This was a bit of a disappointing read. I expected more from the book. But overall it was an okay read

DNF at 45%

For starters, thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this in advance!

Secondly, oh boy. I picked this thinking 'why is this book a blatant copy of Emily Henry?'. With a shrug, I wondered, how bad could it be to give it a chance? Even if Beach Read is my least liked book from Henry, who knows -perhaps Cole has a card up their sleeve to enchant me with.

Well. How wrong I was.... It was far worse than Beach Read. A hidden marriage, hidden plans, unappealing main leads. The one and two star reviews were also angry with a couple moments, and it wasn't until I myself had the pleasure to read said scenes that I understood why.

The thing with haters to lovers is that, 9 out of 10 cases, they never really hate each other. People sometimes are like onions, and this subgenre is all about taking each out and falling for the onion and the person within, understanding them in ways you wouldn't dream of. They might even admire one another, or share some interests, fears, motivations. It all comes down to the moment where they understand they aren't that different, and giving in to the curiosity of friendship or romance, and seeing that what you might've hated was a side of them, tied to a time and place.

When a writer sets up one of the first meetings between the leads, and wants to make it clear these two are super different, there's a lot of pathways you can take. But, why, as an author, writing a main lead, that also happens to be an author, think it was a good idea to have him complain that romance is overrated, and all women went crazyyy over Bridgerton, because "it's all dials down to sex for a romance book to be a best seller"? What, exactly, is the appeal of this man criticizing the genre he is in, that we barely know because he's oh-so-mysterious (other than the reference that he looks like James Bay)? It is slightly offending to some, disrespectful to the female lead (an avid lover of romance) and to me, plain crude. Later after that, it gets worse too, when we discover why he was even getting close to her to begin with and what he had already written about her. There's a lack of mutual respect in their interactions, no true attraction between them. Nothing about them made me swoon. Nada. Zero.

And look, I can see how Taylor Cole thought it'd be funny or even ironic!! They'd probably love to see us warm up the more we'd get to know him, and how misunderstood he actually is.... Alas, that process might begin after you finish half of the book, and this isn't worth my time when my feelings aren't even lukewarm, they're simply cold. To finish of with a Beach Read comparison, this had similar characters, but not enough creativity and dialogue to match Henry's charm.

Alas, one thing I'd complement is that there was a somewhat comfortable atmosphere related to the setting; an English beach, a waitress that gives surf lessons, struggling to rebuild herself. An author at loss with writing a romance. The groundwork wasn't a bad one to build a story on comfort and second chances at love. Sad to see it didn't happen.

FMC is reeling from the trauma of her husband cheating on her with her best friend AND she has just found out that some guy is using her as material/inspiration for his romance novel, and said guy is currently writing Bridgerton-esque romance to cash in on all the regency/romance craze going on, and he's giving monologues about it. Plotline 1 is too traumatizing and plotline 2 was definitely appalling to read.

I ended up dnfing this book pretty early. This book really struggled to keep my attention. The cover and title of this book are also super misleading and don’t relate to the book at all. I definitely am not a fan of mmc AT ALL but I also didn’t really like the fmc either. Sooo many gross misogynistic comments which made it hard to keep reading. Thank you to Netgalley and Aria books for sending me this ARC. All opinions are my own.

An American abroad to escape her marriage opens a surf school, lives in her van, and waitresses in a local cafe, where she meets a hot author on holiday. Alexis is struggling to finish his work in progress, a romance novel. His agent thinks a summer fling will jumpstart his creative juices and Candice falls for it until she discovers he’s transcribing their interactions as fiction. She’s pissed until his agent Daniel shows up, makes an appeal and an apology, and suggests they write the book together, since it turns out Candice can write. Many adventures follow as Alexis and Candice try to get into the head of their characters, and the romance focus shifts from assholey Alexis to stalwart Daniel.

