Priscilla Oliveras

HOLIDAY HOME RUN Event planner Julia Louisa Fernandez dreams of a life in Chicago. But her family in Puerto Rico expects her to take over the catering business. Former pro baseball player Ben Thomas knows what that’s like—and when they meet, he might be the one to inspire a winning strategy, just in time for the holidays . . . Previously published in A Season to Celebrate.

Holiday Home Run

Vicky (A City Girl's Thoughts)

Thank you Priscilla Oliveras, Netgalley, and BuzzBuzz.net for choosing me to review this ARC for you in exchange for my honest review!

This is the first adult Christmas-themed book I've read that is also under Own Voices! Oliveras takes us to the Puerto Rican community of Chicago, Illinois (a rare divergence! Most authors take us to the Puerto Rican community of The Bronx, New York but never write about their non-New York State communities) where her protagonist, an expat from The Island herself, wants to escape from the overbearing pressure of her family to takeover their business. She's strong, steadfast, and confident in her job and personal life, even when famous Baseball player Benjamin "Ben" Thomas enters her life as emcee for her employer's Black-tie Holiday fundraiser party. Yes, this is an insta-romance, which can be annoying if written unreality, but Julia Fernandez - the protagonist - doesn't say cringy "swoon-worthy" lines or bored me with incessant conversations of "I-can't-love-him-but-I-do-now-what-?!?" speeches; she knows what she wants and controls herself accordingly, even if she's tempted to do the opposite. 

I liked Ben, he's respectful, doesn't push her to make up her mind right away regarding their relationship, and is an overall gentleman, but he felt a little too flat for me. His character could've had more development to make me at least excited when he enters from his point of view; I don't feel anything emotionally when he's present. Also, Julia's explanation of her wish to forge her own future with her love for her family wasn't explained easily. I know she didn't want to take over her family's business, she loves her family, and she loves baseball but she hates the fact her brothers' baseball games had priority over her own wants, such as her birthday party delayed a month for their playoffs. But her anger towards their overbearing attitude outside of business and her love for them wasn't explained clearly, especially during the ice skating scene. What exactly were they overbearing about, specifically regarding her lifestyle? It's all resolved and happily ever after towards the end but that plothole is just left there. The romance also left more to be desired with a better conclusion. Julia doesn't know if Ben's work will affect their blossoming romance but it's shrugged off with the it-is-what-it-is attitude that isn't helpful at all. Yeah, it's fiction but you'll encourage your friend or relative to continue dating someone if there's a chance it won't last? And to top it all off, the sensual parts are completely out of place! This is written as a clean romance so why are there sensual parts bordering on sexual?

Overall if you're looking for a light-hearted Christmas romance this will fit the bill, especially if you usually abhor romance novels like me! But the abovementioned faults made me take a star off.

Lauren Sullivan

I’m a pretty big fan of Priscilla Oliveras’ books, so it’s no surprise that I’d actually already read this novella when it first came out in an anthology. But I jumped at the chance to revisit it because I had fond memories of it. And it still holds up as a sweet holiday romance.

Julia is an event planner and the cousin of the sisters from the Matched to Perfection series. She grew up in Puerto Rico helping her mom run her catering company and dealing with her baseball-obsessed brothers. While she loves her family, she, too, feels suffocated by their expectations that she take over the family business, so she’s looking at making the move to Chicago. The linchpin of her plan is pulling off the best holiday soiree fundraiser for the Chicago Youth Association that the town has ever seen in the hopes of landing a permanent job there. If only the fundraiser didn’t come with a certain handsome retired baseball player involved…

“Sometimes, a move away from the place where we’re the most comfortable allows for the best kind of growth.”

At first, Ben is seemingly only interested in Julia because she doesn’t seem starstruck around him. Gradually, though, as they work together on the fundraiser, the spark turns into something more. Julia, however, has zero interest in dating an athlete after spending her whole life submerged in baseball, even if Ben is kind, compassionate, a good listener, and did I mention handsome? The big problem, though, is that Ben doesn’t understand why she wants to move away from her family, when he’s so desperately missing the family he found in his baseball team. Watching the two of them work it out was so sweet and at times heart wrenching. I also loved the touches of Puerto Rican holiday traditions, though I did finish the story hungry for pernil and arroz con gandules! It’s definitely more of a HFN than an HEA, but with novellas, that’s perfectly fine for me.

Overall, another great story from Ms. Oliveras, and another sweet novella for Christmas!

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Holiday Home Run

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