Rating: 75% | ★★★☆☆
Synopsis (from NetGalley): Molly and Andrew are just trying to get home to Ireland for the holidays, when a freak snowstorm grounds their flight. Nothing romantic has ever happened between them: they’re friends and that’s all. But once a year, for the last ten years, Molly has spent seven hours and fifteen minutes sitting next to Andrew on the last flight before Christmas from Chicago to Dublin, drinking terrible airplane wine and catching up on each other’s lives. In spite of all the ways the two friends are different, it’s the holiday tradition neither of them has ever wanted to give up. Molly isn’t that bothered by Christmas, but—in yet another way they’re total opposites—Andrew is a full-on fanatic for the festive season and she knows how much getting back to Ireland means to him. So, instead of doing the sane thing and just celebrating the holidays together in America, she does the stupid thing. The irrational thing. She vows to get him home. And in time for his mam’s famous Christmas dinner. The clock is ticking. But Molly always has a plan. And—as long as the highly-specific combination of taxis, planes, boats, and trains all run on time—it can’t possibly go wrong. What she doesn’t know is that, as the snow falls over the city and over the heads of two friends who are sure they’re not meant to be together, the universe might just have a plan of its own… Non-Spoiler Review: My housemate would like to remind me that it is NOT Christmas and that it is only appropriate to start the countdown to Christmas AFTER Halloween. However—I don't care, I've been listening to Mariah Carey since mid-September, and I've been consuming Christmas literature way before that, first with Sarah Hogle's Just Like Magic and now with Catherine Walsh's Holiday Romance. I've been a fan of Catherine Walsh since her first novel; her stories brim with universal nostalgia and characters with lightning-fast banter. Holiday Romance features both; Molly and Andrew volley Walsh-esque quips between them against backdrops of childhood homes and sterile airports. This book is everything quintessentially Christmas. Think When Harry Met Sally, autumn in the big city, and living as the year begins to taper off into something new. But Holiday Romance features more clichés than its predecessors, as well as a less stable chemistry between its two lead characters. The parallel timelines yank the reader back and forth between the present day and all of Molly and Andrew's history, sometimes not in the most satisfying or useful ways. Molly's love for Andrew, and vice versa, is believable, but it doesn't quite take on the depth that the flashbacks are intended to provide. Moreover, the pacing is inconsistent throughout the novel; the first two acts are slow, carrying the reader through each unfortunate hiccup in Molly and Andrew's travel plans, but the last act races through their nascent romance, leaving the reader feeling slightly harried and robbed of true closure. Overall, Holiday Romance is perfect for fans of People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry and people waiting to curl up with the Hallmark Channel's slate of holiday movies and a nice mug of hot chocolate. I know I certainly revel in my membership in both categories. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Holiday Romance is out now!
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