There are several subtle mysteries: what happened in Candice’s marriage? Why did she flee from Hawaii to Cornwall-–is it really just the surf scene? Details are unraveled with masterful pacing. The novel reads more like literary fiction with strong romantic elements than a romance novel for most of the tale; it’s really about Candice’s growth, self-confidence, boundaries, and the strong friendships she makes. The romance is slow building and consummated off the page. The author pays some homage to the creation and defense of romance novels (clearly the author is a Christina Lauren fan, and I’m dying to know which romance with a red stiletto heel on the cover she references). Cole has has some very beautiful thoughtful passages throughout the book, the waxing on about sand and what is means to Candice (and what it didn’t mean to her ex, Joseph) is downright lyrical. The setting of Cornwall came to life beautifully through the descriptions of the places the characters visited. While the surf details are thorough and the seaside setting undeniable, I would not classify this as a beach read or an Emily Henry readalike.

Alexis was an unsympathetic character and not terribly likeable, and if the reader can’t suspend their disbelief at Candice’s forgiveness, it will be an easy book to drop. I powered through to see if my suspicion about the love interest would pan out.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #HolidayRead from #NetGalley.

To be honest, I DNF this book and only got through about 40%. The main male character is misogynistic and the main female character just had way too much going on to follow the plot line. There was just too much vague backstory with no real movement forward. I felt like it didn’t really have any direction and it was hard to get into. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters, except for maybe Demi. I would read about her life story any day.

“When I look up again, he places his hands gently on the curve of my waist and meets my gaze. I can feel his strength drawing me toward him and I can hardly breathe.”
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4,5⭐️/5
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pov: 1st person pov
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Thank you to the publishers, the author and Netgalley for an eARC of this book. My review is my own opinion.
I loved this book so much, first the summer vibes of it were amazing. I loved Candice so much, I also really loved the fact that you don’t know with who she will end up with. Like you think that she will be with someone but maybe not.

A Fair four-star read. This one surprised me, I think I was expecting too much, as I had such high hopes in this story, it started a little slowly and I found the main characters to be mostly unlikable for the start of the story, I did grow to like some of them. I like the underlying themes of finding and loving yourself and some great feelings that will make you smile that is what made this story for me, without that I wouldn’t have finished it.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me this Arc to read in exchange for my honest thoughts

Unfortunately this book wasn’t it for me, I was ready to DNF it at around 20% but forced myself to complete it with hopes that it gets better

Negative aspects

• It held so much repetitions and had more of a tell and not show kind of speech, the main characters personalities felt off and I couldn’t connect to them.

• The characters spent almost an entire chapter discussing/ debating on completely unrelated topics or facts and this happened repeatedly.

• I couldn’t get the sense of humor at all
• I was confused on who the real main character
• The MMC had inflated ego and the female character is a confused soul who keeps complaining and comparing her ex husband, at least Daniel felt real
• Their conversation almost always went completely off topic
• The female was always talking about looking for the father and then Kaboom found him 🤷‍♀️
(no connection leading to that)
• The emotions didn’t really exist throughout the book and I couldn’t figure out what the character’s intentions were supposed to be.

That being said, there are some positives sides on this book
• like Demi, who’s the kind of person we all wish to have in our lives and
• The friendship between Makayla and Candice 😘

This book was such a disappointment for me and I really wish I could have enjoyed it
Will definitely try another of the author’s book for a greater experience

Okay, so I have a lot to say about this book…and it’s not possible. Firstly, I felt like the transitions between paragraphs were not it, I felt like I was reading a whole new scene when I shouldn’t have been. Essentially, the writing style just didn’t suck me into the book. The biggest issue for me…the men. So the men featured gave me the ick, I didn’t like them. Most importantly, Alexis. Alexis is so misogynistic I can’t. Candice was going to give him surfing lessons (her side hustle) and asking what he skill levels are?? Alexis is also writing a romance novel…but he is displaying the stereotypical behaviours of men writing about women and shitting on “women’s fiction”, with the best liner being: “I don’t mean to be a snob and I have a love of time for women’s fiction, Margaret Atwood, et cetera.” Look, this is probably the intention of the author to write horrible men. But it just wasn’t executed well and sometimes I don’t want to always read it.

Thank you @netgalley for the ARC copy- all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Candice escapes a bad marriage and leaves her surfing community of Hawaii behind for the UK paradise of Newquay. The change of scenery is partly to escape, but also strategic: Candice returns to the place she was conceived to try and find the birth father she only recently learned existed. When a handsome loner-type signs up with her for surf lessons, Candice is determined not to get distracted from her goal- leave romance to Jane Austen; find Dad.

