A review by theimportanceofbooks
Holiday Crush by Lane Hayes

emotional lighthearted fast-paced

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

2.0

This one for me just fell completely flat. The first 70 - 80% was a bit of a snoozefest and I didn’t feel the chemistry at all. I didn’t understand why these two specifically had to fall in love. It felt like, for Court at least, he got with Ivan, because he was there and available. There was nothing really about Ivan that made me think, ‘yeah, he should definitely give it all up for this guy and be with him, he’s his soulmate.’

Court was just a generic, bland, vanilla character who could have been literally anyone. I find it hard to recall his name when I put the book down. 

And Ivan, well, I liked him at first, and I definitely liked him when he was a side-character in the other books, but that’s what he felt like for me, a side-character. A side-character with a load of quirks. Like having a black Christmas tree up year round and being a goth in school and loving Christmas and making ugly latte art. These traits are good side-character traits, but not MC material. 

I also think he was a bit of a dick sometimes. He engaged in town gossip, but actually found it boring, he was fine about his pregnant friend selling her share of the buisness, but not really. He was spending time with Court for weeks and never once asked him how his training at the rink was going until someone brought it up and he thought, well shit maybe I should ask. Then the way he took an interest was by watching hockey and putting on some weird hockey fan stereotype act?

From the 80% mark, I got really annoyed with the story, the characters, the whole lot. I didn’t want them to get together. I didn’t believe that these two people could only fall for each other and no one else in the whole wide world. I didn’t believe they were soulmates. I needed to know, what is it about this person in particular that compliments your life so perfectly? What do they offer you that no one else can? What is it about their personality that is so unique? 

If it’s just because you have great sex, well then, shit, you can have that with a lot of people if you look hard enough (especially if your as hot as these two people apparently are). 

I think the glossing over important scenes and telling rather than showing contributes to a lot of this. The tension is lost when we skip forward too much and being told that their relationship is ‘this’ and that this person is ‘that’ rather than us seeing that for ourselves makes it feel a bit inauthentic and unrealistic.