Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book. That having been said, it took me a full 8 days to read. It was the most painful book I've ever read but I'm not a quitter so I saw it through.

I was mislead by the title thinking it was a beach read. Alexis, the main character was. self-absorbed and misogynistic. Candice, his co-writer had so many issues of her own that she almost allowed herself to be taken in by him. Enter Daniel, the literary agent, and you have the perfect, creepy love triangle. The only redeeming part of this book was the development of the female characters friendships. There was so many sub-plots, it was hard to keep track.

I am glad that I persevered to the end as all resolved nicely and there was a happily ever after. How the author got there, I'll never know..

A fun read with some interesting characters. I loved the backdrop of the story and the character development.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I received a copy of Holiday Read via NetGalley to read and review.

When I requested an ARC of Holiday Read it was because the cover caught my attention. The reason being Emily Henry has a book called Beach Read and the covers are VERY similar. I have not read Beach Read (yet! But it is on my TBR) so I can’t say how similar the two books are.

I’ll admit I’m a little unsure how the book got titled Holiday Read. The characters work on a book- often on a beach but no one is truly on vacation and there’s no major holiday celebration in the book so the title makes no sense to me.

The cast of characters are….interesting. I think the author tried really hard to make the characters seem like your average people who have many flaws but somehow missed the mark. Jeremy and Alexis are extreme on the “bad” side while Daniel is the complete opposite. And Candice took the whole book to grow a backbone. The author is close to having a decent cast of characters but they need a bit fine tuning.

I’m sure a lot of people will disagree with me on this but I think the overall arc of the story felt organic. The timing felt right but with the characters written as they are it can be hard to focus on major points in the story.

I, unfortunately, had to dnf this book (which I hate doing with ARCs) because it sent me into a two-week reading slump. It is not very attention-grabbing, at least not at the start, and it failed to suck me in.

first of all, I would like to thank NetGalley for allowing me to read this book!
Now let's talk about it! I DNF this book very early (I think 20% into it) because I just couldn't with it. The characters were nothing like I expected. I don't want to go into many details because I don't want to give spoilers but they weren't for me and I couldn't continue with my reading while they were doing their thing like that. You'll understand if you've read the book.
The synopsis of this book was giving me everything I wanted but it didn't do at the end.
I'm sad about this because I've had great expectations about this book but it's alright, not every book is for everyone!
Also if you are interested in this book I suggest you read it! My opinion could not be yours!

Unfortunately I had do DNF this book. The MMC is truly awful. I hate to leave a bad review, but it’s the honest truth. Thank you NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my review.

Thanks NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy.

Normally with ARCs I push through and read them to the end regardless of my feelings/enjoyment of the book. I just couldn’t do with this one. I DNF at 25% point.

The writing style was hard to follow. There didn’t seem like enough context at some points.

I felt like the cover didn’t match the feeling of the book either.

I loved this romance story -- it will be the perfect summer beach read!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC.

arc provided by netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

i spent the last 40% speed reading just so i could be done this book. i really hate giving 1 stars but honestly i cant think of a redeeming quality this book had. characters were 2D, the chemistry between the couple was non existent and not one part of the story had me invested. advertised as for fans of emily henry but you’re better off just rereading her books and spare yourself.

This was a struggle to read... there was two different plotlines that was not a successful approach. Backstories to the plot were so confusing and barely mentioned. It ended up being a messy triangle of love. I kept getting lost and confused. Just a big NO.

This title might make you think this is a Beach Read knock off, but it’s not. It’s also not nearly as good.

The story follows Candice who has recently moved from Hawaii to Newquay, a English beach town, to run away from her failed marriage and start up a surfing school. She meets an writer struggling to write his romance novel.

This is marketed as a romance novel but it really didn’t feel like one, at all. There’s a lot of hinting at romance but we get very few romantic scenes, and they’re also not great. The writer character was clearly some form of autistic, although it’s never specified. It felt very wrong how he was written off as a douchebag who just wants to cash on writing a romance novel because they are hot right now. He was also horrible to the female main character and it all just felt a little little ableism.

Honestly this book felt like a Hallmark movie. There was just no clear plot for a big part in the beginning and at like 40% there were too many plotlines. I will summarize all of them:
* Failed marriage/emotionally abusive husband
* Husband cheats with best friend
* MC wants to start a surf school
* MC wants to be a writer
* MC wants to find her biological father
* MC works at a quirky restaurant with a quirky owner and a quirky coworker/best friend
* MC cowrites a book
* Two love interest

LIKE PIC TWO AND STICK WITH THEM. I swear none of these were fully fleshed out and some like the finding of her biological father were resolved so quickly and randomly it was ridiculous.

I can’t really think of main strong point expect for the women supporting women in this book. Although the best friend was also just a little too quirky for me, so much that she didn’t really feel like a real person. But I guess it deserves half a star.

