Score: 4/5 Bookmarks

Steam Rating: 🍆🍆 .5/5

Thank you to Gallery Books for my gifted review copy of In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren.

This book was such a delightful holiday romance that also had me feeling all the feels. I love a good friends-to-lovers trope, especially when at least one party has been secretly pining for the other their whole lives. But this book definitely had a unique twist. And as it turns out, there’s nothing like a bit of groundhog day repetition to get you thinking about your life, your priorities, and give you some courage to go after what you really want!

Maelyn Jones (our leading lady) is spending the holidays with her family and family friends at the cabin in Utah where they’ve spent all their holidays over the years. She’s lamenting some drunken choices from the night before, along with the fact that she’s in a dead-end job and had to move back in with her parents, when she makes a wish. The universe decides to grant it, just not in the way she expected.

I gave this book two and a half eggplants because there is some sexy-time but it’s limited to just a couple of scenes and it isn’t overly graphic. If you’re a Christina Lauren fan think more towards Love and Other Words, than Beautiful Bastard on the steam scale.

As I mentioned, this book had me feeling all kinds of ways and it certainly had me feeling nostalgic about all the family holidays we’ve had (particularly the ones all together in a snowy Colorado wonderland), and lamenting the fact that we won’t be getting together this year.

In a Holidaze is the perfect book to live vicariously through these holidays.

Synopsis:

One Christmas wish, two brothers, and a lifetime of hope are on the line for hapless Maelyn Jones.

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 favorite 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.