A review by banrions
The Holiday Treatment by Elle Spencer

2.0

(i'd actually give this like a 2.5, edging sliiiiightly closer to 3 but not enough, unfortunetly).

I wanted to like this more than I did. I listened to the audiobook version, and while I liked the narrator, I wasn’t in love with the story, or the characters. Holly said and did things that made me genuinely yell out loud "girl, please just stop talking" more than once and not in the ‘oh this is so awkward but adorable way’ more in the ‘this is deeply embarrassing way’. The romance just kind of didn’t feel believable to me, which, on top of not really loving the main character, was kind of the biggest downer for me, since the focus was kind of on the romance. I think this is mostly due to basically just showing a one night stand, assuming they’re suddenly in love,

Spoiler

and my god i was also like, holly.... yeah OBVIOUSLY she is not going to just maybe lose her job for a one night stand, you DINGUS

and then speeding though the relationship with time cuts that just didn’t let the relationship develop much beyond them clearly having sexual chemistry. And look, I get it, this is meant to be a short and sweet queer holiday romance and those stories all usually kinda surface level anyway, and that’s FINE, it wasn’t bad, it just was a slight letdown. espesically since holly herself made SEVERAL speeches about how queer people need genuine holiday romance stories in the media, i was kinda like.... you dropped your OWN ball, babe.