A heartwarming Christmas read that manages to be cosy without being twee. The village setting means we are introduced to an engaging range of characters. The central characters are appealing and have an entertaining chemistry together.

I think the first of Sue's books that I read. Absolutely loved it and made me buy more of her books - she has become a favourite of mine

Really enjoyable read. Good characters and a Good story. Well worth a read. Think others will enjoy.

A lovely easy read story based around the Christmas season. A good introduction to this author for anyone who has not discovered Sue Moorcrofts talent to story telling.

A lovely little Christmas read and I enjoyed the setting of the book. I've read Sue Moorcroft before and will look out for future books. Thank you for letting me read and review this book.

Today I am pleased to welcome Sue Moorcroft to my blog to celebrate the publication of her latest book, The Little Village Christmas. I really enjoy Sue's Christmas books each year and eagerly await each one. They often feature strong women with interesting careers and in this one we, the reader, are introduced to ALexia Kennedy, an interior designer. I was first introduced to this career watching Changing Rooms or other programmes where professionals are
brought into transform dreary drab rooms into beautiful living spaces. In The Little Village Christmas I think there is also an air of Challenge Anneka about it as local companies and residents are encouraged to help support her project. Another character within the book is Ben Hardaker, a man who works in the woods of the local big house, but it is also his pet, a cute owl he rescued with an injury, a broken wing, and who he is nursing back to health, although he can never be returned to the wild.

Another fantastic element of the book is the village setting, Middledip, which readers of Sue's previous books will recognise and several previous characters return in this book too.

As readers can probably tell, I really enjoyed this book and I don't want to give any spoilers away as I would love you all to get engrossed in the story too. Suffice to say this is a great book to start one's Christmas reading. I wish I could live in a village like Middledip and get involved in village life too.

I really enjoyed this story by Sue Moorcraft. It was easy to read and didn't involve too much thinking! I liked the characters, they were strong and relatable. I also liked that the love story between Alexia and Ben didn't involve too much gushy romantic monologue that no one would ever really say (which I find in too many romantic novels). I didn't get too much of a Christmas feel but it's a lovely story nonetheless.

Review: This story is set in a little English village at Christmas who have to work together to solve a problem, in amongst this there is a little Christmas romance. I loved this book another great read by Sue Moorcroft.

Alexia is an interior decorator, whose current job is to transform the village pub to a community cafe. It’s a really important job for her future career. When a builder steals the money and the materials, she is devastated. The whole village had helped to raise money for the project and now it’s all gone. Alexia is determined to make it work and as a handsome man Ben is lending a hand, there might be a chance to make it work. Alexia and Ben’s first meeting didn’t go the way they expected, so the project might be the best place to get to know each other better.

It was a compelling and heart warming story. I enjoyed reading about the close-knit community, friendship and the romance. It was my second book by Sue Moorcroft and I’ve loved both books, can’t wait to read the next one. I’d surely recommend this book to anyone, who likes romance, animals and wonderful village life(at Christmas time).

Christmas based books always excite me so when I saw this book on Netgalley I did not hesitate in requesting "The Little Village Christmas".

Initially it took me a while to get into the book but when the theft of the village money took place I was beginning to get reeled in.

The main characters Alexia and Ben are very likeable. I was especially drawn to Ben. If anyone knows where I can find a Ben it would be great. Despite the fact he moody and brooding I did find myself rooting for him and Alexia to get together. But can they overcome the theft of the money from Alexia's pet project, "The Angel"? Will they simply give up on love after a series of misunderstandings?

The supporting characters also made for an enjoyable read. I especially loved Ben's uncle, Gabe.

All in all this was an enjoyable read.

A little predictable, but at least it makes for easy reading at a time when there's always so much going on. This book transports you to a quintessentially English village and with such believable characters and wonderful layering of stories, it just makes you want to visit yourself and become a part of village life.

If I’m honest; it was different and I’m not sure how I felt about the book at the beginning. I choose to read it when I did because it was different to the other festive reads I had picked on Netgalley but found it slightly hard to get into at first. Which is odd because I picked it because it was different.

If I am honest, it could be due to the fact that I wasn’t in the right frame of mind at the time of reading this. So could have been the initial reason for finding it slightly hard to get into.

It wasn’t an overly festive read in my opinion but it was a nice to read.

