Another great read from Christina Lauren! This one didn’t snatch my attention right away like some other CL books, but I’m glad I stuck to it. The story was cute even though it was repetitive, and gave you that cozy holiday feeling as you were reading. Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC!

***ARC Provided by the Author***

This was like Love Actually meets Groundhog Day. And it was delightful.

Mae and Andrew have been friends for years, and it's their friendship that sort of becomes the central focus of this story, even though it's also only a part of the story.

It's hard to review this one, as it's not about the story, or the plot, or the characters, but how it makes you feel. And, it's impossible to convey in a review that tells you how this one will make you feel, as that is the real strength of the story.

I enjoyed and recommend this title.

This book is sweet and perfect for the holiday season. I enjoyed the relatable characters and the usual author vibe of joy. I appreciated being warped into a story that reminded me of my Hallmark movie favorites. The time loop was a fascinating twist to it and made the book more enjoyable. The supporting characters shine, the structure of the book made me feel absorbed in holiday happiness, and its overall aura.

CLo books are a hit or a miss for me, but this delightful Christmas time loop story was a definite hit! With a bit of Groundhogs Day-esque time loop and a lifelong crush in the mix, I adored this book. I also found the story of a lifelong crush turning into something more to be a charming challenge to the usual trope. So often we see the heroine move away from her longtime crush to be with a new love, which is perfectly fine, but this change was a nice one I enjoyed!

Ughhhh. I'm so mad at myself. Today is December 29 and I *thought* I'd already written and posted a review about Christina Lauren's In A Holidaze many many weeks ago and it turns out...I didn't. I chalk this up to being in the crazy times of COVID teaching. GAHHHH. Anyway, please don't let this less than specific review deter you from grabbing this novel. This novel is a stand out in their most recent publications because it's just so different. It has all the warmth and humor that is typical of their novels but it's also got this Groundhog's Day vibe that made it so very different than anything I've read of theirs, or anyone, in a while. It was interesting to see the adjustments Mae made each time her week/day restarted and how she ended it. I enjoyed the premise--a multifamily gathering, the magic of the holidays, the magic of her plight, and her long suffering love story.

In a Holidaze is a delightful holiday escape.

I love Christina Lauren's books--the authors do love and angst so well! This novel is like the movie Groundhog Day but set at Christmas. Our main character repeats the same day over and over until she gets it right. It's cute, funny and charming!

A light, feel-good Groundhog's Day Christmas romance that didn't quite hit the mark.

Christina and Lauren still bring their great banter and fun writing style to this book, however, despite the interesting Groundhog's day premise, this book missed the feels train it was aiming for.

Maelyn is a mid-20's woman living back at home after leaving her design job in LA to help take care of her sick mom. Now that her mom is better, but she is feeling uncertain about her direction in life. Enter Andrew, the oldest son of her parents' very close group of friends who spend each Christmas together. Maelyn has loved Andrew as long as she can remember and Andrew just thinks of her as a family friend.

On the first night there, Maelyn gets drunk and makes out with Andrew's younger brother. She wakes the next morning immediately regretting it, and double whammy, the Christmas cabin is being sold and it is the last Christmas they will all spend together in it.

On the car ride to the airport Maelyn makes a wish and WHAM the car is hit and everything goes black. When she wakes up she's back on the airplane on the way to Christmas break. Each day she makes less and less "mistakes" until she finally learns her lesson.

This book should have delivered quite a huge punch of squee-inducing Christmas magic, but the romance didn't come through. Andrew didn't admit to some life-long crush as well, he only "noticed' our fair heroine when she started giving zero fucks about anything because she thought the day was just going to repeat. And while the idea that she is 'finally being who she is inside' does work in some cases, in this story, it didn't really work. Maelyn wasn't a great character. She was supposed to be in her mid-twenties but acted like a teenager for most of the book, confiding and whining to Benji her parent's friend, and her sudo-Uncle.

Andrew and Maelyn had a few really sweet and romantic moments, I loved them laying under the Christmas tree together while everyone else puttered around. But their romance felt really juvenile despite them both being well into their 20s. I wanted more depth, more sexual tension, and more out of the story. Benji was a great side character, but the other adults were underutilized, and Andrew's brother came off as a tool.

As with all Christmas stories, this one wraps itself up in a neat little bow at the end, but it wasn't as satisfying as I was hoping for.

3.5 stars. this was a super cheese-y but cute Christmas romance. I loved Mae, the holiday vibes, and the Groundhog Day-ness of it. even though Mae and Andrew had known each other their whole lives, their relationship did feel a bit insta-lovey. the repeating the same day thing was also given up so quickly and barely spoken about again.

Another cute romance from the duo Christina Lauren. A modern version of the Groundhog Day movie. Mae keeps reliving the week of Christmas until she gets things right.

This was such a cute and fun book especially around Christmas. I loved the time travel aspect. The whole cabin crew sounds like so much fun. It was easy to get immersed in the story. Christina Lauren are great writers and it’s always a fun time reading their stories.

