Title: In a Holidaze
Author: Christina Lauren
Publisher: Gallery Books
Genre: Christmas, Romance
Pages: 336
My Rating: 6/10
Buy this book on Amazon or Book Depository
In a Holidaze
Mae is on a holiday with her family and friends and when she, her brother and her parents leave the cabin, they get into a car accident. But when she wakes up again, she is on a plane. She is panicking and when she asks her brother where they are going, he tells her that they are going to the cabin. At first, she thinks she is going crazy and this is all a dream. But it feels too real to be a dream. After the moment she dies again and wakes up on the plane again, she realizes she is stuck in this loop. Now she has to find out why and how to stop this loop.
Review
This book reminds me of that book (and movie) called ‘Before I fall’ written by Lauren Oliver. That was a great book. In that book, this girl was in an accident and when she wakes up, she is reliving the exact same days over and over again also known as groundhog day. She has to find out what she could have done better and she is stuck in this loop until she finds out. The same with this movie. Mae was in an accident and suddenly she wakes up on the plane again and she is reliving the same days again with her family at the cabin. And of course, it is driving her crazy.
I saw this book everywhere on Bookstagram last year and that was one of the reasons I bought it. Another reason why I bought this book was that I like Christina Lauren’s writing style. I think she is a great author and I like her books. I wanted to read this book last year, but my Christmas book was so long last year, that I decided to read it this year instead.
I’ve seen and read multiple stories like this one before and the main character has to live the exact same day(s) over and over again. This book was a little bit different though. I think she died 2 times but she died in the first two days or something. Normally in stories like these, you also have to live the same day over and over and not much will be different. In this book, if Mae made a different choice, especially in her ‘last time’ her day would be different too. So in the last version of this holiday, Mae was reliving the same holiday with her family and friends but almost everything was different. Which kind of make sense, because when you make a different choice in real life, your life will change too.
But I am going to admit, in the last time she was reliving the same days I was kind of waiting for another accident that would kill her. And during the first version of the holiday she ‘accidentally’ kissed Theo, one of her best friends but I was kind of waiting for the moment that she would realize that he is the one for her instead of Andrew or something like that. But that did never happen. After she starts living the last version of this holiday, it becomes a little bit boring and predictable in my opinion. Maybe I was hoping too much for a plot twist. But that never came. I think that is why I am so disappointed. This book would have been more interesting if there was one more plot twist at the end.
In her first version of the holidays, she is a car accident. I also thought that this holiday loop would be a dream or something and that eventually, she would wake up again and then realize she had to change her life. But apparently, the last version of this holiday loop was the right version for her and that was just it.
So to be honest, I was a little bit disappointed with this book. I’ve read and seen a lot of ‘groundhog day’ kinds of movies and books, and I don’t think this is going to be on top of that list. I love Christina Lauren’s books and I think she is an incredible writer but I did not enjoy this book that much. I would recommend her other books like but not this one. But I guess you can’t just like every single book in the world. But I still would recommend her other book ‘The Unhoneymooners‘. That book was funny and so romantic. I just did not feel the same things when I was reading this book. Somehow I was also missing the chemistry between Andrew and Mae too except in the parts they were making out. I was missing the tension and chemistry between the two when they were not making out. So unfortunately I did not get the hype about this book.
I also recently bought ‘the soulmate equation’ by Christina Lauren and I will try to read it soon. Hopefully, that book is as good as ‘The Unhoneymooners’. But first I have a whole list of mostly Christmas books I want to read this winter.
Maybe you are also interested in: Siri, who am I? – book review