The best way to describe this book is an LGBTQIA+ retelling of The Holiday. Greta and Truman each have their reasons for wanting to get away, so their mutual friend, Ramona, arranges for them to swap homes for a month over the winter holidays.

A major highlight of this book is the representation. Not only do we have a wide spectrum of LGBTQIA+ characters, but we have both Christmas and Hanukkah represented in this holiday story. I personally enjoyed Truman’s storyline more than Greta’s, but that being said both storylines were sweet and steamy! This was a fun retelling of one of my favorite holiday movies.

I switched between the audio and ebook and really appreciated the dual narration of the audio. It really helped differentiate between the characters and the storylines!

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca and Dreamscape Media for the advance copies.

This was SO good!! The Holiday Trap hooked me with the premise (The Holiday but make it queer? sign me up!) and kept me with the lovely romances (heartwarming AND steamy) and the exploration of complicated family issues. This was fantastic and I was equally invested in both relationships.

Queers, you're going to go feral for this book. The Holiday Trap follows a similar idea to The Holiday (2006). Truman and Greta perform a house swap to escape their miserable holiday lives. Greta abandons Maine for New Orleans while Truman does the opposite. While Greta is on a quest to discover herself away from her family, Truman runs from his past failed relationships. Naturally, both find love.

This book felt about two chapters longer than it needed to be, with a lot of extra pages in between. It wasn't a bad book, but it also wasn't groundbreaking. I enjoyed both the characters and their growth. Mostly, I enjoyed the descriptions of New Orleans and the queer scene there.

I think with a bigger edit, this book could've been great but it fell flat with too much fluff on the edges.

I always have a lot of fun when I read Roan Parrish's books and this one was no exception even if it's a bit slow at the beginning.
I laughed a lot, rooted for the characters, and loved this compelling and entertaining story.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The Holiday Trap was an easy and enjoyable read. I quite liked the premise of the story, which features two people needing an escape from their current frustrations and switching homes for a month.

Both main characters are likeable and I enjoyed seeing Greta and Truman find their feet and their sense of worth and home over the course of The Holiday Trap. It was also interesting to see multiple main characters navigate struggles with personal familial issues. While each character’s relationship was notably different with their own families, the cohesive element of navigating one’s responsibilities or support of their family while still retaining their individual autonomy and needs in mind made for a different but relatable storyline. Of course, both Greta and Truman find love in their new surroundings, making the Holiday Trap a nice romance with two happily-ever-afters.

While the characters and romances are well done, I think my favorite aspects of The Holiday Trap are Truman and Greta exploring and immersing themselves in their new home. I love to travel, so it’s always fun when I get to do so through the eyes of a character. The Holiday Trap certainly exceled in this area, transporting the reader new areas, learn the backgrounds of certain towns or parts of town, and become immersed in different communities.

If you enjoy good stories and characters and are ready to get your holiday reading off to a light start with a nice romance that has minimal angst, The Holiday Trap is worth checking out.

Rating 4.5 stars
This is a wonderful holiday book. I really enjoyed the premise of the swap and the two different locations. The characters were really fun and loveable. The pace was great. If you want a wonderful holiday read this is it.

I think this book will delight many readers and I love that it's a queer holiday romcom! However, I had a difficult time getting through it and I think it's because I never felt fully invested in the characters or story. There's a lot going on in this book and it felt like too many plots and characters were introduced for me to really get deep in with the characters. There are also several story lines that kind of went nowhere or could have been explored to give greater depth instead of following the many other tangents introduced throughout the book. My favorite part of the book is the focus on building community and supporting one another. The love stories are sweet and low drama, there's cute dogs, lots of plants, and two magical settings that make me want to book a long vacation to either Maine or New Orleans.

This book was holiday themed and queer and it made my heart so happy, not to mention we get two different love stories in it.

Greta Russakoff loves her tight-knit family and tiny Maine hometown, even if they don't always understand what it's like to be a lesbian living in such a small world. She desperately needs space to figure out who she is.

Truman Belvedere has just had his heart crushed into a million pieces when he learned that his boyfriend of almost a year has a secret life that includes a husband and a daughter. Reeling from this discovery, all he wants is a place to lick his wounds far, far away from New Orleans.

I loved these two characters so much and I only wanted the best for them. I am so happy I read this book

Thank you #netgalley for an early read of #theholidaytrap

The Holiday is probably one of my favorite Christmas movies so when I saw this book, written by Roan Parrish, I was already hooked. Ultimately, The Holiday Trap mostly delivers on all of the vibes I was looking for based on the blurb alone, but there are definitely certain things that leave me with small quibbles in each storyline.

