Stevie‘s review of Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley
Multicultural Holiday Romance published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons 26 Sep 23
I love holiday fiction that doesn’t (just) centre around the expected Western Christian ones. This story, set in Canada during a December when Christmas, Hanukkah, and Eid fall within days of each other, particularly appealed to me. Our protagonists first encounter each other at an airport on a stormy night. Anna is on her way to Toronto to spend Christmas with her wealthy new boyfriend and his family but is still mourning her father two years after his unexpected death and resents her Jewish stepmother for having seemingly moved on already. Meanwhile, Maryam and her family are waiting for the same flight, because Maryam’s younger sister has decided that Eid is the perfect time to marry her fiancé after a whirlwind romance.
When heavy snow causes the flight to be diverted and strands the passengers in the festive town of Snow Falls, Anna and Maryam try to make the best of their situation, encouraged by Maryam’s film-loving grandfather, who is excited to discover the town is also hosting the actors and crew of the sequel to his favourite Christmas movie. The two women are entranced by the small town’s unexpectedly multicultural community and find themselves welcomed by the various communities and included in the celebrations. They also discover the potential for new relationships: Anna with the handsome stranger she met on the night she arrived, who turns out to be central to the filming that’s taking place, and Maryam with her former love interest, who was also on his way to the wedding.
Maryam’s sister and Anna’s boyfriend are less happy about the unplanned layover for the flight and push for everyone to make their way to Toronto by any means available. It’s left to the whole town to pull together with Anna and Maryam to ensure their annual Christmas entertainment – this year incorporating Hanukkah and Eid as well – goes ahead and that Maryam’s sister doesn’t feel left out.
I enjoyed this book a lot. There were a lot of characters, which made the cast feel a little unwieldy at times, but I liked the balance that was given to the three holidays and those celebrating each of them. I would definitely read a sequel, were such a book to be published.
Grade: B
Summary:
Three times the holiday magic. Three times the chaos.
As strangers and seatmates Maryam Aziz and Anna Gibson fly to Toronto over the holidays—Maryam to her sister’s impromptu wedding, and Anna to meet her boyfriend’s wealthy family for the first time—neither expect that severe turbulence will scare them into confessing their deepest hopes and fears to one another. At least they’ll never see each other again. And the love of Maryam’s life, Saif, wasn’t sitting two rows behind them hearing it all. Oops.
An emergency landing finds Anna, Saif, Maryam, and her sister’s entire bridal party snowbound at the quirky Snow Falls Inn in a picture-perfect town, where fate has Anna’s actor-crush filming a holiday romance. As Maryam finds the courage to open her heart to Saif, and Anna feels the magic of being snowbound with an unexpected new love—both women soon realize there’s no place they’d rather be for the holidays.
Read an excerpt.
