I love Emily Stone books. Her books are not predictable and don’t always have the ending you are expecting, which I love. Her books are a nice escape, but don’t feel cheesy or fake. Love, Holly did not disappoint. I loved everything about it. It was a beautiful story about family, love, and forgiveness. Of course there is romance, my favorite part. I highly recommend this book and I’m so thankful I had the chance to read it I will read anything written by Emily Stone.

This is an incredible read. It brought tears to my eyes many times. The characters are so well developed. Their feelings are honest and so very relatable. Love, Holly will stick with me for a long time. This is a book that I will recommend to others and buy as gifts.

A wonderful novel set around multiple Christmas times. A novel full of family, tragedy, hooe, redemption, art, love and the power or letter writing. Not to be missed!

I received a free copy of, Love, Holly by Emily Stone, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I really wanted to like this book, but I could not. I did not like Holly, in trying to help she just interfered with other people lives, it was annoying an unnecessary.

This is definitely Emily Stone’s best book!!

After a Christmas Eve car crash, Holly’s life is turned upside-down. Little did she know that joining a Dear Stranger letter writing program would be just what she needs to bring a joy, happiness and fate into her life.

If you are looking for a heartwarming and emotional Christmas book that will probably make you cry both sad and happy tears, do not skip on Love, Holly. It is a story about accidents, blame and grief and finding yourself as you learn to accept and forgive. Emily Stone does a great job exploring the power of fate, which is one of my favorite themes, as well as second chances not only with love but also with family. The main characters, as well as the supporting, were multi-dimensional and complex, with flaws that felt authentic and allowed for great character growth. Also, all the letters written throughout the story melted my heart.

Read if you like:
-Raw and emotional romances
-UK setting
-Timelines that span across a year
-Stories about fate and timing
-Holiday reads
-The process of grief, acceptance and forgiveness

Thank you Random House for the ARC. Pub date 6/26!

Marvelous read - heartfelt, raw, emotional, romantic, Consider me a convert to all things Emily Stone from here on out! In the hands of someone less skilled, this premise could have been maudlin or trite, but Stone combines the right mix of humor, reality, gentleness, and heart to make the whole thing work.

I loved Holly, as the broken but not defeated FMC. After being the driver in a car accident that injured her sister (and caused her to miscarry), Holly has spent three years estranged from her sister and feeling like she doesn't deserve her family or real happiness. She's teaching art, instead of making it, and finding solace in writing a Dear Stranger letter each year at Christmas to another lonely soul in Britain. When she receives her Dear Stranger letter from Emma, a curmudgeonly grandma, Holly can't help but attempt to find this Emma. Turns out - Holly may already have a connection to Emma, via her estranged grandson Jack, whom Holly met briefly minutes before her car accident, and who feels like the one who could have been...

I loved all of these characters so much. Emma as the unfiltered and cantankerous old woman, Jack with his random bursts of confidence and spontaneity when Holly is involved, and all of the other side characters that fill out this book. There were times I laughed out loud and other times when my heart ached. This has a romance element to it, but it's definitely a slow moving relationship, and the romantic relationship is not the only focus of the book.

The pacing of the book is great, spreading the action across four sections of a year. Christmastime is a theme, but the book can definitely be read any time of year. (The amount of "holiday-ness" in it reminded me of Jenny Bayliss' book A Season for Second Chances.) The ending is so bittersweet but perfect. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys:

-books with themes of love, forgiveness, and grief
- stories about family, and the bonds that can't be broken
- a bit of found family and opening your heart to let new people and experiences in
- raw and emotional stories of real people

“Love, Holly” was beautiful and sad. Emma’s pushy but well-meaning friend, Pam, had convinced her to send a Dear Stranger letter at Christmas, in which she talked about her recent cancer diagnosis, as well as her grief and loneliness. Years ago, her son died in a car accident, and in the aftermath of the accident, she became estranged from her daughter-in-law and grandson, a rift that has never been healed. The “Dear Stranger” letter program is designed so that the sender’s contact information is not shared with the recipient, who is seemingly chosen at random. However, Emma included her last name, Tooley, which is not normally done. In addition, Holly, the recipient of the letter, recognizes the Impression Sunrise Cafe referenced in the letter. Three years earlier, Holly and her sister Lily stopped at the cafe on their way to the holiday cottage their parents had rented to celebrate Christmas. The cafe was especially memorable because of the beautiful artwork by a local artist displayed on the walls, Holly's eventful meeting with a handsome stranger, Jack, and the life altering car accident that happened soon afterward, in which Lily, pregnant with her first child, miscarried. Grieving the loss of her baby, Lily blamed Holly, who was driving, for the accident, and they had not spoken since.

