Review: Home for the Holidays by Heather Vogel Fredrick

4 comforting peanut butter cookies.

Cover Love: Yes. I like the switch up from the previous covers to presents instead of books piled up. But I like the continuity of the same idea on the cover.

Why I Wanted to Read This:
This is a new installment of a series I adore! Here's the synopsis from Good Reads:

This Christmas season, join the girls of the mother-daughter book club for a variety of holiday-themed adventures! Becca, Megan, Emma, Cassidy and Jess have plenty of reading material to bring on their trips, too, because the book club is tackling the Betsy-Tacy series before their next meeting on New Year’s Eve.
But unfortunately, nothing goes quite as planned for any of the girls. On a Christmas cruise with their families, Megan and Becca fight over the dashing son of the ship's captain. Cassidy and her family fly back to California to visit Cassidy's sister Courtney... but when the West Coast causes homesickness for their former life in Laguna Beach, the family begins to question what state they should call home. And a disastrous sledding accident causes both Emma and Jess to completely change their holiday plans. Between squabbles, injuries, and blizzards, everything seems to be going wrong. Will the girls be able to find their holiday spirit in time for Christmas?

I Kept Reading Because: I always love to see how the girls solve their problems and come back together at the end.

Romance?: Yes, here and there. Some old ones, some new ones starting...

What I Liked (& Didn't):
This is pure comfort reading. We have been with this girls since they were seventh graders. It's so fun to see them growing up and becoming young women.

This is the same formula, each chapter is told from a different girls point of view. It's great to see how much the girls have grown and changed, but it was also good to see them struggling with their insecurities. This is what makes them real and honest for young female readers. They are relate-able characters!

They do seem to make the same mistakes and mis-understandings that have happened in other books, and that bothers me a bit. Emma should have more faith in Jess. They all should take time to talk to each other instead of give each other the silent treatment. However, most teenage girls let it fester rather than talk so this also rings true to how girls really are.

All in all, things get wrapped up nicely, just like I wanted, with a pretty bow. I like books that end this way!

To Sum Up: Pure comfort reading! Another fun installment in a great series.