Tif Marcelo

Two rival coworkers with two very big secrets . . . What could possibly go wrong? Cozy up with this charming holiday romance by USA Today bestselling author Tif Marcelo. Lila Santos is ready for her last winter break of high school. The snow in her small town of Holly, New York, is plentiful, the mood is as cozy as a fuzzy Christmas sweater, and she's earning extra cash working at the local inn--AKA the setting of the greatest film of all time, Holiday by the Lake--while moonlighting as an anonymous book blogger. But her perfect holiday plans crash to a halt when her boss's frustratingly cute nephew, Teddy Rivera, becomes her coworker. Lila is type A; Teddy is type "Anything but Lila's Way," and the two of them can't stop butting heads over tangled icicle lights and messy gift shop merch. But when they accidentally switch phones one afternoon, they realize they've both been hiding things from each other. Will their secrets--and an unexpected snowstorm--bring these rivals together? "I swooned for the romance "--Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author of The Proposal, on Tif Marcelo's The Key to Happily Ever After

The Holiday Switch

Rebecca Briesemeister

Cute, just not memorable in any way. Lowkey wouldve liked this to be strangers to friends instead lovers, just didn’t understand the romance fully but go off ig. I do have to give it props for not having like extra people come in to ruin their relationship, that was v nice. Didnt like the mc at first but she got better at the end of the book. Also how is the book called holiday switch but they only swapped phones for like 6 pages…AND I SWEAR TO GOD if i see/hear the words holly or holiday by the lake one more time im gonna 🙂

finished this on February first, happy black history month to my people🫶🏾

Niyah<3

Cute, just not memorable in any way. Lowkey wouldve liked this to be strangers to friends instead lovers, just didn’t understand the romance fully but go off ig. I do have to give it props for not having like extra people come in to ruin their relationship, that was v nice. Didnt like the mc at first but she got better at the end of the book. Also how is the book called holiday switch but they only swapped phones for like 6 pages…AND I SWEAR TO GOD if i see/hear the words holly or holiday by the lake one more time im gonna 🙂

finished this on February first, happy black history month to my people🫶🏾

“It's like every romance I ever read. It's Holiday by the Lake but better because this is real, and Teddy is... Teddy is completely different than I had ever expected.”

If you’re looking for a quick YA holiday read that is rich with culture, family values and characters that experience some personal growth in all areas of their lives then I think you should pick this up. 

Sadly I don’t think this one was for me. Although I thought the romance between our MC’s was cute, I felt distracted by the characters themselves. At times they came off as rude and selfish, which is explained in the plot later on, but it didn’t put me in the best of mindsets to get lost in their journey together. 

But that aside, I did enjoy all of the bookish and holiday aspects of this book, those parts were my fave: especially the blog!

Kathryn

“It's like every romance I ever read. It's Holiday by the Lake but better because this is real, and Teddy is... Teddy is completely different than I had ever expected.”

If you’re looking for a quick YA holiday read that is rich with culture, family values and characters that experience some personal growth in all areas of their lives then I think you should pick this up. 

Sadly I don’t think this one was for me. Although I thought the romance between our MC’s was cute, I felt distracted by the characters themselves. At times they came off as rude and selfish, which is explained in the plot later on, but it didn’t put me in the best of mindsets to get lost in their journey together. 

But that aside, I did enjoy all of the bookish and holiday aspects of this book, those parts were my fave: especially the blog!

2.75/5⭐️

Kristina

This book was so wholesome! The perfect read for Christmas season.

Two rival coworkers with two very big secrets . . . What could possibly go wrong? Cozy up with this charming holiday romance by USA Today bestselling author Tif Marcelo. Lila Santos is ready for her last winter break of high school. The snow in her small town of Holly, New York, is plentiful, the mood is as cozy as a fuzzy Christmas sweater, and she's earning extra cash working at the local inn—AKA the setting of the greatest film of all time, Holiday by the Lake—while moonlighting as an anonymous book blogger. But her perfect holiday plans crash to a halt when her boss's frustratingly cute nephew, Teddy Rivera, becomes her coworker. Lila is type A; Teddy is type “Anything but Lila’s Way,” and the two of them can’t stop butting heads over tangled icicle lights and messy gift shop merch. But when they accidentally switch phones one afternoon, they realize they've both been hiding things from each other. Will their secrets—and an unexpected snowstorm—bring these rivals together? “I swooned for the romance!”—Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author of The Proposal, on Tif Marcelo's The Key to Happily Ever After

Nikki

really really enjoyed this one! lila and teddy were so cute together and i'm so glad they didn't go down that hole that rivals to lovers couples go to where they sabotage each other just to get the job.

as an ate, i also loved lila's relationship with irene. it was so realistic to me and i can't help but get teary-eyed at the part towards the end where (view spoiler)[ irene helps lila get ready for her internship interview. (hide spoiler)]

overall, i really appreciate that this book is so unapologetically filipino. you don't see much of that in other fil-am books.

