Accidentally picked up the second in a series before reading the first, but it works fine as a standalone too.
Plot: Maya loves her small town so much that when she finished her theatre degree, rather than stay in Toronto and access the biggest opportunities as an actor in Canada, she went home, bought a broken down theatre, and worked her ass off to try and enrich the town’s culture. Only the theatre is even more broken down than she realized, and making massive repairs off the box office of a small town theatre is… Well it’s impossible is what it is. On the verge of having to close the theatre, Maya has two plans left – convince a has-been boyband singer trying to start an acting career to take a role in her theatre to boost box office returns, and to win the town’s newest business grant. Unfortunately, arch-nemesis and bar owner Benjamin is after the same grant. Shenanigans ensue.
There is so much to love about this book. It’s aggressively Canadian (in that there’s a lot of Canadian content but it’s very nice about it). It has a ton of banter, and since arguing is my love language, I felt very seen in Maya and Ben’s constant bickering. I also love Maya. She’s a second generation Canadian who does not struggle with balancing her intense Canadianness with her Indian heritage. She found the balance that is right for her and that’s that. She’s also a huge bitch (in that she is assertive and does not forgive wrongs without good reason), and I love that for her. Ben is also great. Holiday manages to write a sort of clueless white guy that’s progressive but so passive as for it to be meaningless in a way that reads very believably, and gives him the room to grow as a person and learn to take accountability for his actions and do the work to be less of a waste of space. Because while this is clearly meant to be a light, fun, summer read, and it is, Holiday does not shy away from acknowledging the barriers that people of colour face and the work allies need to do to see and acknowledge these barriers as a starting point for helping dismantle them.
If you’re heading on vacation anywhere cottagey or beachy for our last little bit of summer weather, this will be a fantastic read to get you in the mood. Just don’t forget sunscreen.