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The Ex-Mas Holidays review


 Throughout November and December I really really enjoy reading festive books so I am always looking for new recommendations. This year I discovered Zoe Allison who is an author based in Scotland writing contemporary romance books and I just knew that I had to give her a go over this festive season. The first Zoe Allison book I decided to give a shot was The Ex-Mas Holidays. 

The Ex-Mas Holidays follows Maya who is shocked when she bumps into her ex, Sam, wearing nothing but a tiny apron as a waiter at her friend’s Christmas party. She also gets roped into working with him at the local ski resort and Sam may be exactly the distraction that Maya needs. 


There were parts of the book that I really enjoyed reading. This included the Scottish setting, festive elements and characters who were just enjoyable to see. 


As someone from Scotland I love reading books set in Scotland and the Scottish setting in The Ex-Mas Holidays was really well written. It felt like a Scottish ski town that I could go and visit. It wasn’t romanticised in ways that towns often are and I really liked that. I look forward to reading The Wedding Date in 2025 which is also set in Glenavie and any future books Zoe Allison releases. 


I also for a lot of the book found myself really enjoying the romance however there were parts I wished had been done differently at points. An example of this without spoiling is how little time there was in the latter half of the book for the couple to actually get together due to how long something else had gone on for. That something else felt very long and dragged out to me and by time we reached the 50% mark I remember feeling pretty sick of it. That being said I did enjoy reading about Sam and Maya’s relationship evolving once we reached that point. 


One thing that still stands out to me a week after reading as something I enjoyed is the friendships in this book, and that is both Maya and Sam’s. Sam had some friends where it was both nice to see the friendship and they were interesting people to read about. Liv (Sam’s twin sister and Maya’s best friend) was potentially one of my favourites to read in both contexts and I look forward to seeing more of her in The Wedding Date. It was also nice to see Maya’s relationship with particular family members evolve throughout the book. 


Finally the Christmas vibes were there pretty much exactly how I wanted them which was great to see. The discussions about Christmas lights had to make up some of my favourite scenes in the book. 


Definitely an author I will be coming back to in the new year and a festive book I will be adding to recommendation lists.

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