Monday, 16 December 2024

Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh | Book Review

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My rating: 4/5
Publisher: Bookouture
Publication date: 4th October 2022

Blurb:
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…

Review:
I have been wanting to read as many festive books as I can this Christmas and this one had been on my radar for a while. Although I'm not usually a fan of friends to lovers, I absolutely loved this.

Molly is a lawyer from Ireland working and living in Chicago. Every year she flies back home to her family for Christmas. The first year of doing this, her best friend (who she is definitely going to stop being friends with) has informed her of her decision to split up with her boyfriend, Andrew. Who is sitting next to Molly on the flight? Yep, Andrew, who is also Irish and flying back home for Christmas.

After that first flight, Molly and Andrew have made it a tradition to fly back home together and it is now their tenth year of doing so. A storm has hit Chicago and Molly knows how much Christmas means to Andrew and his family so she will do anything to get him back to Ireland. So off they go to Paris, London then on the ferry to Ireland.

I loved how this was written. We have the story of their long winded trip back home in the present but also glimpses from the past ten years of flying together and you can really see their friendship building. After reading about all their journeys together over the years, Andrew delivers a wonderful monologue that really gripped my heart.

There is some really brilliant Irish humour in here too with fantastic characters. I am excited to read more by Catherine Walsh.



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