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Title: In a Holidaze
Author: Christina Lauren
Sub-genre: Contemporary
Trope(s): Time loop; childhood friends to lovers; best friend’s older brother
It feels a bit blasphemous to say this, but my love for CLo has taken some hits over their past couple of books. While I always enjoy them, Twice in a Blue Moon and Honey Don’t List fell a little flat for me personally. So I was kinda hesitant about this one, but I decided to give it a shot and I ended up really loving it.
Mae and her family spend the week of Christmas every year at a cabin in the woods with their chosen family. Mae’s parents and their best friends from college started the tradition decades ago, and it’s stuck through the years, even with kids and marriages and divorces. Mae looks forward to the tradition and doesn’t ever want it to change. Not only does she love the holiday experience, she’s also been secretly in love with Andrew since she was a teenager. Andrew is the older brother of her best friend Theo, and while everyone expects Mae and Theo to get together, he’s a bit of a womanizer and Mae only has eyes for Andrew. But when Mae and Theo share a drunken kiss, and Mae finds out the cabin is going to be sold, all of her holidays dreams come crashing down around her. And then there’s a literal crash–a car crash–which Mae wakes up from back on the plane on her way to the cabin, days before the accident. Mae finds herself stuck in a time loop. She knows she is supposed to change how things play out, but every time she makes a wrong move, she finds herself back at the beginning. Can she figure out a way to save the holidays, find happiness with Andrew, and keep the cabin in the family? Well, it’s a romance, so of course she can!
In addition to being not as psyched as usual for a CLo book, I was also wary of this time loop plot. I didn’t think I would find it enjoyable as one of the highlights of contemporary romance (for me) is that it feels like real life. But I really liked how CLo handled it in this book. It didn’t feel kitschy or like it was just being used as a plot device, it made sense within the boundaries of the story. I’m glad that I had the safety net of the guaranteed HEA because there were definitely some moments when I was worried about how things would turn out in the end.
But probably my favorite part of the book was the relationship between Andrew and Mae. They have some really sweet and heartfelt moments together that just made me swoony. I find myself more and more liking the childhood friends to lovers trope, and I think this one handled it perfectly. I also really loved all of the side characters. I’m a huge fan of found family and this group was the perfect bunch. Add in just the right amount of holiday cheer and I couldn’t have been happier reading this book snuggled under my blanket in front of the Christmas tree. I read the whole thing in one day and it was an absolute delight.
Overall Rating: 5 stars