IN A HOLIDAZE

SYNOPSIS

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.

Title: In a holidaze

Author: Christina Lauren

Publisher: Gallery Books

Publication date: October 6, 2020

REVIEW

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐

My reading plans are ruled by Mariah Carey's calendar, so if she says Christmas Season starts November 1st, that's when I start my Christmas readings (although this year everything was so gloomy and depressing that I started with Christmas stories in August).

I would love to say that I adored "In a holidaze", but it was just ok for me. I'm not a big fan of "Groundhog Day" books and movies, cause they always end up being quite repetitive, but after seeing that eye-catching cover I decided I had to give this one a chance.

If you're gonna use the time travel narrative resource, use it to the max (or at least offer some explanation about it). As predicted, the time loop thing got old quite soon, and as sudden as it happened it went away once the plot was on track, not to be mentioned again. Mae seemed to accept al those resettings quite readily, not bothering to try and find an explanation to what was happening to her (you go back in time and your only worry is to hook up with the right guy?!). In my opinion, the plot would have worked exactly the same without the time traveling thing.

What saved this for me were the characters. I listened to the audiobook and at first I was quite overwhelmed with the huge amount of characters presented all at once. I actually had to pause and make a diagram to clear out who was who. Once I had them located I could enjoy the cute dynamics between all of them. My favorite one hands down was Benny, and his talkings with Mae were some of my favorite parts.

The romance part was a bit underwhelming. The story didn't give away enough background. We're told they've been secretly in love with each other for years, but we're not told why, what lead them to fall in love, how they discovered it, specially on Andrew's part. After so many years crushing on him, it felt she had it too easy, her kissing Theo in another timeline being the only hurdle she had to overcome. Also, he was such a douchebag when she told him about it, it seemed so out of character with his previous laissez-faire attitude.

The ending was cute but a bit too sugary for my taste.

Overall, a quick and easy read with likable characters, but plot wise it could have been so much more.