Reviews with content warning for Miscarriage - The Holiday Ex-Files

TW: Cheating, emotional abuse, pregnancy, premature birth, miscarriage, internal voices, misogyny, manipulative behavior (I’m probably forgetting something)

I legitimately do not know why I finished this.

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jowould's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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jhaneveauguste's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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howellingforbooks's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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readundancies's review against another edition

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lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

2.0

The first chapter of this story does a fantastic job of letting you know exactly what kind of book you're getting into. In that, Noah, the romantic interest in this novel, was so obvious with his intentions when he was introduced and I think he was trying to be subtle about it, but he wasn't.

So when the lead character shows exactly how oblivious she is to his VERY blatant methods to get her attention?

The book lost me.

And that was just the first chapter.

Everything after that just snowballed into a mess of utter proportions. From what I can remember, I had issues with:

The fact that the lead character was supposedly in love with Christmas but because she caught her ex fucking an influencer underneath her Christmas tree, she can't even entertain the word in her vocabulary or anyone else's anymore. Which is a choice. Did I ever get the feeling that she was all that passionate about the holiday in the first place? Nope. And the use of the C-word, which was how she referred to Christmas throughout the novel? Not for me.
The
miscarriage
? Wasn't about how that was handled or introduced out of nowhere.
Noah. He was, to put it simply, annoying. But then again, so was Cami. They say love is patient and love is kind, but Noah was too much of all of that and I was not a fan. And Cami had way too many internal monologues with the voices in her head, and that's not even considering the fact that she named said voices on top of that.

I could go on, but at the end of the day, I just didn't like how the plot went down and I really didn't like any of the characters.

So call me a Grinch, but this was too Hallmark for me.

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lnzava's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted slow-paced

3.5

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lolalovesromance's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

3.75

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libbylou905's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

4.25

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