Title: My Favorite Holidate
Author: Lauren Blakely
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Christmas, Contemporary romance
Pace: Medium
Format: eBook, Novel
Year: 2024

Fable and Wilder are one of my favourite fake relationship couples that I’ve read in a while. They both obviously have feelings for one another from the beginning, but they’re small and subtle. Not the big, tricky forever love that I often read about. Yet, they’re also intense enough that both enjoy using their fake relationship ruse as an excuse to act on their feelings. And to get to know one another better. It’s a little bit of a love at first sight kind of feeling, but not one that made me want to roll my eyes at the predictability.

Brady might be a great catalyst for all of the nonsense that occurs in My Favorite Holidate, but he’s actually a total creep. I mean, the cheating and the horribleness is one thing, but as the story goes on, he just gets easier and easier to completely hate. He is absolutely detestable, and constantly jumping in to just be irritating. He doesn’t even seem like much of a threat to Fable and Wilder’s happiness until the very end. Mostly he’s just creepy and irritating. But then, when he does completely overstep, I love that he is completely shut down. I’m a big one for poetic justice and the “bad guy” getting their Just Desserts. But this was definitely one of my favourite ways in which this was done.

I love Fable’s creativity and the way in which she is able to create something out of nothing. I used to love making Christmas ornaments with my mum and sister, but they were most definitely never anywhere near as good as the ones which Fable creates. The fact that this gift giving is part of her love language and the way in which she shows her affection is also incredibly cute. Honestly, I spent a lot of my reading of this imagining the amazing things that Fable was able to create.

Wilder is the opposite from Fable – where she is creative, he is analytical. They might have similar personalities, but they have very different approaches to the way they experience their lives. he might be an incredibly driven man, but he’s also immensely sweet and kind of adorable. Having said that, it’s the two other women in his life who totally steal the show. His daughter, Mac, is really sweet and a bit of a firecracker, plus I love that she has a good relationship with her mother – not something I’ve read heaps of lately. Then there is Bibi. I would read a whole series of books which feature Bibi in some way, shape or form, she is an absolute hoot!

I loved the entire premise of this book and the whole journey was a lot of fun. Plus, even though this might be a standalone romance, it connects in with two more Lauren Blakely series that I can’t wait to dig my teeth into! Not that I need anymore books on my TBR… but I love that I have them to add anyway!

<- The Bromance Zone

The Real Deal ->

Image source: Amazon