I am so pleased to bring you my review of The Christmas Trip by Sandy Barker as part of her fabulous blog tour – its officially Christmas novel season!
Another year has passed and it’s Christmas again. This year best friends Chloe, Jules and Lucy are all loved up but living worlds apart.
Chloe is madly in love with her celebrity beau, Archer, but after a whirlwind year in Hollywood’s limelight, she’s desperate to get away and spend some quality time together.
Jules loves her Melbourne life – and gorgeous winemaker Matt – but a crowded flat share has her longing for a place of her own.
Meantime, Lucy is stuck in a long distance relationship, jetting back and forth between Colorado and London to see Will.
When Archer’s plan to whisk Chloe to Paris goes awry, he surprises her by bringing her friends together for a Christmas to remember…
The Christmas Swap was a standout Christmas novel for me back in 2020, so imagine my excitement when I discovered The Christmas Trip was on its way! I always love a novel that revisits beloved characters, and The Christmas Trip is no exception!
After finding love following the big Christmas swap, Chloe, Jules and Lucy find themselves one year later, living their new realities with Archer, Matt and Will. With big moves, and plenty of travelling, the three of them are looking forward to spending Christmas with their beaus and finally relaxing after what has been a very full on year.
Chloe’s life has changed beyond all recognition as she finds herself living the Hollywood lifestyle with her famous actor boyfriend Archer. After a very fast paced, hectic year, all they want is a relaxing break in Paris – until a volcanic eruption halts all air traffic over Europe.
Jules made the move to Melbourne from Colorado and she couldn’t be happier with her life and with Matt. However she’s finding her flat share a little crowded and craves her own living space.
Lucy is struggling. Whilst she adores her boyfriend Will, the long distance relationship is tough, especially when she seems to be the only one doing any travelling.
When Chloe and Archer’s plans for Paris fall through, he surprises her by bringing her friends to Hawaii so that they can finally enjoy a Christmas all together in the place where they met so many years ago.
I love a good revisit novel – getting the ‘happy ever after’ ending in a romance novel is always great, but we don’t always get the chance to find out what happens next. We all know that ‘happy ever after’ isn’t something that comes easily so actually seeing the bumps in the road after a couple gets together, and seeing how they deal with them serves to make the characters more realistic.
Chloe, Jules and Lucy all have such different stories and relationships, which is what really helps makes this series all the more engaging. They are most definitely not the same, and nor do they try to be. It feels like we’re getting three stories for the price of one, something that I definitely won’t complain about! I like them all as characters, and I feel that they are all relatable and believable. Throw in the beauty of Hawaii and you are onto a winner! Whilst, like Lucy, I was a little disappointed with the lack of snow (I did rather love the Colorado setting in The Christmas Swap), the description of Hawaii definitely left me wanting to visit. It’s just a shame that its unlikely I’ll be seeing Hawaii from a Billionaires mansion!
I am more than happy to recommend this novel to you all. Whilst you could read The Christmas Trip as a standalone, I’m not sure why you would want to – so grab yourself a copy of The Christmas Swap (feel free to check out my review!) and get yourself into the Christmas spirit by reading these two novels back to back! Immerse yourself into the lives of 3 very different best friends, and enjoy their journeys to find love, and what happens next!
Thank you to Sandy Barker and Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to be a part of this wonderful blog tour, and for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
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Author Bio
Sandy is a writer, traveller and hopeful romantic with a lengthy bucket list, and many of her travel adventures have found homes in her novels. She’s also an avid reader, a film buff, a wine lover and a coffee snob.
Sandy lives in Melbourne Australia with her partner, Ben, who she met while travelling in Greece. Their real-life love story inspired Sandy’s debut novel One Summer in Santorini, the first in the Holiday Romance series with One More Chapter, an imprint of HarperCollins.
The series continues in That Night in Paris and A Sunset in Sydney and there are two more to come in 2022. Her standalone novel The Christmas Swap celebrates her favourite time of the year, and next up is The Dating Game, a laugh-out-loud romcom set in the world of Reality TV.
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Chapter and Cake 
Than you so much for being on the tour!
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