Essentially, Truman and Greta are both friends with Ramona and when their lives present each of them with a moment where they just want to get the heck out of dodge, Ramona provides them with the connection they need to swap homes for a month. Truman's home in New Orleans comes with his dog Horse and Greta's cottage in Maine comes with a large number of house plants, including the carniverous variety. I loved Horse so much during this book, for the record. He is such a good boy and I adore him. The other thing that I really appreciated is how this book treated the charm of Owl Island and the charm of New Orleans as both being really valid things to want. This book, to me, really emphasized how important it can be to find a place that feels like home.

Anyway, once the switch happens, both Greta and Truman encounter their respective love interests very quickly. Greta and Carys have an immediate connection that just keeps building and building. It's cute and their dynamic winds up being really interesting. Greta is dealing with the fact that her family is a bit... overly involved in each other's lives and somehow make harmful decisions. Greta feels a lot of guilt for wanting to pursue a life more suited for her than what she can find on Owl Island. Carys has been through a lot of therapy because her mother is a narcissist. The two of them discover that their childhood wounds present in interesting ways and they have very well-adjusted conversations about them and it was neat to see on page, but also sometimes managed to pull me entirely out of the story for one reason or another. Meanwhile, Truman winds up connecting with Greta's friend, Ash, because he's convinced he killed a plant. Truman is a precious bean and Ash is a wonderful human who I genuinely wanted to just wrap up in a warm hug and tell him everything was going to be okay. I really loved the two of them together. Their relationship is more of a slow build and I really loved all of the emotional issues they encountered and how they were able to overcome them and work things out.

I was able to listen to the narration of The Holiday Trap and overall I really enjoyed it. The part that I didn't understand is the addition of the third narrator who voices Ramona's messages to Truman and Greta. I... never really understood Ramona's place in this book, honestly, beyond being the catalyst for what happened. I felt like if she was going to have these specifically voiced narrations her part either needed to be larger (which I wouldn't have wanted) or removed entirely. And in a physical book, that's easy enough, because you could just skip them, whereas that's a little more challenging in an audiobook. But that's a very small quibble.

Overall, I enjoyed this one and would recommend when you're ready to be in the holiday spirit! I should emphasize that Greta is Jewish and so Hanukkah is represented in this book and the inclusion of Greta's traditions by Carys and her friends is so heartwarming. I really loved that part.

𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: DNF 35%

I have LOVED this author's past books, but THE HOLIDAY TRAP just didn't work for me. I did like, and was invested in, Ash and Truman. But Greta was just so unlikable to me that I just didn't care about her story.

Even with the couple that I did like—their story was very slow moving and I soon lost interest.

I listened to the audio of this book and I really liked the narrators particularly the narrator for Truman. But the book itself didn't work for me.

It’s Christmas in September!!! I really enjoyed this book, funny and cozy story.
Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the book

Our two main characters (Greta & Truman) are having a bit of a rough time in their respective towns. After they both express a desire to get away, Ramona, their mutual friend, suggests they house-swap for a month. Greta will leave the cool temperatures and meddling and overbearing family of Owl Island, Maine, for Truman's (who is escaping from his cheating boyfriend) balmier home of New Orleans.

This book was a hard one for me to rate. Overall, I really enjoyed my time. There is a pet horse named Teacup. It had a little steam in it, was charming, and a little nerdy. It had both LGTBQ+ and Jewish representation. It had quaint small-town vibes. Oh, did I mention the pet horse named Teacup? Despite all of the above, there were a few things that held me back from a higher rating.

The narrative structure of this book is unique, essentially giving you two romances for the price of one. I applaud the author for what she attempted, but due to the narrative structure, I never felt fully invested in either relationship because I was constantly taken out of one and thrust into the other. It may have worked better as two companion novellas or novels. This is probably just a personal thing, and I can see the structure not bothering many people.

My other issue is that the romances happened too fast. Falling in love in two weeks is not a trope I enjoy. Again, I think due to the nature of the structure, the author is forced to speed up the timeline, making it a tad unbelievable for me. My other issue is that I never really liked Greta's love interest. I think Greta needed to really spend some time alone, doing her own thing, to fully understand and work through the trauma of her family.

As a side note, if you are not a fan of holiday books, do not worry; both Christmas and Chanukah play a very small role in this.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC of this book. All opinions above are my own.

Content warnings for family drama, dementia, drug use (weed only), and some steamy bits.

