Review: A Scandinavian Christmas

A Scandinavian Christmas is a slim anthology of sixteen short stories written by a range of authors both classic and modern. It includes three very famous tales from Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), as well three from the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature, Selma Lagerlof (1858-1940). 

I am a terrible sucker for a pretty cover and this one is gorgeous. The book would make a beautiful stocking filler for someone who loves classic short stories that lean towards literary fiction but it won't suit everyone. Despite the cover, these tales are not all-out 'sleigh bells and mistletoe' festive tales, but unusual, poignant and sometimes downright sad stories that just happen to be set at Christmas.

My favourites were the three Hans Christian Andersen stories - beautifully written but incredibly sad. I also enjoyed The Forest Witch (about a girl trying to outwit a witch), The Christmas Rose (about a beautiful garden that only appears at Christmas) and Christmas Eve by Vigdis Hjorth (a clever but poignant story about an alcoholic trying to get through Christmas dinner with their family).

Thank you to Vintage/Random House for my copy of this book, which I requested via NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Review: Together by Christmas by Karen Swan

I love Karen Swan's books, particularly the way each one is set in a different part of the world, and I couldn't wait to read Together by Christmas.

In this story Lee is a Pulitzer Prize-winning war photographer, living with her four-year-old son Jasper in Amsterdam. She now makes her living doing high-profile photo shoots for glossy magazines and her work is in high demand. On the surface her life is perfect but her PTSD means she is ultra-protective of Jasper and refuses to have any relationship longer than a one-night stand. One morning she finds a desperate message scrawled in a book left outside her house - but who left it and what does it mean, and is her past about to catch up with her?

I loved this book and could not put it down. It had several hard-hitting storylines (unusual for this genre of book) yet still had all the traditional Christmassy touches: meeting Santa Claus, decorating a Christmas tree, and ice-skating - and the characters are brilliantly drawn and totally relatable. I loved the way Lee was trying so hard to keep everything together for her son while being pushed to her limit, learning that everyone makes mistakes and deserves that second chance - even herself. I adored Sam, who is so completely out of his depth yet equally determined to win Lee round. The Christmassy bits were great, especially Lee's first meeting with Sinterklaas - I think that was one of my favourite parts of the book! The setting of Amsterdam was brilliantly realised and it was fun learning about another country's festive customs.

As much as I loved this book, it might not be suitable for everyone. If you're looking for a light-hearted, cosy Christmas romance, all snowflakes and sleigh bells, this isn't the book for you. There are some quite dark subjects covered (with a sensitive touch) and it is a very emotional read. I felt quite wrung out by the end - in a good way! But it is also a terrific story about relationships (romantic, family and friends), making mistakes and learning to forgive.

I absolutely loved Together by Christmas and have no hesitation in recommending it. It's one of my favourite reads this year!

Thank you to Karen Swan and Pan for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

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The Christmas Party by Karen Swan
The Hidden Beach by Karen Swan

Review: The Christmas Party by Karen Swan

I've not read anything by Karen Swan before but I was attracted by the lovely Christmasy cover and I'm addicted to Christmas books at the moment. However, I was so glad I downloaded The Christmas Party because it is a lovely romantic story, with brilliant characters that leap off the page. If you're looking for the perfect book to read in the run-up to Christmas, this is it.

When Declan Lorne (the last remaining knight in Ireland) dies unexpectedly, his ancient title dies with him. But his ramshackle estate, including a decrepit castle, is to be divided between his three daughters - and that doesn't go quite the way everyone expects either. The story is told from the point of view of the three sisters, Ottie, Pip and Willow, who now have to make some tough decisions. Will letting go of the past be the only way to secure their future?

What I loved most about this book was the characters. I found it refreshing that these women are not perfect and throughout the book they seemed to take it turns to behave badly (especially Pip!). I was left thinking 'Why did you DO that?!!' But it just made me love them more - especially Pip! I loved the big old castle that was falling down around their ears and the pressure on poor Willow to sell or not to sell. I especially loved the idea of throwing a fabulous Christmas party in a kind of 'out with the old, in with the new' kind of way. And there were a couple of terrific twists towards the end.

