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A review by aliu6
The Holiday Treatment by Elle Spencer
3.0
3 stars
Holly Hudson has made a name for herself writing screenplays for a successful Christmas romance series at Wifetime. As great as that's been, her dream is to create a gay Christmas movie, but Holly's been told time and time again that the network is just not ready to make that leap. Enter Meredith Drake, a Wifetime executive who happens to be a lesbian—and super attractive. Meredith seems to be Holly's best bet to make her gay movie happen. When circumstances lead Holly and Meredith to the same Hawaiian resort during the holidays, the two women end up doing more than just talk business. Will Holly find the same happy ending as the characters in her movies do, or is that just a fairytale?
cw: homophobia, brief mention of sexual harassment in the workplace
This book was kind of disappointing. The writing was great, but the plot made me shake my head so many times. This gave me unpleasant flashbacks to that Hulu movie, "Happiest Season." Maybe lesbian Christmas romances are just not for me :/
The Characters: Holly is cute and quirky, but she has some low self-esteem. Not the worst thing, I just prefer my MCs to be a bit more confident. I didn't like how Holly kept thinking Meredith was so out of her league. Speaking of Meredith, ugh. She was okay in the first half of the book, but then she treats Holly pretty shittily and barely apologizes. Honestly, thinking back, an earlier interaction with Meredith's snooty sister could have been a red flag. I get that it's a Christmas story and some things are glossed over, but I think Meredith really should have been held accountable for what she did. So anyway, I'm not a fan of her. The side characters were fine for the most part, but I think there were too many of them for me to keep track. Holly has a gang of friends, each quirky in their own ways, and it became a lot.
The Romance: We see Holly crushing on Meredith a lot, but we don't get much from Meredith's perspective. It seemed like Holly was willing to let Meredith get away with anything because she couldn't believe Meredith would ever want someone like her. I didn't buy the falling in love bit, and I didn't really think Holly and Meredith worked well together. See: my dislike of Meredith.
The Plot: It was a little slow. It follows the relationship between Holly and Meredith, as well as Holly's attempts to get her gay movie produced. The beginning dragged out and then the end felt too rushed.
The Writing: This part was solid. There were some funny lines, and everything flowed.
All in all... maybe the main problem of this book can be boiled down to one point - there was too much going on. There wasn't enough focus on Holly and Meredith's relationship, and instead there was a lot of dialogue between Holly and the side characters. Obviously this doesn't have to be a bad thing, but when I don't believe the two MCs should end up together, there needs to be some more time dedicated to showing how they work well. I tend to really enjoy Elle Spencer's books, and I think she is the queen of angst. But this book didn't really have angst, just a plot point thrown in to create conflict, which never got resolved satisfactorily.
Maybe this is one that should be left to the hardcore Christmas fans, but this book was not for me.
*I received an ARC via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Holly Hudson has made a name for herself writing screenplays for a successful Christmas romance series at Wifetime. As great as that's been, her dream is to create a gay Christmas movie, but Holly's been told time and time again that the network is just not ready to make that leap. Enter Meredith Drake, a Wifetime executive who happens to be a lesbian—and super attractive. Meredith seems to be Holly's best bet to make her gay movie happen. When circumstances lead Holly and Meredith to the same Hawaiian resort during the holidays, the two women end up doing more than just talk business. Will Holly find the same happy ending as the characters in her movies do, or is that just a fairytale?
cw: homophobia, brief mention of sexual harassment in the workplace
This book was kind of disappointing. The writing was great, but the plot made me shake my head so many times. This gave me unpleasant flashbacks to that Hulu movie, "Happiest Season." Maybe lesbian Christmas romances are just not for me :/
The Characters: Holly is cute and quirky, but she has some low self-esteem. Not the worst thing, I just prefer my MCs to be a bit more confident. I didn't like how Holly kept thinking Meredith was so out of her league. Speaking of Meredith, ugh. She was okay in the first half of the book, but then she treats Holly pretty shittily and barely apologizes. Honestly, thinking back, an earlier interaction with Meredith's snooty sister could have been a red flag. I get that it's a Christmas story and some things are glossed over, but I think Meredith really should have been held accountable for what she did. So anyway, I'm not a fan of her. The side characters were fine for the most part, but I think there were too many of them for me to keep track. Holly has a gang of friends, each quirky in their own ways, and it became a lot.
The Romance: We see Holly crushing on Meredith a lot, but we don't get much from Meredith's perspective. It seemed like Holly was willing to let Meredith get away with anything because she couldn't believe Meredith would ever want someone like her. I didn't buy the falling in love bit, and I didn't really think Holly and Meredith worked well together. See: my dislike of Meredith.
The Plot: It was a little slow. It follows the relationship between Holly and Meredith, as well as Holly's attempts to get her gay movie produced. The beginning dragged out and then the end felt too rushed.
The Writing: This part was solid. There were some funny lines, and everything flowed.
All in all... maybe the main problem of this book can be boiled down to one point - there was too much going on. There wasn't enough focus on Holly and Meredith's relationship, and instead there was a lot of dialogue between Holly and the side characters. Obviously this doesn't have to be a bad thing, but when I don't believe the two MCs should end up together, there needs to be some more time dedicated to showing how they work well. I tend to really enjoy Elle Spencer's books, and I think she is the queen of angst. But this book didn't really have angst, just a plot point thrown in to create conflict, which never got resolved satisfactorily.
Maybe this is one that should be left to the hardcore Christmas fans, but this book was not for me.
*I received an ARC via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.