Preye

I found everything about this book adorable—the town, the characters, the whole plot. Definitely recommend if you want to get into an early christmassy spirit. 
Full review: The Holiday Switch by Tif Marcelo

Jenni Clements

This book took me literally forever to get into. I just struggled with the beginning plot keeping my attention. Once the story got rolling (over 100 pages in), I finally started to like it. The last like 20 pages were great and even had me tearing up a bit! Loved the characters, hated the first part of the book. 🤷🏼‍♀️

allie

3.5 or 4 stars.

I’ll have to decide on an official rating later!!

This was the perfect YA holiday read. 
Lila is a hardworking high school senior working as much as she can in her tourist destination town when she meets Teddy, her bosses nephew when he becomes her coworker. They instantly clash with Lila wanting to do things as she always had and Teddy pushing her buttons and wanting to do things in his own way around the shop. 
This story was a cute YA story but I found the book summary a bit misleading. I thought the phone switch would be more of the story and drama and not resolve so quickly, this lead to me reading this book feeling blindsided as the focus was not what I expected it to be on. 
I liked the development and growth in confidence seen in Lila as she becomes more sure of herself and daring as the story goes on. 
This is the perfect read for anyone over the age of 14 looking for a sweet, holiday romance. 

Liz Whitehead

Chelsea White

Overall cute, very YA, VERY into holidays. I love the enemies to lovers trope, and wish we had gotten a smidge more of that. The swapped phones really didn’t feel like they amounted to much, if anything Teddy got more info about Lila than she got about him.
I wish we had learned more about the book/movie set in the town rather than just snippets here and there.
I found the reaction to her dad’s store needing repairs (and the subsequent GoFundMe campaign) way over the top. Like, the town is small, WHO would accuse the family of orchestrating this tragedy, and WHY would other people in the town not stand up for them?
Finally, and it’s a little thing, pointing out spelling errors in ANOTHER book is never a good idea… I used to work at a self publishing company, and in general there are 7-8 misspellings in a fiction book; they’re edited and proofread by humans. It happens. But by pointing it out in another book, I was hyper cognizant when I found spelling/grammar errors in this book.

Linda Quintanilla

Now this is a YA holiday read.  It has all of the holiday elements:-diverse representation-bookstore-secret book blogger-nyc settings-enemies to lovers trope-holiday activities. Perfect short story for the holiday season. I won't give out too much detail since I don't want to spoil the story. 

Aleena Korell

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: The Holiday Switch

Author: Tif Marcelo

Book Series: Standalone

Diversity: Filipino MC, love interest and side characters, Gay side character and side m/m romance, small F/f romance hinted by side characters

Rating: 5/5

Recommended For...: young adult readers, contemporary, romance, winter holiday season themed

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publication Date: October 5, 2021

Publisher: Underlined

Pages: 272

Recommended Age: 13+ (Romance, Sexual innuendos)

Explanation of CWs: Romance throughout the book and some small sexual innuendos.

Synopsis: Lila Castro is ready to take on her last winter break of high school. The snow is plentiful, the mood is full of holiday cheer, and she's earning extra cash working at the cozy local inn. But her perfect holiday plans crash to a halt when her boss's frustratingly cute nephew, Teddy Veracruz, becomes her coworker. When they accidentally switch phones one afternoon, they both realize they've been hiding things from each other. Will their secrets--and a dash of holiday spirit--bring them closer to love?

Review: I really liked this book! It was probably one of the more perfect winter holiday reads I've read and it was filled with so much Hallmark like tropes. The character development was good, the world building was great, and it had very good Christmas puns. The book is a great enemies to lovers romance and I loved how it was a love letter to bookworms. The book also did well to point out the lack of POC focused media for the winter holiday season, so I'm ready to see publishing improve on this in the future.

The only issue I really had is that the book was tropey, but it was fun tropes so I didn't mind it as much.

Verdict: it's so cute and fun!

The Holiday Switch

Reviews

Highlights