The Holiday Trap by Roan Parrish reminds me of one of my favorite movies, The Holiday but make it queer. I love the idea of the house swap so much because it follows two people’s adventures, so you get a 2 for 1 special with double the love stories. Although there are two technically separate geographically love stories, I can’t imagine them apart either. The author cleverly interweaves the lives, themes, character growth & their beautiful journeys so well that you know they belong together.
Typically, the insta-love trope isn’t my favorite but for some reason, this one worked for me.
I have recently lost a loved one to Alzheimer’s/cancer so I could relate to that storyline & I thought it showcased it very realistically. It’s a heavy, life-changing diagnosis that comes with grief & difficulties. This book handles & displays it so well that I could feel that raw & heart-wrenching moments it causes.
I also feel like this novel was a celebration of New Orleans as well as small island town Maine. I was fortunate to have been to New Orleans several times & it has a special place in my heart. I’ve even been on a phenomenal haunted tour there just like one of the characters! It made me adore both places for different reasons.
I loved that this books celebrated different holidays as well as showed love for plants, beekeeping & bullet journaling. This book truly felt like a cup of holiday cheer.
If you are looking for a wonderful romance with multiple love stories with some holiday festivities, I would recommend checking out The Holiday Trap!

Massive thanks to NetGalley & Sourcebooks for giving me the opportunity to read an arc in exchange for an honest review!

Trigger warnings: This book mentions &/or contains homophonia, parent with Alzheimer’s & sex.

Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me. I chose not to finish it as the story didn't grab me.

I will the author well with their launch

3.5 stars The Holiday is one of my favourite movies so I was looking forward to reading this LGBTQ take on a house swap during the holiday season but was a bit let down by the story. Greta and Truman are both having trouble in their personal lives when their mutual friend Ramona suggests that they swap houses for a month. Truman heads to a small island off the coast of Maine to live in Greta's small community where he soon meets Ash who runs the local florist shop and Greta jets off to New Orleans where she meets Carys who is a grad student/tour guide. It's a steamy, cute (although predictable) story and there are two beautiful settings to swoon over but the Greta/Carys storyline just didn't appeal to me as much as the Truman/Ash one so it dragged for me at times. Although it's set in December there really isn't much of a holiday vibe either so if you're looking for a book to get you in the spirit of the season then this might not be the one for you.

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

Admittedly I haven’t seen the movie The Holiday but I’m pretty sure Roan Parrish’s The Holiday Trap has the same basic premise: Greta & Truman agree to switch homes for a while, living in new cities & meeting people they fall in love with. Sounds like a lot of fun, right?

Our settings are Maine (a place I’ve wanted to go to since reading a Nora Roberts lightkeeper romance in my impressionable youth) & New Orleans (no Nora Roberts’s novel memories there ;) ), & it’s really fun seeing Greta & Truman embrace their new homes by going on adventures in those distinctive places.

For me the risk with focusing on two different romances is just that at least one is likely to feel short-changed & that happened for me with Greta & Carys. It feels somewhat insta-love to me & I’m not a big fan of that.

But cozy is a Roan Parrish trademark & I got it with this Queer holiday romance, where both Greta & Truman find happiness & new homes where they can live the lives they’ve always wanted.

4⭐️. Out now!


CWs: Greta’s family is in general pretty crappy. Her sister is homophobic & there’s a lack of family support—including from her mother—until the end. Truman is cheated on by his ex. Recreational drug use. Reference to serial rapist. Ash’s mother has Alzheimer’s.

[ID: Three swatches of fabric are in the top left corner: red, white with polka dots, & light green. On top of those is a string of turtles plant. To the bottom right is the ebook.]

So, I loved the idea of the plot for this, but in the reality it all rubbed me up the wrong way and annoyed me. I can't even put my finger on why, except that the protagonists in both the love stories are so wet and because there are two parallel romance strands neither of their romance interests are particularly well fleshed out either. In fact I'm not sure there was a single character that I liked - except maybe the older lady gardener and she wasn't in it much. And on top of all that the quirkiness levels are off the charts - a miniature horse! A free range pig! Doing maths as a busking thing! A chance to find a reclusive fantasy author! And that's before you get to the classic "turn your hobbies into your career" thing that really drives me mad. I persevered because I wanted to see how it all resolved but at the end it all got tied up neatly in such a babble of therapy and advice column speak that I wanted to throw something at the wall. Luckily I was on a train and reading on my kindle so I restrained myself or I could have got myself in trouble.

I'm sure this will work for some people - so I've tried to reflect that in the stars rather than just my own reaction - but it just didn't do it for me and as this is my first from this author I will probably avoid in future. Not the start to my 2022 Christmas reading that I was hoping for.