The Christmas Party is one of my favourite reads this year. I've just bought another Karen Swan book and I shall be starting it very soon!

Thank you to Karen Swan and Pan for my copy of this book, which I requested via NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

A Wedding In December by Sarah Morgan

I've not read anything by Sarah Morgan before but I adore Christmas romances and could not resist downloading this one. The cover is gorgeous too!

This story is about the women of the White family and all the secrets they are keeping from each other - secrets that are sure to come out when they meet up for a glamorous wedding in Aspen. Maggie is married to Nick, an Egyptologist. They've been living apart for six months but Maggie hasn't been able to bring herself to tell their two grown-up daughters, Katie and Rosie. Katie is working all hours as a doctor, and is on the brink of a breakdown after a traumatic event. When her younger sister Rosie announces that she's getting married to someone she's only just met, Katie's sole intention is to stop it taking place. Rosie, meanwhile, has spent her life trying to prove to her family that she's a grown woman, capable of making her own decisions - but is the decision to marry so quickly the right one?

I loved A Wedding in December. It's chock-full of brilliant characters that I couldn't help rooting for. I loved 'Cactus Katie', her determination to protect her sister at all costs, even if that means stopping the wedding, and her prickliness towards poor Jordan. The part when she's trying to cross an icy bridge, determined not to ask for help, is priceless. Maggie is funny, Rosie is sweet - and so is poor Nick, who is not quite sure how he ended up on the wrong side of a divorce. 

A Wedding in December is perfect for anyone wanting an escapist, heart-warming, romantic festive read in the run-up to Christmas. One of my favourites this year.


Thank you to Sarah Morgan and HQ for my copy of this book, which I requested via NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Review: Mistletoe by Alison Littlewood

I chose this book because I adore ghost stories, particularly Christmas ones, and I loved the sinister-looking cover.

After tragedy strikes, Leah buys the Maitland Farmhouse on a wild impulse. It had belonged to her family decades ago, although she hadn't appreciated how isolated and rundown it is until she moves in and spooky things begin to happen. She can hear voices and children's laughter, catches glimpses of shadowy figures in a mirror, and then finds a sinister old doll...

Alison Littlewood excels at creating a deliciously creepy atmosphere, with the hint of a supernatural presence around every corner. Even plain old mistletoe (which I'd quite liked before!) becomes something more sinister - an allusion of something reaching out from beyond the grave. I had expected more jump shocks but the ghosts, when they do appear, are very solid. Therefore Mistletoe is more time slip than ghost story, as Leah is given glimpses into the lives of those lived in the farmhouse during Victorian times. As a bonus, there is a murder mystery to solve - with a few unexpected last minute twists!

Mistletoe will appeal to anyone who loves Christmas murder-mysteries and ghost stories that take their time creating a truly chilling atmosphere - in more ways than one!

I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of this book, which will be released on 10th October 2019.

Thank you to Alison Littlewood and Jo Fletcher Books (Quercus) for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Review: Mr Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva

This one was an impulse-buy for me. The cover caught my eye, it is about one of my favourite books of all time, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and at the time it was only 99p.

Mr Dickens and His Carol is a fictional account of how Charles Dickens was inspired to write his most famous book - and managed to invent Christmas - and the Christmas book - at the same time!

It is a month before Christmas and Dickens' most recent book, Martin Chuzzlewit, is a huge flop. His publishers are threatening to take their advance back if he doesn't produce a new book by Christmas - and they have already helpfully arranged for him to do a public reading of it on Christmas Eve! Dickens is thrown into a panic and promptly goes down with writer's block. His family have got used to the money his success has brought and fail to take seriously his hints that perhaps they ought to economise. His teenage sweetheart wants a reconciliation, bookshops and theatres are plagiarising his work, sometimes before it's even published; he feels everyone wants a little piece of him - sometimes literally!