Thank you Netgalley for this eARC. I am sad to say I didn’t like this more but I’ll always give a honest review.

2.75 stars.

This book had the potential to be good, which makes it even sadder that it wasn't. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either and found it pretty difficult not to DNF halfway through, which is what most people did.

I've read 3 Sally Rooney books so far and one of the commonest criticisms I see about them are that nothing happens and they're too boring. In this book, a LOT of things happen but it still somehow manages to be boring. Its not stylistically boring; I actually really like the author's/protagonist's voice, its melancholy but hopeful at the same time. I blame the anticlimactic-ness of the book on too much robotic dialogue that didn't move the plot and over-exposition. There were too many scenes that were way longer than they needed to be, and I think weren't necessary in the first place because they didn't contribute in any meaningful way to the story or to the protagonist's growth.

I also wouldn't really call this a romance novel? I mean, there IS romance and the book wouldn't be complete without it...but it wasn't the defining feature, for me. I'd argue that the relationship the protagonist had with her friends and her sort of 'finding herself' was more pivotal. I don't know what genre this would really fall into but romance is not it. The fact that the romance genre is basically mocked early on in the book also does not help.

Another problem is the title, I really thought the author was attempting to plagiarize Emily Henry's Beach Read and it gave me a bad taste going into it. It wound up being very different from what I expected, but it still didn't fit the title because nobody in the book, or at least none of the main characters were actually on a holiday?

Anyway, I really think this should go through a heavy round of editing before it actually gets published, I think Taylor Cole is a good writer, but this book just really isn't working in its current condition.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this arc read! This romance was full of little twists that I did not expect! I also had no idea where the romance part of it was going at some times which kept me on my toes. There were so many lovable characters and different personalities throughout the story to make it an easy and fun read!

Started quoted interesting and then I was like “what in all the world?” I pressed through and it was quite a satisfying read. There are fun references to other books that make my literary heart happy.

Thank you, Aria & Aries and NetGalley, for an advanced copy!

This book had me on the fence for the first 25%. After that, I felt too invested in the characters to put the book down. This wasn't necessarily a fast read for me, but I still finished it in less than a week. If you're looking for a fast-paced read, this isn't it, but if you're down to go for a stroll with an enjoyable read, you found your book. There were twists and turns that I did not expect, and when I though the book was going to go one way, it through me for a loop and went the other way much like the curveballs that life will throw at you.

Our main character, Candice, runs away from her dead-end marriage in Hawaii to take on a new adventure and find her long-lost father in Cornwall. While waiting tables and running a struggling surf shop, Candice meets Alexis who is in the process of writing a romance novel, but much like the surf shop, the struggle is real. The two make a deal for Candice to help Alexis with his book, but we all know that catastrophe will await them including the entrance of Alexis's agent, Daniel. Will the marriage work itself out? Will the book get finished? Will Candice find her dad? Read on, my friend. Read on.

Okay talk about inflated male ego.
I did not like this book one bit and hated the main male character. I knew this had to be written by a man because there is no way a women could write a man like this.

The main character in this wants to write a book thats romantically 'accurate' because he thinks the Bridgerton series is not historically or romantically accurate. But throughout the book the only feeling I got was that he was more interested in the money the romance genre gets rather than the genre itself. I would not even give this a 1 star but I am not a monster.

I tried... But this book really didn't do it for me. I tried to push through to read this book but it was just something about it that just didn't hit for me unfortunately. The dialogue doesn't feel real or authentic. It was just a disappointment tbh. Nevertheless, thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc of this book.

Thank you to Aria &Aries and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC!

Taylor Cole has written such a great story about new beginnings, love, and not giving up on yourself. While the main character didn’t fall for the guy I thought she would, she made an even better choice. I would have liked more closure around her and the husband who left her, but that’s a bit of a moot point. This book makes me want to visit the area that it was written in!

There is a huge discrepancy between the reviews here on NetGalley and those on Goodreads, and I'm not sure why, but I wholeheartedly align with the public-facing reviews.... I had to close this book and move on at page 125. I highly appreciate the opportunity to review this from NetGalley and the publisher...but this honestly was just a trainwreck.
I'm not sure what this story is trying to be. The cover screams Emily Henry / modern romance, but the story is muddled and confused. Are we searching for family? Are we looking for romance? Are we broken hearted over someone cheating? Is that cheater actually an abuser? There's a writer - turned - lover potential, but the writer is just really misogynistic, confused, and misguided. The over-the-top descriptors of story writing don't match the background of the characters, and I'm not sure that I truly understand the characters in the first place.
I don't think this book knows where its going, what it wants to be, or how to get there. The characters, minus Demi, are completely unlikeable, and the story is strange.

I really enjoyed’Holiday Read’, very well written , excellent storytelling and a great cast of characters. Add into the mix that it was set in Cornwall it was perfect for me.
Thank you Netgalley, the publishers and of course, the author.