In a Holidaze

by Christina Lauren

[Berls]

I absolutely love the groundhog day trope - maybe because who wouldn't love the chance to relive an important moment in their life and get it just right? The thing is, that's not what In a Holidaze is really about. It's not about Maelyn getting everything right, it's more about her learning to make the right mistakes - the ones that you make when you're being truthfully yourself. Which made it a pretty beautiful story.

I loved watching Maelyn reliving her Christmas over and over. It was funny and it was heartwarming. I also loved her family - particularly that it's one of those extended families made up, not of blood relatives, but of family of your choosing. As someone who's been estranged from most of my family, this family of friends resonated to me and I'd love for Dante to someday be enjoying a similar holiday (not necessarily over and over of course!) but with my friends that are like family to me and love him just the same.

The way things wrapped up was similar to what I expected - it is a contemporary romance after all - but there was little nuggets of surprise along the way that I really enjoyed. I did a little bit of it in audio (maybe 5 or 6 chapters) and enjoyed the narration as well.