Mr Dickens and His Carol has obviously been written by someone with a deep affection for Charles Dickens and a thorough knowledge of his work. It was fun to spot the references to his books and characters, and even if it is a work of fiction there are enough true stories woven into the story to make it completely believable. And Victorian London is horribly authentic.

I absolutely adored this story and would love to see it dramatised for TV or film. It somehow manages to be both funny and poignant; writers will 'get' the in-jokes; and I loved the way Dickens' life began to mirror the book he was writing. The perfect Christmas book, in fact!

Review: A Pirate for Christmas by Anna Campbell

Bess Farrar's father is the Vicar of Penton Wyck but he's more interested in his books than looking after his parishioners, so it's up to Bess to do the jobs that would normally fall to a Vicar's wife - including organising the annual Nativity play. Everything is going splendidly, except the donkey is traditionally supplied by the Earl of Channing and, although Bess has written politely to the new incumbent several times, she hasn't had a reply to any of her letters. Drastic measures are called for and she decides to call on the Earl in person, even though the rumour going around the village is that he's a pirate ...

Ex-Royal Navy Captain Rory Beaton finds himself thrown in at the deep end when he unexpectedly inherits an earldom from the brother he hardly knew. Rory was raised as 'the spare' by his mother in Scotland and doesn't have a clue about what is expected from him as the new Earl. As no one in the village has seen him, let alone met him, rumours abound that he's a pirate - and the locals aren't far off 'locking up their daughters and calling in the militia'. And, if he didn't have enough to worry about, the resident battleaxe is hounding him about a donkey ...

A Pirate for Christmas is an entertaining and engaging Regency romance. Although I was a little disappointed there were no actual pirates, I would definitely recommend it to fans of the genre. I loved Bess and Rory and the way they sparked off each other. There is humour too, particularly involving Daisy the donkey - who eats everything from bonnets to floral arrangements, and likes to be sung to. The story is also very Christmassy, with descriptions of decorating a manor house for the festive season, getting stuck in a snowstorm, as well as the aforementioned nativity play. All the ingredients for a great little festive romance. I really enjoyed it and I downloaded two more by the same author after reading it.

Note: A Pirate for Christmas is a 142 page novella; the last 15% contains an extract of another novella by the same author: Her Christmas Earl.

Review: Ruth's First Christmas Tree by Elly Griffiths

Ruth's First Christmas Tree is a short story from Elly Griffiths's Ruth Galloway series, and fits in neatly between A Room Full of Bones and Dying Fall. At the time of writing, it's available as a free ebook; the last third of the book is an extract from Dying Fall.

Ruth has decided this year she will have the 'perfect' Christmas. Her daughter is now old enough to appreciate Santa Claus - and presents! It's three days until Christmas and all Ruth needs now is the perfect tree.

This series often refers to Ruth's involvement in excavating a wooden henge on the beach near to where she lives. The henge was moved to a local museum for preservation and now a small piece has gone missing. The curator is in hospital with pneumonia and Ruth's druid friend, Cathbad, is convinced the man's recovery depends on the finding of this small peg.

Will Ruth ever find the perfect Christmas tree? Will she solve the mystery of the disappearing peg? Unlike the novels in this series, no one is murdered but I found the story entertaining all the same. Part of the appeal of this series for me has always been the characters (especially Cathbad!) and the subtle humour. It's like spending Christmas with old friends!

Related Reviews:

The Crossing Places

The Janus Stone

The House at Sea's End

Review: Dying for Christmas by Tammy Cohen

I bought this a couple of years ago but didn't get around to reading it because some of the reviews I read at the time made the story sound as though it might be too gruesome for me - I'm a bit of a wimp! But it was coming up to Christmas, I was going to be on holiday, and I wanted to read some 'festive' crime fiction. There's not a lot of it about, strangely enough!

Jessica Gold is the oddball of her family - loved, but definitely eccentric - her brothers even call her 'weird' to her face. It is the day before Christmas and she's headed into town to do some last minute shopping. She takes a break in a busy cafe, and is surprised when the handsome and charismatic Dominic Lacey takes the seat opposite her and begins to chat her up, mentioning how much she reminds him of his ex-wife. A man like this is usually completely out of her league, so when he invites her back to his apartment she goes quite willingly, even though the voices in her head are telling her she's an idiot.

