Emily Stone continues to wow every year with these holiday books that manage to simultaneously rip your heart out and uplift your spirits. Don’t let the holiday theme scare you off until next Christmas, the actual holidays played a very small role and I think this book will be a hit year round.

TW: terminal illness, infertility/miscarriage, death of a parent

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binreads's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Alexa, play invisible string by Taylor Swift.

This book was beautifully written and I highly recommend it. Don't let the cover fool you, it is a deep story that covers grief, sorrow, and picking up the pieces along the way.

I picked this up for my holiday read of the year, not expecting just how intense this book was going to be. It wasn't just another holiday romance but a story that dives into the deepest depths of human connection. It made me laugh, made me cry and even made me angry. The story takes over the place of a year, and does time jumps which didn't bother me at all.

It encapsulated the love between many different relationships: friendships, romantic partners, siblings, family etc. I would happily read this book again.

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abernathyreads's review against another edition

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emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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markedwithanm's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

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rachrreads's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Wow this was absolutely beautiful.

Holly has felt alone ever since a car accident tore her family apart three years ago. This year she gets a letter from a woman named Emma. In the letter a cafe Holly had visited prior to her accident is mentioned, along with Emma’s full name. Holly tracks Emma down and tries to heal the rift between Emma and her family after a similar accident.

Holly tracks down Jack, Emma’s grandson, only to realize this is the same Jack she ran into— literally—at the cafe three years prior…

This was a great story of love and loss. Of healing after a horrible accident. Emma and Holly become such great friends and bond through their shared experiences.

** slow burn romance, fade to black **

Content Warnings

lololovesthings's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

4 stars!

Emily Stone is the kind of author who will punch you in the stomach with sadness only to lift you back up again with the holiday spirit, strong connections, and her incredible writing. I loved her book "One Last Gift," and "Love, Holly" is also wonderful. Stone takes big, tough issues like death, grief, estrangement, and terminal illness, and combines them with holiday cheer, second chances, fate, and grace to make one heck of an emotional book. I laughed and cried while reading this one. This is not your typical formulaic love story. It takes its time unfolding to the point where some readers may even call it "slowly paced." I, for one, was along for the ride as main character, Holly and Jack, find their way back to one another through a series of serendipitous circumstances. Stone weaves such a delicate tale of sorrow and reconnection that I found myself fully immersed in this book from start to finish. I think it might be Stone's best book yet. Don't go into this story expecting a light holiday affair; it gets pretty grim and troublesome, but rest assured, she steers the ship back around to happiness eventually. I also love how each of Stone's novels involves letter writing in some capacity. There are some miscommunications in this book that may rub readers the wrong way, but they weren't so annoying that they turned me off from the story as a whole. All in all, read this if you need a good cry this holiday season. I loved it!

Thank you to NetGalley, Emily Stone, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and Dell for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

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abookwanderer's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

If you like your heartstrings to be pulled, you can count on Emily Stone to make it happen. Love, Holly is a novel about finding forgiveness and love amid grief and estrangement, and it had me feeling all the feelings!

Holly met Jack moments before it became the worst day of her life, but she’s never forgotten the connection they made. Two years later she returns to the café where they met thanks to a letter she received from a stranger. Holly doesn’t believe in fate, but life seems determined to prove her wrong.

Don’t let the cover of this one mislead you, while the beginning and end of the novel take place over Christmas, it’s not really what I consider a full-on holiday book. It’s a nice mix, especially if you’re someone who prefers just a touch of the holiday theme, or if like me, you’re reading it months before the holidays. But I did feel like this was a cozy read, even though it deals with some tough subjects. It felt loving and compassionate. And the ending was beautiful.

Holly’s journey takes her to various places throughout the book. From London to Venice to Ireland, and I enjoyed all the different settings. Especially her time spent in Venice, with her descriptions of the canals, cafés, and shops. And while the book is mostly from Holly’s point of view, we do get some chapters with Jack’s point of view, too, which is always nice. Stone’s previous two books were closed door romances, but I would call Love, Holly a cracked-door romance. It’s not very explicit, but it’s not exactly fade-to-black, which worked nicely with her gentle writing style.

Love, Holly is primarily a book about grief, but it’s also a book about miscommunication or lack of communication. And it’s one of my least favorite tropes. It can get tedious or frustrating. But the communication issues in this novel made more sense with such a weighty subject like grief, which needs time for healing. And while I enjoy Stone’s heartrending books, I would still love for her to write a mostly happy book. She always has a few moments where I find myself laughing out loud, and I find myself wishing for more laughter!

I’ve enjoyed all Stone’s books, but her debut Always, In December remains my favorite. Maybe it’s just the nostalgia of the first book?? Although, I think Love, Holly may be her best written one yet. I can tell that she’s growing as a writer with each new book, which makes me even more excited for her future projects!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to Dell and Netgalley for providing me with a copy.

Check out my reviews and playlists at A Book Wanderer

Content Warnings

bookrecsbyjess's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes

4.0

Thank you to NetGalley and PRH Audio for the complimentary copies of this book. All opinions are my own.

Love, Holly by Emily Stone is a book full of hope, reconciliation, and family. This emotional story follows the lives of Holly, Jack, and Emma as their paths cross in multiple seasons. All three characters, having experienced loss, realize their need for each other and for forgiveness.

While this book is marketed as a romance with a focus on Christmas, I don’t think those elements play a very big role in the story. I still enjoyed it, but I would classify it as more of contemporary fiction with a focus on character growth.

What really made me enjoy this story was the characters and the relationships between them. I loved seeing them forgive and grow to love one another.

While this book is filled with hope, it is quite a bit sad at times and deals with some heavy topics such as cancer, death, grief, and infertility.

I would recommend this book to someone who enjoys a focus on characters over plot, second chances, the importance of family, and England as a setting.

Also, if you’re a fan of audiobooks, I really enjoyed listening to the narrator for this book. I think she did a great job with the voices and had a British accent, which fit the setting.

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