After reading Emma's letter, Holly decides she is going to help her, and show her that she is not alone. Emma is surprised and upset when Holly appears on her doorstep, but given that it is Christmas Eve and storming, she begrudgingly allows Holly to stay. Emma is not as gruff and curmudgeonly as she acts. Emma and Holly will form a friendship, which is one of the best aspects of the story. However, it is not without its difficulties, as Holly continues to pry. She decides that she is going to track down Emma's grandson, Jack, and reunite them. Imagine Holly's surprise when she realizes that Emma's Jack is also her Jack, the guy she met at the cafe three years ago. This will cause problems, as there is an attraction between Holly and Jack that will be rekindled, and Holly cannot find the right opportunity to reveal to Jack that she knows his grandmother. When that information is finally revealed, Jack does not take it well.

In addition to her efforts to reunite Emma and Jack, Holly's friendship with Emma will force her to reconsider decisions she made after the accident, especially giving up her efforts to be a sculptor. Holly's intervention in Jack's life will also lead to him rekindling family relationships and rethinking his career.

This is my first read by this author. I was surprised by how heartbreaking yet hopeful this one was as the characters dealt with tragedy, grief, and relationships. The situations the characters are working through are far more complex than you might think at first and I enjoyed reading how it played out. The romance wasn't the main focus of the book, but it also didn't detract and paced along well with the rest of the story.

This is a tearjerker in the best way. It’s a story of family, tragedy, forgiveness, and building friendships at any age. It was a very enjoyable read (and Holly and Jack felt so relatable, especially the landscape architecture).

This book was definitely closer to a 3.5 star for me. It was heartfelt, and honestly heartbreaking at some points. There was a lot more to the story than the romance between Holly and Jack. It honestly felt like the romance was more of a will they, won't they sub plot but in a good way. You got to experience growing from a horrible accident with both Holly and Emma, the woman who wrote back to Hollys dear stranger letter. This was the perfect read for the holiday season if you're looking for more than just romance and sappy feels.

Emily stone does it again! She’s 3 for 3 on great books for me! As someone who has dealt with grief, she writes about it so well and understands feelings I’ve had and have expressed. Love Holly was a great story with a lot of elements. I love how they all came together.

Love, Holly is a book that is wholly captivating from beginning to end. It is a book that is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. It will hurt, but it will also heal— and above all, it will show us how to not give up on ourselves. It will teach us how we are worthy of love, of second chances.

This book resonated with me deeply, particularly with the story of Emma. I didn’t expect it would be she I’d end up feeling the most attached to, but that’s exactly what happened. She won my heart, and her story broke mine. There is a particular gesture, related to letters, she gives Holly that had me basically on the floor sobbing. It was a stunning example of the power of words, the impact of connection, and the saving grace that is love. Platonic, familial, romantic.

Love, Holly is a beautiful book. Yes there is romance, a slow burn that is very well done, but it isn’t the sole focus. This book centers on connections. It centers on friendship. It centers on romance. It centers on family. It centers on betterment of self.

It is a book that will make us strive to find the motivation to dig ourselves out of a hole of our own making, to let go of past hurt and instead accept what happens and use it to propel us forward. It’s about not letting ourselves stay alone, not when there’s love to grab on to. Not when there are friends to steady us. It’s about letting ourselves follow our dreams and not let any guilt reside in us. It’s about allowing ourselves a victory instead of inflicting punishments.

And above all, it’s about trying. Simply trying. Never give up.

I really enjoyed this one. I liked the pacing of it especially. I found it was a quick fun read. I’ll make sure to recommend!

Emily Stone writes tragic, heartbreaking holiday stories so well and this is my favorite of hers!! This has Christmas scenes but can be read anytime (I read in May immediately after receiving a copy!)

This is such a beautiful and heartbreaking book. This is a story about grief, tragedy, acceptance, forgiveness, and found family.I loved Holly's relationship with Emma so much. The romance in this book was quite lovely (and my favorite of Emily's books!) but the friendship between Emma and Holly truly brought tears to my eyes at some points! Their shared experiences in their role in their accidents and the guilt they carried was just so devastating and brought so much hope how their lives were intertwined.

