aunt and see that this is going to be an awful trip.

That is until Holly stumbles into another guests room in search of a bathroom, and just guess who's room that turns out to be? Dominic who is in a very popular boy band.


"Our story was supposed to be sweet. The rock star and the average girl: That's how it was supposed to play out to the press, and I thought I could handle it. Except I didn't want to be seen as too ordinary and dull and generally uninteresting for anyone."

From this point on things take a fan-fic turn.. One that I didn't particularly enjoy though, because of how awful the characters were to each other. Because this felt like fan-fiction as well, you could tell it was most likely going to end up with them together and where they live happily ever after.


"This was my one shot to experience life as a Somebody, and I didn't want to miss out on anything because I had failed to brainstorm with Jen."


Overall for the first half I didn't really mind this story and found it funny. But as time went on the characters grew annoying to me. I didn't enjoy the duel perspectives of both Holly and Dominic and felt like that was the only thing that keep me reading. With the slut-shaming and body shaming that happened multiple times as well from a good majority of the characters I just couldn't like it.

[Joséphine]

It was a little less Christmassy than I had expected because one of the main characters, Holly, is of Jewish descent, so Christmas wasn’t exactly a holiday that she celebrates. Still, the story takes place over Christmas and with all the cuteness overflowing from it, it’s sure to be a book that gives all warm and fuzzy feels. It’s also a very entertaining one that will fill a slow afternoon over the holidays.

Decked With Holly is told from dual points of view: Holly and Dominic, aka as Nick or Don, depending on who you are. Actually, everyone knows him as Holly. Only Holly knows him as Nick, as a result of his attempt to keep his identity private. Ironically, Dominic is from this band ReadySet which also happens to be Holly’s favourite band. As the drummer though, he didn’t get as much of her attention until they bumped into each other on a cruise. Or rather, until she accidentally broke into his suite’s bathroom. Clearly this book is riddled with incredulous events but they are what makes this such a hilarious book as well.

I’m not sure if I liked Holly all that much or if I even could get round to the dynamics of her family. Both her parents died in a car crash, so her grandfather mostly raised her. Though this also meant that she was always in the close vicinity of her mean aunt and cousins who have very vicious tongues that never fail to direct insults at her. As for Dom, well, he was looking for a much needed break. He didn’t get that. Instead he ends up forced into pretending to be in a relationship with Holly in order to salvage his band’s image.

Those looking for a humorous and light read that is tinged with romance, then Decked With Holly will not disappoint. There are a myriad of laugh-out-loud moments. For a contemporary book though, I think it must be read with an extreme suspension of disbelief and be taken with a huge helping of many grains of salt. The realism really is outrageous. Then again, apparently reality is sometimes so unbelievable, if used in fiction, it comes across as unrealistic. Either way, yes, forget about how the world tends to operate, allow for fairy tale endings.

The style of writing was very fitting and I think it’s mostly because of that that I was still able to enjoy reading the book. I know that I do end up looking for light reads a lot of the time but then end up disappointed because I thought those books ended up pretty shallow. In this case, I’d say the humour made up for the shallowness. The humour and the feel good mood of it all in the end.

This review can also be found on dudettereads.com.

[Angie]

Even though I don't celebrate Christmas, I still adore holiday stories and Decked With Holly sounded too cute to pass up. What was suppose to be a relaxing holiday vacation turns into something quite unexpected for normal girl Holly and rock star Dominic. She's on the cruise for her grandpa's birthday, while he's looking for a temporary escape from his hectic life. One faithful night, Holly stumbles into his room while extremely seasick, Dominic mistakes her for someone else (you'll have to read to find out what, because it's hilarious!), then as Holly tries to leave she's bombarded by crazed fans. The tabloids of course write the worse possible story, so Dominic and Holly need to pretend to be the perfect couple for the duration of the cruise in order to save his band's image.

Dominic is either a self-absorbed jerk or he's not the brightest crayon in the box. He repeatedly refers to Holly as an insane superfan just because she's wearing his band's t-shirt and happened to look at him in the dining room. If she was such a huge fan, wouldn't he think she'd be flailing about or the very least, recognize him? She does neither. He also nicknamed her "The Mess" and continues to call her this even after he finds out that her disheveled state is because she's beyond sea sick! How the heck would he look if he was vomiting up his guts and sweating profusely?! He also accuses Holly of using him for fame and popularity when he's the one who came up with the fake girlfriend plan! He really did not make a good first impression on me.

I did like how Holly wasn't a pushover in their arrangement. She had her own terms that she wanted met in order to help Dominic. They bump heads a lot, but they do come to an agreement. However, the main conflict arises because both of them seem to have forgotten this agreement that they worked up! This is the main reason why I didn't rate Decked With Holly higher. For whatever reason they have a fight because Holly gets upset that he kissed her in front of the paparazzi, even though she agreed to PDAs, and cries that he was just using her and didn't really care for her. Well...that was the whole idea. And Dominic calls her a fame whore after she calls off the deal because he believes that she got her five minutes of fame that she can now brag about at school, even though she told him at the beginning that she wanted a little popularity boost. None of this made any sense at all, and I felt like it was just a way to have a conflict that separates them before they finally meet again and admit their true feelings.

There is one other thing about Decked With Holly that really bothered me and I think could have been left out: the twins from Hell. Holly's cousins are awful, terrible, evil girls. Unfortunately, that's all they are. They're caricatures. I imagined them twirling their imaginary mustaches whenever they planned to do something mean to Holly. They do try to blackmail her and this is a constant conflict within the plot, but it ultimately doesn't amount to anything.

Decked With Holly is undeniable adorable and a fun read despite my complaints. The conflict may have been totally lame, but I did enjoy the book as a whole. There's no insta-love or undying devotion here! In fact, Holly and Dominic don't even like each other for a good portion of the book. I would have liked to have seen more of them growing to like each other though. It seemed very rushed at the end in order to get their happy ending in as few pages as possible.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.