I was immediately hooked on this book. Its never too early for a cute Christmas read- and this one was perfect. I felt excited reading this, everything I could have wanted in holiday rom-com! After reading many books that were not 5 stars.. this was very refreshing. Highly recommend!!

"He grins up at me with those hazel eyes as if I’m the best thing that’s happened to his day. I know he’s the best thing that’s happened to mine."

Quick summary:
🎄 Holiday vibes
🇮🇪 Set in Ireland
⏰ Multiple timelines
♥️ Friends to lovers
✈️ Forced proximity
❤️‍🔥 Tension and banter

I absolutely LOVED this rom-com! I think he premise was quite original and I absolutely adored the relationship between Molly and Andrew. I could relate to Molly in her struggle with her career and wanting something more. It was lovely to watch her grow and make decisions that give her happiness. This is a great read. I highly recommend!

Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh is my latest ARC read and OMG this book was such a great read!

I absolutely love the friends to lovers trope and this book may have topped the list of all of the books that I have read in that trope. Two friends meeting up every year to travel home together and now have to take a long journey because their flight was cancelled?! Of course sparks are going to fly!!

At first I wasn't a fan of how the book went back and forth from the present to the past, but I ended up loving and appreciating how you could watch the
relationship and between Molly and l Andrew evolve. There were way too many moments in this book and way too many words exchanged that I loved to pick just one. It was so hard to put this book down!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

How do you review a book that is pure perfection? You don't. You just scream at people to go buy this absolute gem as an early little Christmas present to themselves, because everyone deserves to swoon over Andrew and Molly figuring out that maybe there is more to their yearly tradition of flying home to Ireland together than just friendly chats.

5 Christmas trees (with a star on top) for this amazing romcom that delivers on both fronts - the rom and the com.

I cannot tell you how many times I swooned, because this romance is just too cute too handle. I must admit I feel just a little slighted because the only question I am left with after finishing this is: where is my Andrew? If any future man dares to complain that my standards are too high, I'll let them write a letter of complaint to Catherine Walsh, because that's what you get when you write perfect men like Andrew Fitzpatrick and singlehandly raise everyones bar so high human men will never measure up.

Andrew and Molly develop an easy-going and comfortable friendship, filled with top notch banter that made me smirk and laugh out loud too often to not be looked at while silently debating if I'd finally lost it. But did I mind? No, because I was already on to swooning at the little regulating things they did for each other. Molly and Andrew are so in tune with one another's needs, while simultaneously going through their own internal struggles of addiction and burn out, one would start believing in soulmates after reading this book.

In addition, the writing is flawless, interspersing the current (one may say disastrous) flight home with the nine that preceeded it so as to give the reader a feel of how their friendship and love grew throughout the years. Every scene had its purpose, none of them creating that lull in pace some romcoms tend to have towards the middle. This results in making this book utterly unputdownable and grips you from the very beginning until the end.

I will be patiently waiting for this one to get picked up for a big screen adaptation. And while I do that, I will be watching the Holidate on Netflix because it has similar vibes.

Read if you like:
🎄 Friends to lovers
🎄 He falls first
🎄 Forced proximity
🎄 Slow burn
🎄 Getting your heart ripped out because of speeches at the end of the book, or carefully picked out gifts, or... I can keep going, but I will stop here.

I went into this keeping my expectations in check, because while I really liked Catherine Walsh's first book, her second one disappointed me. This one was somewhere in between - it started off well but ended up falling flat. I love a good friends to lovers story told in alternating timelines, but neither of those things really lived up here. I didn't feel like we got much out of the flashbacks and the friends to lovers dynamic lacked development. Still, there were definitely cute moments between Molly and Andrew that I appreciated and some of their dialogue and banter was great. I also liked some of the side characters and the family scenes were sweet.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC.

Alternating between the present and previous flights to Ireland at Christmas, we see the relationship between Andrew and Molly slowly develop from friendship to something more romantic.

