The Christmas Holiday by Maxine Morrey

The Christmas Holiday by Maxine Morrey
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

When Mia Walker is called in and offered what is basically a travel writer’s dream job of taking part in an around the world trip to document a couple that will wed at the end of the trip she is more than excited. What Mia didn’t count on though was the photographer that has been hired to accompany the group on the trip is none other than her ex-fiancee Hunter Scott. Mia hasn’t seen Hunter for five years since the end of their engagement but still plans to make the most of the incredible opportunity.

When Hunter finds that Mia has been requested for the trip he does everything he can to convince the couple to use someone else for the job but they are set on Mia. If Mia wasn’t already worried about spending time with Hunter his resistance certainly didn’t help matters but for the next two months they will have to learn to work together and make the most of the opportunity.

The Christmas Holiday by Maxine Morrey was one that while I thought I would absolutely love this contemporary romance it was another of those books that I went back and forth on while reading the story. My dilemma started with the relationship itself between Mia and Hunter, there shared history is something that I love to have added into a story to not make a romance feel rushed or insta-lovey plus they had a couple months coming up to give plenty of time together. But on the flip side of that the angst between them started off cutesy and even funny but in my opinion their clashing lasted a bit too long in the book and would have preferred getting to the make up a bit sooner.

Also, another debated on thing in here was the use of the trip around the world as the setting for the story. This immediately appealed to me as I love the idea of traveling to just about anywhere and don’t get the opportunity to do so very often so virtually traveling along with the characters is always at the top of my list of fun reads. However again there was a downside to this as I wish the author had incorporated more of the locations into the story perhaps replacing a bit of the back and forth to balance things out.

But with both issues it is all a matter of personal taste and I would certainly read something by Maxine Morrey again as the writing style was fine and I did enjoy the story to some degree. In the end I decided to give this one 3.5 stars overall and would still recommend checking it out if you think it sounds like one you’d enjoy.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.