She should have listened to those voices! Dominic Lacey is planning on having Jessica for Christmas, and not quite in the way she'd hoped. He's even got her some very special presents, one for each of the twelve days of Christmas - but will she even get to live that long? And what, exactly, did happen to that mysterious ex-wife?

Dying for Christmas is brilliantly written in a very modern style. I found Jessica entertaining and engaging, although not very likeable - but that was kind of the point. In fact none of the characters are likeable, but this is a very clever psychological suspense, and no one is quite who they seem. Dominic in particular is a deliciously manipulative villain; his desire to swap life stories reminded me a bit of Hannibal Lecter (don't worry, no one gets eaten!). The best way of describing the story is as the publishers have done: 'Misery meets Gone Girl'.

The story is funny in places, a kind of dark humour, and most of the nasty violent stuff happens off the page. There are a couple of massive twists about halfway through, one of which I guessed, the other I didn't. 

If you enjoy traditional, cleverly-plotted psychological suspense, and don't mind a few brief descriptions of off-the-page gruesome stuff, then this is the book for you.

Review: Another Little Christmas Murder by Lorna Nicoll Morgan

I was attracted to this book because of the cover and the title*, which goes to show just how shallow I am! At the time, the ebook version was a little bit expensive (it has since come down in price) so I borrowed a copy from the library. Because I was so keen to start reading it, I also downloaded a sample to my Kindle, and was initially disappointed because the first six pages were a long description of the heroine driving through snowy Yorkshire. I thought I'd made a horrible mistake! But when my library copy arrived I gave it another go, and became completely hooked!

The story is a typical cosy murder mystery. It was written in 1947 and it would be easy to make comparisons with Agatha Christie, but their writing styles are completely different. (Christie's  stories are more fast-paced, with fiendishly clever plots). But I liked the inter-action between Morgan's characters and they were different to the usual retired colonel/vicar/spinster types. For a start, our heroine (Dilys) is a commercial traveller - a partner in a firm of manufacturing chemists. Determined to reach her next stop by nightfall, she drives through the hills of Yorkshire and gets stuck in a snowstorm. She is quite pragmatic about it (something I loved about this character!) but ends up being rescued by Inigo Brown, who is on his way to stay with his uncle at Wintry Wold. Such is the snowstorm, they are soon joined by many others, much to the indignation of Inigo's new, young, and very glamorous Aunt Theresa.

Although the story starts off a bit waffly, once it gets going there is lots of witty dialogue, particularly between Dilys and Inigo, and even a hint of a romance. The potential suspects are introduced gradually, so the reader can get a real sense of who is who, and Dilys is a very likeable, almost modern heroine. I was well on the way to giving the book 5 stars, but towards the end it became a bit farce-like, with lots of 'mysterious' goings-on in the middle of the night, the heroine stalking the corridors with a poker, and cars being sabotaged. Although one strand of the mystery was easy to guess at, the identity of the murderer took me completely by surprise. 

If you love vintage murder mysteries, you will enjoy Another Little Christmas Murder, and I would have loved to have seen Dilys in more stories. 

*One niggle: there was no mention of Christmas until the epilogue, when one character mentions going to 'spend Christmas' with their family!

Review: Moonlight and Mistletoe by Louise Allen

I've always been a fan of Louise Allen and I picked this up when I had the urge to read something Christmassy.  The story is about Hester Lattimer, who has arrived in a sleepy English village hoping to escape a scandal. She has a small inheritance, which she used to buy the beautiful if slightly decayed Moon House and sets about trying to establish herself as a respectable single woman, with the aid of a timid ex-governess as her companion, a rescued waif with ambitions to be a butler and her maid. This is slightly hampered by the deliciously dashing Earl of Buckland setting up house directly opposite, setting village tongues wagging.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story, because as well as the historical romance, there is also a bit of a mystery, both about Hester's 'scandal', threatening to derail her friendship with the Earl, and Moon House itself, which has not been lived in for many years and might possibly be haunted. Is the Earl's interest in Hester only a sham, to hide his interest in buying the house for himself? And what of the mysterious dead roses, appearing throughout the house?