Such a cute holiday romance! *pun intended* It really got me into the holiday spirit, even thought it's October lol

If I had to summarize this book in one word, it would be SWEET ☺️

🎄friends to lovers
🎄slow-burn romance
🎄alternating timelines
🎄sweet family elements
🎄travel shenanigans and witty banter
🎄no real 3rd act conflict 🙌🏻

This book was just precious! Andrew and Molly, who meet in college, travel home to Ireland every year together from Chicago. Over the course of 10 years, they become very close and I really enjoyed seeing how their relationship developed over the years in the flashback chapters. It’s very clear that they were just slowly falling in love and they didn’t even realize it. If you’re looking for a precious, holiday romance, I would def recommend!

I love a good holiday romance and this one was so perfect! The story was so different than what I am used to and I absolutely love the uiqueness. The characters were great and I couldnt put it down! I cannot say enough great things about this book!

4.5 ⭐, rounded up.

This book made me want to put up my Christmas tree, make a cup of hot chocolate, and cuddle up in a cozy blanket. It would be a great cozy holiday season read.

I loved seeing Molly and Andrew's dynamic evolve over the years and adored their wholesome friends-to-lovers story. They both felt very grounded and real, with Molly's relatable work-life balance struggles, fear of change, and both of their family dynamics.

This was so fun and I had a hard time putting it down, I would gladly revisit this world if the author wants to write spinoffs for Zoe, Christian, or Oliver (they don't even have to be set at Christmas time).

CW: Alcoholism and sobriety

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This book was just what I needed to get into the holiday months!! I am so ready to Christmas shop and decorate!! Too bad it is October!! I loved this feel good Christmas romance so much. I loved seeing their relationship grow over the years with the flashbacks and how they have loved each other for years without knowing it which makes the love story so much better!! This should be a Hallmark movie!!

This book was absolutely adorable. I loved the dual-timeline, the Christmas setting, and the relationship between Molly and Andrew. This book made me laugh out loud multiple times and had some of the sweetest moments. I am a complete grinch, and even I had my heart warm up to these two.

This was my first book by this author and I'm so glad I was able to read it. Looking forward to more of her titles in the future.

Cute Christmas romance about 2 people who meet on a plane flying home for Christmas and cont to meet over the next 10 years on their flight home. I loved the characters and how they come together.

For ten years, Molly and Andrew have been sitting next to each other on flights home from Chicago to Ireland during the Christmas season. They have an enjoyable 7 hours of laughing, joking, and chatting about their lives as they head to their separate celebrations. It becomes a tradition of its own. However, this year the weather has caused almost all the flights to be canceled. But Andrew is a huge fan of Christmas, and Molly vows to get him home.

This is a fun, witty, and charming story of two friends who fall in love on a whacky adventure from airport to airport over ten years. The characters are engaging and the dialogue is clever. The story flashes back and forth from the present to each of their previous Christmas flights, and we watch their relationship develop. Does this transport me to the Christmas season? It does. From packed airports to Christmas sweaters to many Christmas-tinged side trips on the way to their destination, we follow the couple on a romantic holiday jaunt. This book also truly lives up to its genre of romantic comedy, and I chuckled my way through. The cast of characters is fun and varied, from family members to cabbies to airport employees and more. Holiday romance is a sweet, funny Christmas vacation that you will definitely want to take.

I received a free copy of this book from Bookouture via Netgalley. My review is voluntary and my opinions are my own.

I am so glad Christmas came early into the spooky season and I completely reveled in reading this friends-to-lovers romance set in Ireland (featuring Chicago, Buenos Aires, Paris and London) ✈️

The dynamics are a delight! I loved Andrew and Molly and their families, so much that I want to spend Christmas with them in Dublin (or Chicago), just anywhere.

