The Christmas Trip

International friend trio Chloe, Jules, and Lucy spend Christmas together in Hawaii.

Chloe, Lucy, and Jules have been friends since age 13 when they met in the teen lounge on a Hawaiian vacation. The girls swapped Christmases the year before (as told in The Christmas Swap) and each found romance in another country.

The women return to Hawaii together for the first time with their boyfriends for the following Christmas. Australian Chloe was supposed to spend Christmas in Paris with British actor Archer, but a natural disaster prevented them from having their Parisian holiday. British Lucy is on her way to Colorado to spend Christmas with American boyfriend Will when Archer calls Will and arranges for them to come to Hawaii with them instead. Christmas-aholic Lucy isn't thrilled about spending Christmas on a tropical island when Christmas = snow.

Will's sister Jules and her boyfriend Matt (Chloe's Australian friend) also join the group along with Jules' and Will's dad Nate. Nate wants to spend his Christmas in Hawaii with his kids instead of going to a cabin in Colorado with his ex-wife and her current husband (yikes!).

But Christmas in paradise isn't as rosy as they hoped. Famous Hollywood actor Archer Tate's ex-girlfriend is also on the island and is a threat to their idyllic vacation. And when the paparazzi figure out his location, things will become way more hectic...

This book is a fun, beach-read kind of women's fiction that doesn't grab you as much as the earlier book in the series when all the women are finding love. While it does provide a more realistic view of relationships, it's not as exciting as the previous romance. Recommended only for fans of the first novel.

Sandy Barker writes romantic fiction in addition to running a blog about travel and reading.

Series: Christmas Romance, #2

Publisher: One More Chapter

Length: 392 pages

Release Date: November 10, 2022

Representation: native Hawaiian side character

I received an electronic galley copy of this title from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.