Towards the end is where I found it really pick up as a story and you warmed to the characters more.
It was a more realistic book than other festive books I have read recently, in the sense that things aren’t always perfect things can go wrong, things you can’t control can happen all of the time. It was nice that there are still people like Alexia in the world who try their upmost to help everyone.

A heartwarming and realistic read.

It’s been a long time since I first visited the village of Middledip but yay, we’re back there with The Little Village Christmas. Although I must say that, despite the title, you don’t have to be surrounded by tinsel to enjoy it as the story focuses on the weeks leading up to Christmas and not just the festive period itself.

Reading a Sue Moorcroft book is like getting a big book hug. You can always be sure of delightful locations, engaging characters, hot male leads and a little bit of romantic raunchiness.

Interior decorator Alexia is tasked with renovating The Angel Inn into a community cafe. The villagers have chipped in with fundraising and everything is on course for work to start until some despicable people strip the Inn of its valuable assets, and do a runner with all the funds. Instead of just forgetting the whole thing, Alexia and Gabe, the owner of the building, try to continue with the work, albeit with much scaling down and a lot of Freecyling. However, will they be able to pull it off in time for the already promised grand re-opening at Christmas?

There are so many fabulous personalities here – Alexia – independent and feisty by nature and hoping to use these renovation works as a stepping stone to better things. Ben – the brooding nephew of Gabe, Carola, who was a force to be reckoned with and there is one non-human character that stole my heart – Barney the baby owl. Ben was in charge of looking after Barney, who with his broken wing would never fly properly in the wild again – how can you not love a man who tenderly cares for an injured baby owl! I have to admit I wasn’t feeling the love for Jodie, Alexia’s old friend and housemate, she just irritated me beyond belief but that may just be me being old and grumpy.

I loved the ‘will they/won’t they’ storyline between Alexia and Ben. Sue Moorcroft certainly knows how to give her characters personality and Ben was a complex and troubled character – trying to get over a past relationship – oh boy, that one was complicated (and I was dying to know what the mystery was there) whilst figuring out how he felt about Alexia.

This is a lovely heartwarming story and one to be recommended. At the time of writing, The Little Village Christmas is available to download from Amazon for just 99p – not to be missed for that price.


My thanks to Avon for the copy to review.

Feedback left on Amazon here https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R36KSBXELYHTQS/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B06Y1RBHR3

Thanks Netgalley and the Pub lisher. Not one of the best Christmas books I have read and certainly not the best book this author has written but a good read.

Ben and Alexia meet while the Angel is being renovated. Disaster happens because people Alexis trusted have ripped out the original features of the building and stolen the funds needed for the renovation. They work together to make the Angel a successful cafe for the village. Ben learns to let go of his marriage to Imogen and accept she is now with his brother. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this book.

Alexia has been tasked with the job of turning the old pub in Middledip into a community cafe after much fundraising by the villagers. She sees it as her big break and chance to leave the village and move on to bigger and better things

Ben is a woodsman who is moving to the village to be closer to his uncle Gabe, along with his owl Barney

When disaster strikes and all of the money raised is stolen Alexia and Ben make an unlikely team to try and save the project...... but will the union be about more than that and will they help each other?

Another lovely book by Sue Moorcroft I love all of her books and it is great to be back in Middledip and meet some of the old characters I also loved Barney who stole the show!

Good little book! Nice little stories all joined up to the main characters. Would be good to pop back and see other characters have a little story line in the future

I LOVED this book! It is so beautiful and christmasy! The whole story, characters and village is just perfect!

I've never read a book by Sue that I haven't give 5* - and this one is very near the top! It's a lovely story of fighting against the odds, letting people in and changing one's dreams.

The star of the show is Barney "Hehhhh" and I absolutely loved following his development. The humans were interesting too ;) I loved the way Alexia had to adjust her hopes and dreams. I've done a similar leap, as I was once an IT Project Manager and am now a petsitter and book reviewer! It takes some courage to turn your back on "The Plan" and adapt to "what is".

Ben is a lovely bloke - one of my favourite heroes. A very understated man but the love he has for Barney gives the reader a clue as to his warm personality and practical nature.

This was a lovely return to Middledip; I hadn't realised how much I'd missed it! Thank you Sue xxx