Review: The Holiday Detour

The Holiday Detour by Jane Kolven
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Finished on May 27, 2021

Favorite Scene/Quote: "It seemed like a very strange coincidence, one that was probably totally fictional and that would result in me being in forty-five pieces buried in the woods."

The premise for this book was interesting enough. It sounded like a cheesy insta-love holiday rom-com. At some points it read like one, but at other points it just felt under developed.
    
Dana is trying to get home to her aging grandmother for the holidays. She is stuck driving, something she’s done for multiple years now, but this year her car breaks down on the trip. She manages to stumble her way to the road and stumbles across Charlie. Charlie, a pig farmer by Dana’s knowledge, is a genderqueer individual who offers to take Dana with them to Chicago. The two believe that the trip will be simple and straight forward, but they find themselves besieged by a line of bad luck.

I liked Charlie for the most part. They seemed nice and well-meaning, even a bit hot at times. I would have really liked more time with them, or even a book split between the two main characters. Part of the reason I would have preferred that is because I don’t really like Dana. She’s not horrible, but she seems to constantly be jumping to bad conclusions and it gets annoying after a while.

Most of the drama is this book felt cheesy rom-com style. It wasn’t always realistic, especially that much bad luck in one day, but it was usually harmless. A way to force the two characters to interact and bond more. I really didn’t like the party with Charlie’s friends. Charlie just seemed too eager to prove that they were better and that they were winning the breakup.

I really, honestly, wish there were more to this book. I think this book could have been pretty good if there had been more time for a relationship to develop between the two characters. Even if the author wanted to go down the holiday rom-com style they could have stretched out the time that the two spent together. Or the author could have shown us the time after they got together before the last chapter of the book. There could have been more discussions between the two while on the road trip. This book just feels like it needed more.

This book is a decent enough read. It’s not a long read, but it’s good enough if you want a short read. The main problem with this book is that it felt like it was missing something, under developed almost.