I just finished “The Holly Dates”, and with a catchy name like it was no surprise that I fell in love with this winter rom-com read.
Within the first 10 pages of the book, I was instantly a fan of our main character Holly. When she said, “I hated men. If someone asked me an interesting fact about myself, it would be that: I hated men. I wished my lower region despised them as much as I did.”, she became the most relatable person ever to me - real or fictional.
While the main premise of this book follows Holly on many failed dates, I cannot get over the subplot that took her down this metaphorical dating pipeline. Every bride's fear is getting left at the altar, but nothing can prepare you for your fiance objecting to the wedding and running off with your supposed best-friend and maid of honor.
While she handled the situation one way (crying, swearing off men for a period and eating all the comfort foods), I can guarantee neither one of them would’ve gotten away from me. I appreciated the semi-cool way she handled it, but let’s be real, the wedding would’ve looked a lot more red if the roles were reversed.
The story jumps forward to our love interests, Holly and Kai, having a “meet-ugly” at the building they both live in followed by Holly bringing a string of first dates to the restaurant Kai owns. After seeing enough failed attempts at love, Kai swoops in and decides to coach Holly up on how to make it to a second date.
It’s a rom-com, so we all know where this leads, but what I did not expect was feeling so emotional for our main characters. They both came with some baggage when it came to partners and relationships, but seeing them overcome all their fears to try again was done beautifully by Brittainy Cherry. The dialogue between the characters and how she tied every chaotic aspect of the book together so nicely at the end really did it for me.
This book deserves all the stars and I am so honored I had the chance to ARC read this before it was published [thank you Valentine PR!!]. If you’re looking for a fun book with relatable characters, drama and all the feels, this is definitely the book for you.
P.S: here are some quotes that I *loved* <3
"There is someone out there who looks at you like you're everything, Holly. There is someone who sees you and knows for a fact that you are something unique to this world. There is someone who wants to give you everything that you've ever wanted and more."
"Drunk Holly was adorable. Sober Holly was adorable, too. Holly Jackson was adorable."
"Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful."
"I knew you would understand because you're a good girl."
"She taught me that - that love was a choice. It was something we chose day in and day out. Love was a verb. It was active, growing and evolving, and I was happy I could explore said love with Holly."
Book Rating 5/5
Spice Rating: 2/5
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