The Ex-Mas Holidays: Eight Years of Misunderstanding (4 Stars)

After winning it in a Goodreads Giveaway last month, I recently finished reading The Ex-Mas Holidays by Zoe Allison. The book came out on September 26th. It takes place in Scotland, clearly during the winter since they are skiing. Yet, I wouldn’t say that it really feels like a Christmas novel. It is a second-chance romance based on an 8-year misunderstanding brought about by a third party’s actions.

What You Should Know

I love the plot of this book. In some ways, though, it just doesn’t fully feel realistic. Maya and Sam dated for a time when they were 18. Now, eight years later, they run into each other again, and the feelings are still there. I won’t go into the details of why their relationship ended when they were 18, but it just seems like something would have been said to resolve it or to realize what had really happened. Basically, it’s a misunderstanding based on someone else’s manipulation. Yet, neither one puts forth the effort to figure out the truth. If they were really that immature to not figure things out then, they really weren’t ready to pursue a relationship with each other anyway, so it’s probably a good thing that things didn’t develop at that point.

Reader Warnings

As a warning to readers, there is some swearing in this book, including multiple uses of the f-word. There are also some scenes that some readers may find too sexual. When Maya and Sam first encounter each other at the beginning of the book, Sam is working as an almost-naked waiter. Yes, this is in the description of the book, but when I entered the Goodreads Giveaway, I didn’t fully pay attention to the book’s description. Oops, there’s my own misunderstanding concerning this book! I think I saw that it was a Christmas book, and I just requested it without looking for more information.

The almost-naked waiter situation is handled about as cleanly as an explanation about an almost-naked waiter can be handled. For most of the book, you might hear that people had sex, or you know what’s happened, but you don’t get the graphic sexual content. Things start to get a little more sexually graphic at about Chapter 20. There were sections of this chapter as well as another chapter that I just skimmed or skipped over. I didn’t need that much insight into their personal lives.

There isn’t any real violence in the book. There are a few potentially sensitive topics covered, though. They include a parent abandoning children, gaslighting from a romantic partner, and adult children being compared to each other and pushed to be something they don’t want to be.

Final Thoughts

Overall, it’s a bit of a cheesy second-chance romance. It’s got some holiday and Christmas references thrown in (mostly looking at Christmas lights), but it’s not your traditional Christmas or winter holiday book. There is at least one more novel planned, so I assume that this is the beginning of a series.