Last Christmas by Julia Williams; Avon Books
Page Count (e-book) – 416
The Blurb:
Catherine Tinsall is gearing up for Christmas – in the middle of summer. As the Writer in Chief on Happy Homes magazine, she is putting together a ‘perfect Christmas’ competition, to remind readers of the festive season’s true meaning.
In the sleepy Shropshire village of Hope Christmas, Marianne Mistletan enters with the suggestion that her village’s nativity play be held in the ancient chapel of Fitzcross Manor, home to the St Nicholas family.
Catherine is completely entranced by the idea, and Marianne to her delight finds that she has won. Waiting in the wings to help Marianne organise the set design is the cool and charismatic Joe Carpenter, who may or may not be just what she wants for Christmas.
Meanwhile, for Catherine, the Happy Homemaker image is wearing thin, as her fifteen-year old marriage appears to be in trouble. Then tragedy strikes and Catherine is forced to reassess her priorities, and work out what the perfect Christmas really means.
And overseeing it all, is the figure of John St Nicholas, lord of the manor and perhaps, for some, a Christmas angel…
My Review:
This is a Christmas book that gives ‘all the feels’! It opens with a flashback to ‘last Christmas’ and lets the reader see what the various protagonists were dealing with in their lives at that time before slipping forward to bring us up to speed with their current situation. This set-up crops up a few times throughout the book and it works very well. It might sound complicated but Ms Williams makes it very clear when we’re ‘slipping back’ and this reader certainly had no problem keeping up.
The characters are a good mix – the lovely Marianne who is really nice and helpful to everyone, Catherine who is harder to like because she’s a little too wrapped up in herself, Gabe who you just want to take home and look after and Luke who is an arrogant twat that would benefit from a good, hard, kick up the ass. Preferably from someone wearing a sturdy pair of steel-capped boots…
The story begins at the beginning of the year and works its way towards towards December and Christmas, weaving its way through the lives of the main characters very well. We are with them through the highs and lows and, by the time you reach the end, they almost feel like friends.
There are one or two aspects of the story which people might find a bit far-fetched but it’s a Christmas book and this is the time of year when we suspend our beliefs and let the magic of the season flow through us.
I totally enjoyed Last Christmas and I think anyone who likes Milly Johnson or Cathy Bramley will do so too.
Available in e-book and paperback on Amazon
Oh my god, loving those names! Sounds like a whole lot of fun. Xx
23 It’s always good to read names which are a bit out of the ordinary. 🙂