First, I'd like to thank NetGalley and Aria for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. As both a reader and a writer, I am always humbled by the opportunity to read a book before its official debut.

Unfortunately, this is a book I couldn't finish and will not be recommending.

To begin, the title of this book is misleading. It doesn't take place during the holidays, it doesn't really appear as if anyone is 'on' holiday, either. This feels like it was an attempt to draw in readers who like Emily Henry (i.e. Beach Read), and this book is not comparable to Beach Read, or any other Emily Henry book, in the slightest.

As a writer, the pages I did manage to make my way through were not enjoyable. The dialogue feels forced and uncomfortable, and it doesn't sound believable. It felt as if someone was trying really hard to make dialogue that sounded real that they wound up making it sound fake. There are also pages upon pages of exposition that don't feel necessary to the story, though it's a little difficult to understand what the story is given that we spent the better part of 3-5+ pages talking about limpets. I would have to imagine books go through an editing process before they're approved for reader's eyes, but it looks as though this came straight from the writer's computer.

As a reader, I am, truthfully, offended. I am proud to be a romance reader, despite the fact that it's a genre many people look down on, especially men. So imagine my surprise when I find that a female author has decided to write a male character who is misogyny personified and make him a romance writer...even though he doesn't understand or like the genre. I read romance to escape into a world where grumpy men (not sexist, just grumpy) have cinnamon roll hearts and are GOOD humans. I trust romance writers with my heart because I know they'll take good care of it. And the choice to have a character prominently featured who makes fun of the romance genre and those who enjoy it felt like a slap in the face as both a romance reader and a woman.

As much as I would love to say this book had redeeming qualities, I can't. Perhaps it gets better as the book goes on, but if I've given a book about 30% and it STILL isn't keeping my attention, it's just not a good story. Plus, I'm not in the business of being made fun of when I'm trying to enjoy a book.

I won't be recommending this title to anyone. The title is misleading, the description is lacking, the female characters are mediocre at best, and the male main character is offensive beyond belief.

This review will also appear on Goodreads.

I really enjoyed this. A bit surprised by some of the less favourable reviews. It does frustrate me when people review badly and then critique when they didn't even nearly finish the story. One here criticises the jacket for suggesting it's set on a beach when it's not(?) It's set in Newquay, a major beach town in the UK! But you can't set literally every scene on the beach. Where would the characters sleep?

I found the relationships between the heroine and Alexis and Daniel really engaging, and the dialogue is brilliant. So funny in places. Demi in particular is great. I did find Candice a bit grating at times, but overall she won me over.

I'd read more by this author.

I was drawn in by the beautiful cover and the fun title of this story! Then I was a bit concerned this was going to be a carbon copy of Beach Read but was happy it wasnt! After that initial thought, I didn't compare the novels once. This was my first novel from Taylor Cole and I loved it. It was fun and sweet but also found myself loving the characters and rooting for the couple!

Alexis arrives in the vacation hot spot of Newquay to find inspiration for his next book. He meets Candice, a local waitress and surf instructor, and attempts to strike up a relationship with her. Candice, however, does not want to be used to become the main character of the book, but she strikes up an agreement with Alexis and his agent, Daniel, to be a co-writer on the book. They spend their time going on adventures for research of their book.

I wanted to like this book. Besides Alexis and Joseph, I found the characters so pleasant. I was not entirely sure where the love story was or if it was going to be a love triangle or what not. There was a lot going on and I was not really sure about any of it until the very end.

Thank you Net Galley and Aria & Aries for the eARC!

Ugh I wanted to love this book so much but the cover was misleading which annoyed me, and then all the subplots that were unnecessary ultimately made this fall short for me

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review

I was enthralled by the premise, but the execution failed to grab my interest or draw me in. Stopped at 10%. I don’t see this going over well with our usual crowd.

Thank you to NetGalley and Aria for the ARC.

The title and cover of this book were confusing in the sense that it wasn't based on a beach... I think this is a marketing ploy to give off Beach Read by Emily Henry vibes but I hate when a cover feels irrelevant to the book.

There were a lot of plots going on in this book and I didn't fall in love with any of the characters. It was hard to keep up with everything going on and all of the plots were drawn out. However, the book felt extremely rushed at the end. I was surprised the book ended because there were so many plot holes left that needed to be filled in.

I left this book feeling unsatisfied

I'm confused by the title of this book, as this was not set during a holiday and none of the characters were on holiday, a marketing ploy perhaps?

This book was full of subplots, so many, way too many for a reader to be able to fully focus on them properly. While the ending of the book was unfinished and rushed (I checked to see if I was missing any pages), the rest of the story was incredibly drawn out.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for my honest review.

Read for NetGalley:

When I originally saw the cover, title, and front blurb, I was worried this was going to be a Beach Read knock off.

I was pleasantly surprised that other than the title, there was very little connection to Henry's wonderful (and in a good way).

Candice, trying to make a name for herself in a startup surf business in Cornwall, long ways from Hawaii and her cheating husband, is working on finding herself. While she seems to make new friends working as a waitress, after some twists and turns, she is given the opportunity to fulfill some of her dreams working alongside an author.

