The Holiday Switch by Tif Marcelo

e-Audio, 07:46:37
Narrated by: Leiana Bertrand
Release Date: October 5, 2021
Published by: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Read from: October 22-26, 2021
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Overdrive
TW: N/A
For Readers Interested In: Books set during a Holiday (Christmas), Contemporary Romance, Realistic Fiction, Bookish Characters, Characters of Color, YA

      A paperback original romance about a bookish Filipino-American girl who crosses paths with the innkeeper’s aggravating nephew–but when they accidentally switch phones, their newly discovered secrets draw them together.
     Lila Castro is ready to take on her last winter break of high school. The snow is plentiful, the mood is full of holiday cheer, and she’s earning extra cash working at the cozy local inn. But her perfect holiday plans crash to a halt when her boss’s frustratingly cute nephew, Teddy Veracruz, becomes her coworker. When they accidentally switch phones one afternoon, they both realize they’ve been hiding things from each other. Will their secrets–and a dash of holiday spirit–bring them closer to love?
     Underlined is a line of totally addictive romance, thriller, and horror paperback original titles coming to you fast and furious each month. Enjoy everything you want to read the way you want to read it.

*MY THOUGHTS*

As someone who despises people who say Christmas is the day after Halloween, I surprised even myself when I decided to read this BEFORE Halloween. (Don’t get your panties in a twist. My B-Day is 2 days after Halloween and is always looked over just like Thanksgiving and November in general so I always try to make sure people don’t look over the whole month!) But even with all my hang ups, I couldn’t pass this book about a book blogger up!

Lila Castro lives in the most wonderful place on Earth, where everything and everyone is always filled with holiday cheer. For her job she works in a local inn’s gift shop. She loves being there and talking about her her favorite movie and all things Christmas. But then the owner’s nephew comes and he is her co-worker. And they despise each other. One day they switch phones on accident and learn things about each other that they shouldn’t know. Can they keep it a secret or will they bring each other down with their secrets?

I normally don’t like reading/listening to holiday media before Thanksgiving, but I HAD to get my hands on this one. All I had to see was it was about a book blogger and bonus points because she was a character of color. And after reading this, I can truthfully say it felt hella weird to be in the Christmas spirit before Halloween even got here lol But I remember thinking of some holiday content I can do to put on my blog or on my TikTok lol It was definitely very good.

One thing I worried about was the kitchyness of the setting. I thought it would be hella cliched because the whole town seemed to be all about Christmas all the time. Even their business names and souvenirs are based in the holiday. But in the end, it didn’t really bother me. I thought the names were cute to be honest. And she doesn’t name off everything in the story so you’re not overwhelmed or anything. It really was just a cute kind of setting.

The thing I didn’t care for was the two main characters. This is how I know that I don’t care for enemies to lovers. He starts off as extremely petty and then out of nowhere he’s like “Oh I’ve always liked you.” And I’m here thinking I though boys grew out of that stage in 1st grade when they start thinking girls have cooties. But nope, this one was just like that. I also didn’t like the way he acted towards her for doing her job. Maybe I’m being territorial because he was roaching on her space in the library, but whatever lol The romance itself was super cute tho. I liked them much better as lovers than I did as when they were enemies and apart. Maybe I’m just impatient, but I always hate that phase. I just don’t understand how you can turn it off so fast lol (Yes I am a Scorpio which means I’m a grudge holder. Don’t judge me, judge ya momma lolol)

Ok so I don’t think this needs to be in the review, but I couldn’t not add it as a book blogger lol Her blog was totes cool. They were all about books that feature the holidays and I thought that was pretty neat. Who knew there was that many books about the holidays. And they sounded like some I would actually read. The one about the hostages? YES please lol And to know that she had a spot at her job to write blog posts and to talk about books? Yeah, I was pretty jealous lol

It’s not usual that I read a book set in a place where it seems to be Christmas everyday. Especially this early lol But with the main character having a book blog and being a person of color, I didn’t mind blasting my Mariah Carey while I finished this book. This book definitely is a MOOD. And a really good one.

Overall, I give this