The story is firmly set in winter, leading up to Christmas, although not overly festive. I loved the light humour and the characters - Hester, determined to be independent and not rely on a handsome man to save her; Jethroe, saved from the slums with ambitions to become the best butler ever; even nervous Miss Prudhome, the companion, determined to do her job and 'save' Hester from the advances of the Earl, even though she doesn't particularly want saving!

This is a well-researched, very entertaining Mills & Boon historical romance with a bit of a mystery and the occasional sex scene, and would definitely appeal to fans of the genre. Recommended!

Review: A Mistletoe Masquerade by Louise Allen

At this time of year I like to read books with a Christmas theme and so I picked this one by Louise Allen, one my favourite authors. It is a novella, of less than 100 pages, and at the time of writing it is only 99p on Kindle.

The story is about Lady Rowan Chilcourt, concerned about a marriage arranged between her timid best friend, Penny Maylin, and the Earl of Danescroft - who is suspected of murdering his first wife! So Rowan arranges to travel with Penny to a Christmas house party, disguised as her dresser (a kind of lady's maid), to find out everything she can about the notorious Earl.

Meanwhile, the Earl's friend Viscount Stoneley is equally concerned that he might have fallen prey to a fortune hunter and agrees to travel to the same house party disguised as the Earl's valet ... 

I enjoyed this story because it is different to the usual Regency romances in that it is set in below stairs and shows the lives of the servants, and how hard their work could be, with lots of well-researched historical details. I loved the characters and the final denouement at the Christmas ball, and the little festive touches, such as kissing beneath the mistletoe ...

Fans of Mills & Boon historical romances will love it!

Review: Once Upon a Regency Christmas by Louise Allen, Sophia James and Annie Burrows

Once Upon a Regency Christmas is a lovely Christmassy book containing three novella-length, Christmas-themed, Regency romances by Louise Allen, Sophia James and Annie Burrows. I am a huge fan of both Louise Allen and Annie Burrows, and have read all their books, but Sophia James is new to me. The theme running through all three stories is that the heroes might not be quite who they seem to be.

On a Winter's Eve by Louise Allen

Lady Julia Charlcott is newly arrived in England from India. Her much older husband has died but her plans to re-enter English society is thwarted when she overhears her sister-in-law bargaining with a gentleman over what he would pay if Julia were to wed him. Furious, Julia walks out, intending to have a traditional Christmas at her late husband's home in the country. Unfortunately she heads straight into a snowstorm, where she meets Captain Giles Markham trudging through the snow with a live turkey...

Marriage Made at Christmas by Sophia James

Christine Howard's heart has been frozen since the death of her fiance but when her life is saved by a mysterious American, she can feel herself begin to thaw. Hired as her bodyguard, it is soon clear William Miller would risk everything to protect her - but what if Christine is not the target?

Cinderella's Perfect Christmas by Annie Burrows

When Alice Waverley catches a cold, she realises it is the perfect excuse to spend Christmas home alone, doing exactly as she pleases, while her horrible relatives head off to a country house party. Unfortunately they've only been gone a few hours when Captain Jack Grayling and his two young children arrive at the house seeking shelter from the snow. 

I loved On a Winter's Eve and Cinderella's Perfect Christmas because they were both very traditional, Christmassy stories - just the thing to read to get into the Christmas spirit. The characters decorated the house, created presents from very little, were snowed in and built snowmen. I loved the tale of the escaped turkey from On a Winter's Eve and the wry, wicked humour of Cinderella's Christmas. Marriage Made at Christmas was not quite so festive as the other two stories, but I did enjoy the very different story of the scarred bodyguard searching for his own happy ever after.

Definitely recommended!


(I received my copy of Once Upon a Regency Christmas directly from one of the authors)