This was such a cozy holiday read!

Christina Lauren always writes some of the best characters, and this was no exception. The groundhog day trope got old after a while, but it was such an easy read that I didn’t mind. A classic holiday read for sure!

“Loving you is all the proof I needed that love can last decades. Maybe even a lifetime, who knows.”


The most read book of Christmas 2020 perhaps? I thankfully went into this one expecting it to fall on the mediocre spectrum of ChLo books and I was correct to make that decision. She cute, but she is also plot-driven, not super developed, and also pretty surface level?

However harsh that may sound, I actually enjoyed it! It takes place in Park City, Utah which is not too far from where I currently live and is a place I've visited. The cozy cabin vibes for a book set the week of Christmas is the perfect aesthetic, and the romance (once it kicked in) was super sweet with the perfect amount of steam to match the quick paced novel! I loved that the love triangle angle was slight, but enough to make it feel realistic. The large cast of characters was super fun and the antics of her (view spoiler) was so much fun, as opposed to other stories where they just go to bed and wake up in the new loop.

Groundhog Day vibes are pretty formulaic, and therefore predictable, so this is really just a read to have a few hours of escapism. The characters don't have a lot of development outside of the main two or three, and the relationship at the end is so very Utah. (view spoiler). We love a friends to lovers though, and it's exactly what you get ☺️

IN A HOLIDAZE • Christina Lauren • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. I am going to keep this review short and simple.

Simply put, there is a reason why this book is so popular! It is an adorable friends-to-lovers story that will get you in the holiday spirit. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea — there’s a bit of time traveling, some notable plot holes, and it certainly isn’t Christina Lauren’s best work, but overall it is a light-hearted read I would recommend.

TL;DR: Christina Lauren has done it again. In a Holidaze is exactly the type of read you'll want to snuggle up with in front of the Christmas tree/fire place.

What drew me to In a Holidaze was the time loop element. I love Christmas stories to begin with, but throw in a time loop and a stellar author duo and I was so in! Unfortunately, In a Holidaze was good, but nothing spectacular. I feel like it was a decent Hallmark type Christmas story and delivered on that front, but many of us picked this book up with the promise of a time loop. There was, but it was lackluster in my opinion. It only came into play for the first third of the story and then nothing ever came of it again. The romance was cute enough and we had some steamy bits, but Benny ended up being who kept me from putting this one down and not picking it back up. I loved his character, but the rest of them were really just bland. It was a fairly stagnant plot with nothing too exciting or surprising, but a decent Christmas read. I think if you go into this one knowing it is super light in regards to the time loop plot then the ratings will be higher.

A time-traveling Christmas romance book! Sign me up. But I didn't adore this one nearly as much as I had hoped. For one, the romance felt so forced and I'm wondering if we were given a glimpse of what these characters were like and how they interacted with one another prior to the "time traveling" bit if I would have been more invested in their happiness. Also, we were never ultimately given any sort of explanation for the reason why all that happened. It just was. Cute and fluffy and worth a read but didn't possess any real heft.

I received this as an ARC from Netgalley for my honest review. This book is getting a lot of publicity as the perfect holiday read, especially in 2020. The characters were well developed. I did find it a bit of a stretch with how neatly it wrapped up. Fun and light read.

In a Holidaze is a really cute Christmas take on Groundhog Day. I had heard so many positive things about the books by the duo Christina Lauren, so I was incredibly excited to get my hands on a galley copy from NetGalley. While not as spicy as what I've heard is in the Beautiful series, this story has a sweet love story with just a dash of spice.

While In a Holidaze is light and fun, it has surprising depth, juggling complicated family and friend relationships, adding in a romance and a bit of loss. The only reason I'm removing a star is I thought it was a bit drawn out and about thirty pages too long.

What a great book to end the hot mess that has been 2020 - one that encourages embracing that life is messy and finding ways to enjoy it and thrive through the rough moments.

Delightful, engaging, and a fun holiday tale, this one is a great book to settle in with a cup of hot cocoa (or something stronger if desired) around a fire and spend a few hours getting lost.

This book was everything and MORE that I want from a holiday rom-com! Truly, this was my favorite from Christina Lauren outside of The Unhoneymooners, which is such an easy and understandable go-to.

I didn’t think a seasonal read could make me laugh, cry, and love as much as One Day in December, but In a Holidaze proved me wrong. Pick this one up! You won’t regret it.

I’m not big on Christmas or romance novels, but I was looking for something to get me in the Christmas spirit. I began reading In a Holidaze with low expectations, but I ended up enjoying it. In a Holidaze is like sexy Groundhog’s Day. The main character, Maelyn, is unsatisfied with her life like and makes a wish to be happy. What she gets instead, is the opportunity to repeat Christmas over and over until she gets it right. It was a light read perfect for winter break.