The Christmas Holiday
Contemporary Romance
HarperCollins
September 22, 2017
Digital ARC
384
NetGalley
12 Books of Christmas
November 19 - 26, 2017
Fall in love this winter on a romantic trip around the world ending in a fairy-tale winter wedding!
As winter comes to London, journalist Mia Walker is desperately hoping for her big break as a travel writer, dreaming of exotic locations and sun-soaked beaches. When she’s invited to write a romantic travel piece that ends in a huge winter wedding in London, she jumps at the chance. The only trouble is, the photographer is renowned adventure-junkie Hunter Scott, who Mia last saw five years ago when she ended their engagement.
It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, and Mia knows she’d be mad to say no – even if it does mean spending weeks traveling round the world with the one man she never wanted to see again! But as the wedding approaches, and the magic of Christmas begins to take hold, Mia can’t help looking out for mistletoe – and wishing she hadn’t cancelled her own engagement after all…
The 12 Books of Christmas Reading Challenge
Welcome to the 12 Books of Christmas! This is my NINTH contribution and I’m excited to share my final three reviews over the next couple days.
For more information about this reading challenge and to join go here: The 12 Books of Christmas Challenge
Review
Imagine getting your dream assignment. And then finding out that you’ll be partnering with your ex. The ex whose heart you broke years ago. That’s what happens to Mia, a journalist, when she’s tasked to write about her boss’s daughter’s pre-wedding trip around the world—while her ex, Hunter, photographs the whole thing.
While billed as a Christmas romance, this felt more like a travel romance. Christmas does occur during the book, as well as Thanksgiving, but most of the story is spent with the characters traveling the world.
I loved Mia. She was sweet and funny and easy to like. Hunter was a little more difficult to like because he came off very Alpha male-like in the beginning. As the story went on, and I learned what had happened to him between his breakup with Mia and the books events, I warmed up to him. Despite his alpha-qualities he was charismatic.
The supporting characters were also great, I really enjoyed Liv (who was a nicely developed sub character) and even Sandeep (though he wasn’t as developed, mostly because the story is told through Mia’s POV and she never spent alone time with him.)
Really, the only negative I can say is that this didn’t feel like a holiday romance… which isn’t a negative unless you really had your heart set on a holiday romance. But it was a very enjoyable romance and I had a lot of fun traveling the world through these characters.
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Quotes
“Let’s go and sit down. Making a scene in front of a client isn’t my usual style.”
“You started it.”
“Real mature, Mia.”
Shit. Since he put it like that, it did sound childish and that wasn’t how I’d meant to sound at all. Double shit.
“Well, he clearly doesn’t want you dead, so that’s a start.”
“Right.” I wasn’t sure that the fact he didn’t mind if I was alive was a whole lot to grab on to but I dint have much else.
“Sorry if I spoiled your plans to take your friend.”
“Are you?”
“No. Not in the slightest.” And with that I silently congratulated myself as he’d suggested, pulled out the SkyMall magazine and began window shopping.
Hunter pulled one leg across the other knee. “Darling Liv is under the impression that if a woman doesn’t want to sleep with me, then it’s because I don’t have the right… let’s say, equipment. Which, although incredibly flattering, is somewhat far from the truth.”
The sarong was about the same size as a men’s large handkerchief and pretty much sheer so it was definitely more for show than purpose. But if show was the purpose, it was doing its job spectacularly.
I give him a sweet smile and he gave me a look like he wanted to use me as alligator bait.
“I swear to God, Mia. If you hit me one more time, I’m absolutely going to turn around, pick you up, and throw you in.”
“I’m not doing it on purpose!”
“I will absolutely be doing it on purpose.”
“I’d rather you didn’t speak to me right now, if that’s OK with you,” I snapped at Hunter, keeping my eyes on the horizon. “An bearing in mind there’s a two-hundred-foot drop right there, you might refer not to as well.”
My (Writing) Life
Super quick update! I’ve got to get this post set up super fast so that I can go fold some laundry before working this afternoon.
I’ve got a couple reviews left to write… and 10 pages left of my last Christmas book to read! I should be able to get all that done at work tonight.
If it’s as slow as I’m anticipating/hoping, I’m going to start plotting BLOOD & MAGIC. If you haven’t heard me talk about that project yet, here’s the short story. I wrote it in 2013 for NaNoWrimo. I’ve toyed with it multiple times since, but it’s not where I want it to be. I feel the best thing for me to do is tear it apart and rewrite from scratch. It should be easier than writing a brand new story because I already know the characters and I mostly know what happens. But I want to plan for a long game and make this a long series, or at the very least, a trilogy. I also have to decide if I want to write/market it as PNR or Urban Fantasy. I also might age up my character a bit, she’s currently just turned 18 but maybe she’ll just turn 19.
So yeah, that’s the scoop!
I hope everyone who celebrates is done with their Christmas prep and able to relax and enjoy their holiday! (Tomorrow my kids are off school so it’s going to be a baking/last minute grocery shopping day before the party we’re hosting on Saturday with my parents/siblings/nieces & nephews!)
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