This one was a bit hard for me to get into. I was more than halfway through the book and still wondering where the plot was going- Candice's desire to meet her real dad felt like an afterthought- thrown in every now and then to justify one of her choice, but not a driving force behind the progression of the novel. Alexis was extremely unlikeable- he was selfish, immature, irresponsible and came off as a petulant chauvenist. Then there is a second 'love interest' named Daniel that gets thrown into the storyline, and while rooting for him because he's a much better choice than Alexis, that's really all he had going for him.

I liked Candice's character- she is a bit quirky, you can sympathize with her desire to move on from her past and I really connected with her love of the water- I also fid it incredibly soothing. Living in Ontario, I don't surf; but the connection is still there!

I'd recommend reading this one on a beach day- where you can be somewhat distracted by your surroundings but still enjoy a light read.

The cover of this novel does not set the tone for what is inside. The male lead is not admirable, there are no "holiday read" vibes at all, and I unfortunately had a hard time finishing the novel.

I really, really enjoyed this book! It reeled me in from the very first chapter and kept me hooked the entire time.

For fans of Beach Read! All the summer, vacation, sunshine vibes. Highly recommend for a vacation read!

This was a DNF for me. I read 1/5 of the book, yet it still didn’t get started with the story on the blurb. Also the hero in the story wasn’t a likeable character, so I wasn’t wanting to keep reading to see him get his HEA

This book came full circle for me and it was done is a way that showed many different sides of the main character.

This was a really hard book to like. I’m not even counting it as a book I “read” because I skimmed through most of it just to finish it and see if it had any redeeming qualities.

First of all, the book is called Holiday Read… these characters aren’t even on holiday? Alexis isn’t even on holiday he came to this town to write his book. And while we are on the topic of Alexis, he is a horrible character and not even remotely likeable.

There are so many plots and sub plots in this book that you don’t even know what to focus on and not much of them are even remotely interesting.

This book probably would have been better if you just focused on the female friendships in this story because they could at least be funny at times.

I’m sorry to say this is not one I enjoyed at all. Many thanks to NetGallery and Aria and Aries for allowing me to provide an honest review.

If you like Emily Henry this book is for you, happy ending with quite a few twists. This book could be seen as a slow burn but if you stick it out you maybe happy that you did. I would love to know who will do the audio of this book it just might make a difference how people see this book overall.

I would like to start off this review by thanking Aria and Aries for sending me an advanced reader copy of "Holiday Read" by Taylor Cole in exchange for my honest review. Let's jump into this.
I would like to disclose that I DNFed this book at about 50%. I firstly found the title to be misleading, this doesn't have anything to do with holidays. I was excepting a Emily Henry-esque type of book and this wasn't even close to my expectation. The plot is all over the place and I find the MMC, Alexis, to be truly gross. He's misogynistic and a major creep. What caused me to DNF this book was the part where his publisher tells Candice, the FMC, that Alexis wrote a story under an anonymous name about killing women. If the several misogynistic comments throughout the beginning of this book weren't bad enough, the author hits us with that. You can write a grumpy, misunderstood MMC without him being sexist. I like my romance books without bigotry towards women,

This was definitely just not for me, and honestly, shouldn't be something that anyone really finds enjoyable.

Our MC in this book is misogynistic and egotistical with no redeeming qualities. I have a feeling from the cover and title, that Holiday Read was an attempt to draw in readers and form similar feelings to Emily Henry's Beach Read. But these things could not be further from similar. Emily Henry draws on grumpy, slightly unlikable characters who we get to see develop and grow. Taylor Cole makes their characters so unlikable that I have no interest in seeing their growth if it's even there.

That, and there's some definite consent issues that take place in this book, and there's basically no caution warning anywhere to be found. Do yourself a favor, and just go read Beach Read or another rom-com style book.

Holiday Read is set to be published May 11, 2023. Thank you to Aria & Aries, NetGalley and the author for the Advanced Reader's Copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.