Holiday Wedding is a suspenseful, swoony, spicy romance mystery that comes with the festive and heart-warming atmosphere of the holiday season! 

 

There are two love story you’ll get to follow: Gwen and Caleb as well as Dean and Jenny. 

I wasn’t aware this was part of a series, but I’m glad to say I could enjoy this one just fine without reading the 1st book cause the author did a great job providing enough background information so I didn’t feel lost or miss anything. 

 

As much as I love reading about the sweet and lovey dovey moment between Gwen and Caleb as they overcome each obstacles in planning their perfect wedding, I preferred the sizzling enemies-to-lovers romance of the grumpy and moody Dean and the cheerful sunshine Jenny. 

I adore their bantering and I really like the part when they’re stuck together due to an unexpected storm, which kinda forces them to bond! 

 

This book comes in two different version, the sweet and spicy version. I got the spicy version and found the spicy scenes well-written and perfectly balanced, not overtaking the main plot. 

 

Overall, it’s an entertaining and enjoyable read! Such a page turner! 
 If you’re looking for a holiday read with tropes like grumpy x sunshine, forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers, and one bed, then you’ll love this one! 

 

 

⚠️ 𝐓𝐖: sexual content, kidnapping, pregnancy, stalking, gun violence, panic attacks, PTSD, brief mention of death of a parent 

ARC REVIEW 

This book started off with a bang (pun intended!). 

I’ve read hundreds of romance books and this is the first book I’ve read with a split first person POV between two main characters that are not the FMC and MMC. I loved that I got to see two love stories within the same book. 

Jenny’s chapters were my favorite. The heated angst between Jenny and Dean was palpable. (The one bed scene- OMG!)

The author did a great job making the characters in this book feel real. I could feel their emotions throughout the entirety of the story. 

A solid 4.5/5

I read this book in a couple of days, and it was a nice, easy read. However, I did find that the primary characters, Caleb and Gwen, exhibited a level of codependency that I personally found a tad bit excessive. 😅

I loved that there were two characters giving their own stories, and it flip-flopped back and forth, so a couple of chapters were about Gwen, and then the next couple of chapters were about Jenny. I liked that it allowed for the exploration of two distinct love stories. 📚❤️

While I applaud the inclusion of mental health as a central theme, particularly in the relationship between Dean and Jenny, I felt that the emotional breakdown depicted may have been somewhat exaggerated, especially considering the intimate moment that followed. 🤔

Overall, am I going to read more books by this author? Absolutely 💯 

 #melissadymondauthor #bookreview #romance #mentalhealth #twistsandturns

This is not only the perfect end of Gwen and Caleb love story but also the beginning of multiple new ones. I would definitely recommend reading the beginning of Gwen and Caleb love story in holiday Star before reading this book. 
This is not just a cute story, also darker and deeper themes are part of this book so please read the trigger warnings. 

Thank you Nerdfam for this e-Arc in exchange for my honesty review. 

Thank you to netgalley for my ARC!

Overall, I enjoyed this book. The writing and plot kept me turning the pages and I loved Caleb and Gwen's connection. Their love is so pure and cute, and they are both loyal and committed to each other. I enjoyed all the characters and Jenny and Dean's blossoming romance as well. I was genuinely happy for them when they got together and slightly more interested in their story.

There were a few things that bothered me, though. 

This has one of my least favorite tropes ever.

I knew it the second FMC felt nauseous the first time. I hate surprise pregnancy. Yes it happens in real life unexpectedly and derails plans but it's overused and I saw it coming a mile away.

I'm over it. There were a couple other things that were predictable as well.

The first sex scene between Jenny and Dean was partly hot, and partly cringe. The cliche trope of the FMC seeing the MC naked for the first time and her shock of him just being sooo big that he won't fit, and him saying "don't worry, you can take it, I'll make sure you're ready." *EYE ROLL* I just read another scene like this in a different book that I DNFed. I'm begging all authors... please stop writing this.