Recommend if you:
Believe in fate!
Enjoy pen pals  
Like sad stories
Love inter-generational friendship stories

Love Holly is not a Christmas book. Not really. It starts the day before Christmas Eve and ends two Christmases later. Most of the book takes place over that first year with an epilogue a year later.

In this story we mostly follow Holly, Jack, and Emma with dual points of view through the first two. I loved it. I loved the whole story. I loved the flaws and the development of all three of the characters. The writing is impeccable. I honestly didn’t want for this book to end. That’s so rare for me. I don’t get attached to characters often.

Holly is your typical quirky, messy haired woman who matches every other female character in romcoms nowadays. Jack is your typical workaholic cold guy who lives life like it’s a list to be checked off. I don’t like the stereotypes, but the book is actually good. These characters show so much growth to make them both likable, and I was rooting for them the whole time, even if I wanted to slap one of them occasionally.

The length of the timeline made this story so much more believable. There wasn’t instant love or anything. Instead the author focused on fate. It was cute.

This author has a habit of forcing me to learn empathy through circumstances I would otherwise judge from the get-go. I love that.

I had one question. Where is Steve in this whole story? He’d be mentioned here and there, but he never showed up. He was kind of forgotten.

I would recommend this book, and I’m sure I will bring it come to my book club after it’s released. I was given this book by Netgalley for my honest opinion.

Going into Love, Holly, I was expecting a sugary sweet holiday romance, but this book was so much more. Characters full of depth, finding weaving their way through life after tragedy. Trying to redeem themselves and live the lives they feel they deserve; fate brings them together in a serendipitous way as their stories intertwine in ways they never could have imagined. With ups and downs they find ways to heal their wounds and come together to live the lives they truly do deserve. This book is more than just a romance, it is full of emotion, and kept me reading from beginning to end never wanting to set it down.

Absolutely fantastic plot! Could not put the book down once I began reading it. Cannot wait for it to be released. Will recommend it to everyone I know!

<i>Love, Holly</i> is a tender story about fate, second chances, grief, loss, love and redemption. Though the topics are a bit heavy, overall it was a quick, easy and fluffy Christmas read.

The book starts off very cliche: a quirky FMC (Holly), an adorable meet-cute at a small town cafe, and… a tragedy. And of course it happens right before Christmas. Holly feels responsible for the car accident that hurt her sister and three years later, they have still not reconciled. In the years since, she has been a part of a Dear Stranger pen pal program with others who are not feeling festive around the holiday season. This year, the sender of her letter is Emma, who just happens to mention that she is writing from the very same small town cafe that Holly visited three years prior. So, naturally, Holly feels like it’s <i>a sign</i> that she should track this woman down.

The collision of their lives offsets a series of events that challenges how they see themselves and how to continue living their lives. Overall, I think the author did a great job in handling such delicate themes. <b>Emma, to me, was the star of the whole novel.</b> She seemed the most vibrant and raw and real. Holly was fine but at times too invasive and immature and though I understood <i>why</i> she acted the way she did, it was hard to get behind her character when she was never “wrong”. Even when she was wrong, (she would even admit she was!) she’d get defensive, and the <i>other party</i> would apologize to her too often… it just didn’t sit right with me. And Holly keeping secrets added so much miscommunication, which I already hate, and may be another reason why I couldn’t connect with her.

I also didn’t care much for the romance. I didn’t feel chemistry between the two MCs. The setting was beautiful, but the scenes where they’re alone together seemed like “filler” until we get back to the plot. Which is sort of the perfect for a Christmas romance novel, but it just didn’t work for me here. However, I did like of the serendipitous nature of it all. I think Emily Stone did such a wonderful job of bringing <i>everything</i> full circle and it was heartwarming to see it all come together. This is exactly what we look for in these types of novels—<b>a warm, fuzzy feeling</b>—and that’s how it is at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publishers for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I don't think the glow of this book will ever leave me. 'Love, Holly' by Emily Stone is every superlative I can offer. The premises of serendipity and fate were brilliantly addressed in this charming and emotional tale of people with real-life issues. As heart-wrenching as everything about it is the opposite is true in how uplifting and heartwarming it also is. It proposes a healing path that anyone could follow and expect to get similar results. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Based on the cover I was expecting a sweet holiday romance with a British twist. This book wasn’t quite that but it had a lot of the right components. I do love a small town story but found the storyline around the accident frustrating. I did find myself skipping through some parts, b it I enjoyed this quick read.