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Most of us have had times when we’d like to have a do-over—when hindsight taught us a very valuable lesson about a mistake that couldn’t be undone. And in Christina Lauren’s holiday rom-com, In a Holidaze, one woman gets a chance to redo her Christmas getaway until she gets it right.
The story makes the annual holiday trip to Utah with Maelyn Jones. For as long as she can remember, Mae has spent Christmas in a cabin in Park City with her parents’ closest friends and their kids. Now in her 20s, living with her parents while working a job that she no longer loves, she’s glad to get away—until everything goes wrong. But then something crazy happens. On the way home, she sends a wish out to the universe—and with a screech of tires, she wakes up back on the plane to Utah, with the opportunity to try again.
But Mae doesn’t get just one do-over. As she returns to the cabin again and again, she confides in one family friend, trying to figure out what’s gone wrong—repeatedly—and she decides that it’s her job to fix everything. It’s a little like a Christmas Groundhog Day—but without such an infinite loop. In fact, after a few times, you’ll find yourself waiting for the next restart—but as the days of Mae’s Christmas vacation continue, you’ll keep waiting for it to happen until you’ll almost forget that it happened in the first place.
Mae’s life is already a mess—and her jumping through time makes it even messier. She knows that she probably isn’t the best person to try to solve everyone’s problems—or even her own romantic dilemma—but her occasional bumbling and missteps make the story fun to read. And the story that plays out as Mae goes through the same holiday traditions over and over, trying to figure out why she keeps restarting and when it’ll happen next, is a whole lot of holiday fun. The writing duo known as Christina Lauren knows how to blend humor and romance into something entirely entertaining—and the holiday theme gives this story a little extra touch of coziness.
In a Holidaze isn’t a flawless read. The time-jumping is a little odd—and there are aspects that aren’t really resolved in the end. But that unexpected twist adds some extra humor to another fun-filled rom-com from this talented writing team.
Listen to the review on Shelf Discovery:
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