Review: Driving Home For Christmas

Driving Home for Christmas by Joanna Bolouri

Published By: Quercus
Publication Date: October 1, 2022
Date Read: December 15, 2024
Genre: Adult – Romance
Source: Bought
Format: E-Book
Pages: 336

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Three Christmases.
Two broken hearts.
One hell of a journey.

Driving home marks the start of the holidays for Kate and Ed, who have made this journey every Christmas of their ten-year long relationship. Normally the seasonal hits blare from the car stereo, and they are guaranteed to be wearing ridiculous jumpers in anticipation, but this year a frosty silence fills the car…

A massive argument leads to the immediate collapse of their relationship. But the show must go on, so they decide to brave their families together one last time.

With three Christmases to celebrate, an old flame waiting under the mistletoe and a shed load of expectation around their future together, this most wonderful time of year is anything but. There will be turkey, tiffs and tantrums galore, but it’s sure to be a Christmas they’ll never forget.

A hilarious and heartfelt seasonal romance from the author of All I Want for Christmas. Perfect for fans of Sophie Cousens and Lucy Vine.

Driving Home for Christmas is a book that has been on my ‘Christmas TBR’ for a few years now. I remember getting it not long after it releasing but just never getting around to it and I have this thing where I can only read Christmas books from mid November to Christmas day, so it always ended up just getting pushed to the next year. I picked it up this year, completely randomly and I am so glad that I did. This is such a fun and quick read, I couldn’t put it down.

Driving Home For Christmas follows the story of Kate and Ed, a couple who have been together for ten years and on route to their childhood town for Christmas they end up in a huge argument, leading to them splitting up. They have to keep up the pretence that everything is fine for their families. I honestly really enjoyed this concept, and I really cannot praise the author enough for how she wrote this. The book is told in dual perspective, and honestly when I was in Ed’s first chapter, I was absolutely on his side, thinking Kate as completely unreasonable. When it switched to Kate’s perspective I switched to her side and was like yeah Ed is being a bit of a dick. I just think this is so hard to do in writing. To keep up on both sides of the argument through the different perspectives and I just absolutely loved that she was able to do that.

I honestly just couldn’t put this book down. The writing was so addictive, I just wanted to read it cover to cover. Honestly, it’s been such a long time since I devoured a book this quickly. I loved every single moment. Alongside Ed and Kate’s relationship being the main focus, there’s also a huge portion of the book about family and how important it is. I really enjoyed everything about this book and I will definitely be picking up some more of Joanna’s books in the future. If you enjoy hallmark kind of books, then I highly recommend this one as a cute and addictive Christmas read.