Title: In a Holidaze

Author: Christina Lauren

Publication Date: October 6, 2020

Genre:  Romance

Number of Pages: 307

Summary: From Goodreads: “It’s the most wonderful time of the year…but not for Maelyn Jones. She’s living with her parents, hates her going-nowhere job, and has just made a romantic error of epic proportions.

But perhaps worst of all, this is the last Christmas Mae will be at her favourite place in the world—the snowy Utah cabin where she and her family have spent every holiday since she was born, along with two other beloved families. Mentally melting down as she drives away from the cabin for the final time, Mae throws out what she thinks is a simple plea to the universe: Please. Show me what will make me happy.

The next thing she knows, tires screech and metal collides, everything goes black. But when Mae gasps awake… she’s on an airplane bound for Utah, where she begins the same holiday all over again. With one hilarious disaster after another sending her back to the plane, Mae must figure out how to break free of the strange time loop—and finally get her true love under the mistletoe.

Jam-packed with yuletide cheer, an unforgettable cast of characters, and Christina Lauren’s trademark “downright hilarious” (Helen Hoang, author of The Bride Test) hijinks, this swoon-worthy romantic read will make you believe in the power of wishes and the magic of the holidays.”

Review: I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. I also purchased a finished copy of this book, and that is the copy that I read for this review.

In a Holidaze is a friends-to-lovers, Groundhog Day-inspired holiday romance novel. While it was a little bit weird to read this book in February, it was cute, and it reminded me how much I love a story with a good happily ever after.

This might come as a shock, but my favourite thing about this book was the book’s found family aspect. Every year, Mae’s family, and Andrew’s family, as well as Aaron’s family, and Benny get together at the cabin for the holiday season. Mae’s parents, Andrew’s parents, Aaron, and Benny were all friends in University and getting together at the cabin became a tradition. I loved reading about the different holiday traditions like the snow creature contest and the scavenger hunt, and about how this group of family and friends blended together to become a big happy family. Generally speaking, found family is one of my favourite tropes, and I liked how it played into this book.

The other aspect of this book that I liked was the romance. Even though friends-to-lovers isn’t my favourite trope, I still enjoyed reading about Mae and Andrew finally realizing their feelings and doing something about them. I thought they had a lot of cute moments, and as someone who is all about cute moments, this book filled that void in my heart.

One thing that I wasn’t a big fan of was the time travel aspect. As I mentioned before, this book is Groundhog Day inspired, which means that there’s a bit of time travel. I can’t necessarily complain about the time travel that did happen, but I did think that more could have been done with this aspect of the story.

As far as the characters go, I think my favourite character was Benny. Benny is one of the original friends from University, and I thought he was a great character. He’s laid back, he’s dealt with Mae her entire life, and she trusts him enough to confide in him about all of the strange time travel stuff that’s going on. As far as the other characters go, they weren’t anything special. Mae and Andrew both had their moments that made me like them, but they weren’t very memorable.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but it wasn’t anything special. It was cute and cliché, which isn’t a bad thing. It had its moments that made me laugh and smile, but it wasn’t overly memorable. If you’re looking for a cute book that will put a smile on your face, I recommend giving this one a try.

Rating: 3.5 Stars!