Molly's character made me laugh so hard 😂 and the little things Andrew does is so swoony 🥺 (and kinda hot 😳)

Andrew and Molly had such a fun and healthy relationship, I love how they became close over ten years/flights. Also, I can't help but admire the way they communicate and understand each other. They're just meant to be 🤍

Verdict: Christmassy with romance in the air and smiles all the way ❄️

Molly and Andrew have a holiday tradition of travelling home to Ireland together for Christmas. It's their tenth year, but when all flights out of O'Hare are grounded, they have to find a new way home.

I was immediately invested in this story. Think Planes, Trains, and Automobiles but over continents, and with two people who just maybe want to kiss... 😉 I love a grumpy/sunshine dynamic, and even more when it's the man who's the cinnamon roll. And boy is Andrew that roll, slathered in icing. He's just SO adorable. He loves Christmas, whereas Molly doesn't see the point of any of it. The banter between them is top-tier, they are genuinely hilarious at times, as is their chemistry, and I also loved Molly's snark (the gift she gets her twin every year made me cackle).

Their chaotic journey home was brilliant, as are all of the supporting characters, especially the Fitzpatrick family. There are also plenty of heartfelt moments, some of which made me sob - Andrew in chapter 27 BROKE me! It also left me desperate for Christian's story.

This was a giant hug of a book and the perfect festive read (even if it's still October!)😉

Overall Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Heat Rating: 🔥
Emotional Rating: 😂🙈🥰😍😲💓😍💔😢💖

*Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to leave an honest review*

An amazing Christmas romcom full of swoony and funny moments. I loved the writing style and characters. So far, this is the best Christmas romance I've read this year. Highly recommended!

"Don’t tell me I don’t know what this is. Don’t tell me I don’t know what I want."

Holiday Romance is a charming holiday romance between Molly and Andrew through a ten year journey towards realizing what's been in front of them all along. Friends who are each other's constant, they live in Chicago and share a flight every Christmas holiday to visit their families back home in Ireland. Andrew simply adores Christmas and all it represents. So when a snowstorm grounds their flight, Molly makes it her mission to get Andrew back home for Christmas by any means necessary.

I enjoyed the flashbacks to the ten years of flights they've taken with the hints of feelings they had yet to discover. They shared a beautiful friendship and they fit so perfectly together even through all the others they dated as they attempted to find what they already had with each other. Andrew was the sweetest, so thoughtful, protective and caring for Molly from the start. And Molly always considered Andrew's feelings, never wanting him to get hurt from the very first flight. But if they became more than just friends, what would happen to their friendship if it didn't work out? Would they lose each other forever?

This is a book about not letting fear hold you back from chasing after your dreams and from what you truly want, and to think about what could go right instead of always worrying about what could go wrong. Overall, I enjoyed where this book took me though parts in the middle moved too slowly and I had lost interest somewhat there, thus lowering my rating from five stars to four.

I loved the steam, never overdone, but filled with such intense feelings. Molly and Andrew shared a beautiful connection, capable of tugging at my heartstrings. I swooned over Andrew and everything about him, especially his smile and dimple. I could feel what the characters were going through and I felt like I was right there beside them throughout their travels. All of the family members were written so well and I loved the dynamics between them. I especially loved Andrew's brother Christian and I would love to see him to get his own HEA.

I've always said that an ending could make or break a book for me and this one was truly spectacular. Molly and Andrew were completely meant for each other and I couldn't imagine it any other way.

"He kisses me like I’ve never been kissed before. Like he’s been waiting his whole life to do it."

** Special thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. Quotes subject to change at time of publication. Available October 4, 2022. **

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture on this fun read. This is the book of what can go wrong?..everything.

This book was funny, set in Ireland and just a great time, Friends to lovers and the song..JUST haven't met you yet comes to mind. I recommend.

This was my first book by Catherine Walsh but it won’t be my last. I’ve already downloaded her other books and can’t wait to get stuck in.

I was hooked from the very start with this book. It was a very sweet and romantic book set in December of each year when Molly and Andrew get the same plane home for Christmas. They are complete opposites with Andrew loving everything to do with Christmas and Molly not so much. It is set in the present day but goes back over each year they travelled home together.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a hilarious rom-com set in Christmas.