When the stalkers have Gwen and Lola reveals her reasons... ugh. It makes sense that she's jealous of Gwen and wanted Caleb back. Even that her career has tanked since then. But because "I won't let you ruin my favorite holiday! Christmas is MINE!" Really? She sounds like a toddler.

I can't say much more or this whole review will be a spoiler, but the other things were minor and not worth mentioning here. But I did love the ending and would still read the next book in the series.

**Spoilers in content warnings**

Thank you to The Nerd Fam and the author for the gifted ARC! #HolidayWedding #TheNerdFam @thenerdfam

Gwen & Caleb can't wait to get married. But when a blizzard comes for NYC, it looks like they might not be able to have the wedding that they planned for. On top of that, there's a stalker on the loose! Jenny, Gwen's best friend, is trying her hardest to keep up with her job as a journalist, while making sure that the wedding runs as smoothly as possible. While dealing with the blizzard and the aforementioned stalker, Jenny grows close to Caleb's bodyguard, Dean. 

 It was, for the most part, a fun holiday romance. I love Hallmark movies, so I am THE demographic. This was the sequel to a previous book as well, but the author does a good job at not making anyone feel lost in the story. I even enjoyed the addition of a suspense storyline. Makes it a little different from your typical holiday romance!

Unfortunately this book has a fair few moments that did not sit well with me. Jenny, self-described as 'curvy', has a lot of inner monologuing about her discomfort with her weight. She does come out the other end with a newfound acceptance of her body, but she has a lot of thoughts about needing to eat "better" and needing to work out more that felt like the author was somewhat assigning moral value to being thin. There were moments with the MMCs in both couples that really irked me. They felt controlling and like they had extremely short tempers. Those are major red flags in real life, and they're major red flags in books. And finally, there is an inclusion of a trope that I KNOW a lot of people dislike and while I am mostly fine with it, I did not like it here! All of these really brought down my rating.

Thank you to NetGalley, Victory Editing and Dr Melissa Dymond for this ARC.

This is the continuation of Gwen's (a doctor) and Caleb's (a famous actor) story from Holiday Star, with the added story of Gwen's BFF Jennie and beefcake bodyguard Dean.

It's December and Gwen's and Caleb's wedding is imminent. Tensions are high and Jenny and Dean are thrown together by various wedding tasks and a winter storm crippling New York, giving us the grumpy/sunshine, enemies to lovers and fake dating tropes, with forced proximity and only one bed situation thrown in for good measure.

This is a sequel written for readers who were keen on more of Gwen, Caleb and friends. It is therefore not really suitable as a standalone book, and I downloaded the first book from Amazon before reading this. 

It is written in dual POV between Gwen and Jenny, but to me it contains more of Gwen's story. I have to say I didn't find Jenny's story as interesting but that may be because she wasn't given the exposure and the right to her own book.

Like the first one, this book comes in a sweet and in a spicy version (although NetGalley only has the spicy one), with the sweet version only involving kissing, whereas the spicy version being at it from page one. To be honest, I think the author should decide what level of spice she wants to write and then stick to it. I generally prefer less spice but I can always skip a few pages.

It is well written and there is a cute dog but the story itself is a bit of a hotchpotch of romance and mystery, with three couples in various stages of their relationships, a wedding and a stalking plot that escalated rather alarmingly.

With a lot of snow and the action contained to wintertime, it is more Christmassy than the first, but we get the same level of hidden trauma from the main characters, with the mental health issues handled sensitively.

The third book Holiday Love between Helen and Teddy is set up in an epilogue, but while I like epilogues I was a bit overwhelmed by all the bonus epilogues and "click here for Caleb's version" links.

I did however like the colourful illustrations and the romantic tone of the book plus the info on colon cancer detection, and I would like to read the third installation because from history they are often better than the second (waves to Back to the Future and Men in Black).