I’m a big Roan Parrish fan - and I think this might be my favorite of her books so far! The main premise reminded me of Beth O’Leary’s The Switch, with the house/life swap, but from there it was completely Roan! It had her signature brilliant writing, LGBTQ (critical for her books), and the steam! Yes, this one is steamy and just oh, so perfect! I thought it should be called “The Holiday Swap” because there was no trap?

A fantastic story centered around two lost souls who need to escape their lives for different reasons, with a mutual friend who is able to facilitate their swap. Ramona, the friend, knows exactly what they each have and need, and helps them get swapped and across the country for the holidays. Truman heads north from New Orleans to Owl Island, Maine, leaving behind his dog. He just found out his boyfriend has a husband... and kids! Greta heads south from Owl Island to New Orleans, leaving behind her beloved carnivorous plants that require a ton of attention. Her family doesn’t understand or accept her queerness.

As each settles in for a month, they begin to really get comfortable in the other’s life. Truman meets Greta’s best friend. Greta meets gardening friends and a girl with a miniature horse.

If you enjoy Roan Parrish’s series, any other LGBTQ+ books, or are looking for a really special holiday read, look no further - this is it!

I received an advance review and advance listen copy from NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca, and this is my honest feedback.

The Holiday Trap is a great holiday romance with a fun take on the Christmas house swap trope. It is quirky, sweet, and sexy. It deals with family issues and advocating for yourself. It is also neat that it includes both a male/male and female/female couple.

The two love stories are quite different form one another. I love Truman’s plot. We get a hurt/comfort love story with some great literary aspects.

I had a harder time with Greta’s story, though she has a much better reason to get out away for the holidays. I feel like her story is more about personal growth and found family, whereas Truman’s is more what I expect from a holiday romance. I enjoyed both, but Truman’s was by far my favorite.

I think this book is a great choice for a holiday read. It made me want to drink hot chocolate and just enjoy it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher.

In “The Holiday Trap,” Roan Parrish effortlessly quilts multiple themes into a fine tapestry. These include two romances, different business ventures, a disappeared author, horticulture tips, the disruptions caused by dementia, plus how to individuate from our birth families And all this is presented in her smooth, ironic manner.

Page one sold me. “Greta Russakoff stood in the center of it all and contemplated precisely how she would murder her entire family one by one.” When Greta’s intrusive Maine family offers her up as a straight date in a charity action, though they know she’s queer, she needs an escape. Meanwhile, in New Orleans, Truman, has learned his boyfriend actually has a husband and child. Their mutual friend arranges for them to swap homes for the holidays. New environments offer perspective and challenges, as they respectively meet the gal and guy who might change their lives… at great cost and risk.

Ms. Parrish’s observations always makes me laugh: “Sometimes when the wall were closing in, there was nothing you could do but attempt to caffeinate them back into position.”

Through her characters she imparts knockout wisdom after wisdom about finding our most genuine selves. For example, how to find your tribe. “When you’re part of a minority you wanna find the people who are like you and can understand your experiences. Thing is, that’s only a couple people and they’re not the ones you want to spend your time with. You get group identity, but you lose your own. So you gotta be somewhere that has enough people like you to find the ones that get you, but also that you wanna be with.”

She also notes how tough it is to maintain personal changes, especially around family. “The dynamics that you’ve established and integrated over years of being together kick back in. It’s like grooves in the mud or something. You can try and drive a different way – crisscross them or whatever – but with the grooves there, the easiest things is always gonna be to slide back into them.”

And Ms. Parrish calls out the mistaken tendency to people-pleasing for love. “It’s not your job to fold yourself up so small that your edges never bump into anyone else.”

She also shows great respect for the healing power of creativity, whether gardening, bullet journaling, reading, writing, innate skills like math, cooking, even interior design. Each is presented with the love of a hobbyist. Here’s a throwaway observation about the ambiance of a room. “It was spare but neat and had a calm, if faded aesthetic that reminded Truman of beach glass blasted smooth by mood waves and capricious sun.”

So yeah, “The Holiday Trap” is a double love story with great quirky characters. But this seemed more like backdrop for a larger message, urging readers to take a chance on life and to find happiness by fulfilling our promises to ourselves. And since I tend to dislike self-help books, this novel proved a far better option! Ms. Parrish took on a great deal without dropping a single thread! Read this one for great dialogue, interesting personalities, fascinating conflicts, enjoyable romance, and lots of hope for the troubled.