This novel packed a lot of feelings, fun characters, and sweetness of finding one's self so very far away from home.

Really enjoyable read.

Overall I thought this book was ok, I didn’t love it. I felt like the synopsis sounded better than the book actually is. Thank you to Netgalley, for an opportunity to read this arc in exchange for my honest opinions.

Reminded me of beloved author Emily Henry's "Beach Read". Perfect for a beach day- this book packs the charm and romance typical of this genre. Solid choice!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book.

DNF at around 30 %.

Personally, I prefer my love interests not to be misogynistic authors with an inflated ego who want to profit off a genre that is typically beloved by women when he doesn't even enjoy said genre.

I had to look up if this book was written by a man because I could not believe a female romance author would write a male main character like that.
Mild spoilers ahead.
Alexis, the MMC, is an author who has published two novellas that were critically acclaimed but not a commercial success. But he wants to be an author, so he decides to write a romance novel, basically because of how successful Bridgerton is, despite it being bad in his eyes. He says he doesn't understand the appeal of mass market romance books, that Bridgerton is historically inaccurate but sighs that "you can never talk women out of it".
He then proceeds to explain that he has not yet conducted any research, but his novel has already been sold based on the first three chapters. Oh, and then he says that he wants to write something that makes women want to sleep with their husbands because that is what made Fifty Shades so successful.

So, to recap, this man is not interested in the romance genre, he doesn't get it, but of course, he is very interested in the money the genre generates. He has not yet done any research but is sure he can be the next big thing. Talk about inflated male ego.
I obviously do not know if he later has some big revelation about how maybe you shouldn't only write a book in a genre you don't like because it might make you money, but I also did not care to find out.
I have no interest in reading a romance novel with a love interest like that, it's gross and problematic.

Women still get ridiculed for their love of romance novels, the genre is seen as less sophisticated and all those sexist prejudices about romance and romance readers, and here we have a romance novel with a love interest that seems to think the same but still wants to write a book. Because, you know, we are all only waiting for a romance book written by a man whose heart is not even in it.
As someone who enjoys the romance genre, I honestly found this book insulting to read.

There were also other issues apart from the blatant misogyny and ignorance portrayed by the male main character.
Early in the book, the FMC's colleague is drooling over the MMC in a way that felt completely inappropriate, almost objectifying him. Regardless of my feelings toward him later on, I really didn't like the way they talked about him, if a man was talking about a woman this way, people would call him a gross creep.

The book is set in Newquay, a place I visited and loved, and usually when I read a book that is set somewhere I know, I get a nice sense of nostalgia. But in this case, the setting did nothing for me. It felt like a generic surfer town that could be anywhere in the world, the charm of Newquay is not to be found on paper, which was really disappointing.

And lastly, I have to say that I am a bit confused by the title and cover choice. Going in, I fully expected this to be a straight-up Emily Henry rip-off because the title is so similar to Beach Read, the cover style is similar to EH's covers, and the little blurb on the cover is very reminiscent of the one that is on Book Lovers. I don't think I would have ever paid money for this if I saw it in a bookstore or online, simply because I don't want to read plagiarized works and this book almost looks like it is a plagiarized version of Beach Read and Book Lovers.

I wish I could say something positive about this book but I genuinely cannot. I am sorry for leaving such a bad ARC review, but in its current form, I would not recommend it to anyone.

This book really confused me. I don't know why it's called 'Holiday Read' because the characters weren't on a holiday or vacation in the book. I think that the book description is deceptive because it doesn't really have a lot to do with the beach. The main character, Candice, does run a surf school, but it's a minor plot point in the story. Candice moves to the town that she was born in, but she doesn't remember much about the town. She moved away when she was very young, and she mostly grew up in Hawaii. She moves to the town of Newquay in England.

Candice tries to start over again after her marriage falls apart. While at her work as a waitress at a cafe, she meets a handsome stranger named Alexis. She feels a spark with him, but things don't turn out as she planned them too. She finds out that he is writing a book and he's using Candice for inspiration. Candice also has a spark with Alexis' literary agent, Daniel. What will happen with them? Will she get another chance at love?

This book had a lot of different plots going on, and I found it difficult to focus on them. The ending of the story felt so rushed. Much of the book was drawn out and i was looking forward to the ending. When I got to the ending, I felt like I was missing pages in the story. I was confused by how abrupt things happened at the end of the book, and the story felt unresolved.

Thanks to NetGalley and Aria for an ARC of this book.

I loved the concept and the character interaction! I also adored the nerdy references! I loved the character chemistry! Will definitely read another books by the author!

This book is too similar to Emily Henry’s Beach Read book. Also trying to pull in demogorons and some nerdy stuff that I don’t think a lot of romance readers really know about. Unless they watch stranger things. I don’t know what audience this book wanted to appeal to but I felt like romance was the wrong one possibly.

Romance reader Candice met romance writer Alexis. She thought that she was in love until she realized that he was using her as inspiration for the book he was struggling to write.

Love Candice and Alexis. The agent Daniel is terrific as well. Great chemistry altogether. A great plot for anyone who loves to read- especially terrific for romance book lover.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.