I’ve been involved in Christmas-themed blog tours since October and have read and reviewed the other titles in the series, all of which I loved. The Beachside Christmas was just as fun as the others and the perfect festive read. It’s a wonderful addition to an already brilliant series and I’m hoping that there will be more books because the Beachside series is on my list as one of the best chick lit series ever written.

In this book, I loved the atmosphere in Shipley and the community spirit. Karen Clarke portrays a realistic seaside town and community. I loved Lily’s and Sheelagh’s characters and found Craig fun and a bit of a laugh at times. He also seemed like a gentleman and very attentive to Lily for much of the book. Ollie just seemed arrogant and self-centred. The plot was very real and just flowed flawlessly like Karen Clarke’s other books in the series.

I felt happiness, sadness and concern for the characters. I was happy Lily and Craig got on and that Sheelagh was someone Lily could rely on. There’s happy times, fun times and tension and the book is so realistic it reads just like real life. This makes for great fiction and the book is wonderfully escapist.

If you only read one book this Christmas, read this! 5 stars

A huge thanks to Karen Clarke and Bookouture for my ARC in exchange for an honest review. I did’t want this, or the others in the series, to end. Wonderful read, just like the rest of the books in the same series. It was great seeing new and old characters in the book.

I was looking forward to another festive read and started with "The Beachside Christmas".

The book started with Lily arriving in Shipley and soon gets involved with the community's Christmas planing.
Although most things deal with Christmas, I found it very un-festive and the book didn't really carry a cosy Christmas spirit. I found the story very hectic and sometimes a bit over the top.
The love story couldn't really catch me either and I expected a bit more romance as well.

What I really enjoyed was the humour in the story. There were some hilarious scenes which really made me laugh a lot.

As I said the atmosphere lacked in Christmas feeling but also the beachside scenery had a lot more potential. So unfortunately the book was only an average entertainment for me.

Another very enjoyable visit to the town of Shipley, this time in a sparkly Christmas romcom. Lovely to see some of the characters from the earlier books in their cameos, as well as meeting the new characters who are centre stage. Beautifully written and full of fun. I love it i recommend to you all a great read

I really enjoyed this book - it is one of those books that will have the reader laughing out loud one minute and then feeling sorry or upset for a character later in the same paragraph. I really like Karen's writing style, the book is an easy read, has small chapters which make it great to pick up during a spare five minutes and in a town similar to many places we may have visited one summer in years gone by. The residents all know one another and have built their own alliances when it comes to town business.

Lily returns to Shipley following a relationship breakdown and, when invited to her neighbours, is introduced to the Christmas Lights committee who are planning this year's event and are looking for a celebrity to do the grand switch on. Lily believes that she can help and offers to fill the space, her friend owns a management agency and she has a reality star on her books who needs to raise his profile and this seems the perfect job for him to do just that. However, as readers can probably guess this does not go smoothly and a number of residents are upset but following a surprising event will the residents of Shipley think of Lily as one of their own or will she have to move away following the lights switch on.

This is the perfect book to get readers in the mood for Christmas - Christmas lights switch on events are a big events in many towns and the Christmas cheer is spread throughout the book.

Thank you to the publishers, Bookouture, for inviting me to take part in this blog tour. I am already looking forward to my next visit to Shipley.

I have read & enjoyed all 3 books in the series. All can be read as standalones as they all feature different characters but all are based in the same seaside town of Shipley.

My first books by this author but I'll definitely be looking out for future releases.

I didn't realise this was the third book in a series until I had finished the book! You can most definitely read this book as a stand alone but I do like reading books in order!
I enjoyed this book, was a lot of laugh out load moments and had a good Christmassy feel. I didn't expect Lily to fall for Craig and not Ollie but glad there was a twist. I loved Ollies character! I'm also glad that Lily went back to teaching. The neighbours were also hilarious, I loved Doris Day!
I enjoyed this book and I will have a look for the others, even if I do read them out of order! I'd look out for more books by Karen Clarke.
Thank you for letting me review this book, it was thoroughly enjoyable.

The Beachside Christmas by Karen Clarke
Series: Beachside Bay Book #3
Publisher: Bookouture

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher Bookouture for the ebook ARC of The Beachside Christmas by author, Karen Clarke.

Lily Ambrose needs a fresh start and she remembers her happy childhood holidays in the seaside town of Shipley. Its the perfect place for the perfect seaside Christmas hideaway.
Anxious to make new friends, Lily promises to find a celebrity to turn on the Christmas lights. But when reality star Ollie shows up with his cameraman, Craig, with plans to make a TV show out of his stay, plans quickly go off course.
Ollie is gorgeous but rowdy, soon decides that staging a romance with a normal girl, like Lily is exactly what he needs to save his reputation.
With new neighbours to impress can Lily bring the Christmas cheer back to Shipley and find herself under a real kiss under the mistletoe?

I give this book a rating of 4 stars. I recommend reading it. It was a good book and kept me wanting to find out what happens. I have not read any of the other books in the series, but I found that it was a stand alone book as well. It was a feel good Christmas book with some hilarious moments.

This really looked like a great Christmas read and it didn't fail either. I love all books that are related to Christmas and I loved how it was a feel good book.... Nothing more better then a feel good book. It's a seasonal book. All the characters differed in their own right, I enjoyed Lily. Lily plans for a celeb to help out with the town for the switch on of the towns Christmas lights but do things ever run smoothly. Never, it's full of laugh out loud moments and if you have never never read anything by Karen Clarke like me then I would recommend it.... Funny book.

This is the final part of the Beachside Trilogy and it started with a sweet ship went over to a flower stall and now we are in the middle of Christmas and the debate rages about who has the best Christmas lights and who should turn them on in the town of Shipley.

Enter Lily Ambrose, who buys a house in Shipley because she remembers the lovely summer holidays she had there when she was a child. Buying it and moving in winter in the run up to Christmas might not be the best of moves, but Lily is leaving everything behind.

When she arrives she is thrown into the Christmas lights display and rashly makes a promise that she can get a celebrity to turn on the lights, thanks to her contacts from her past.

Trouble is the celebrity is not who or what everyone is expecting. Ollie is a failed reality TV star with a chip on both shoulders and a man not afraid to hurt anyone when it comes to giving an opinion.

He needs to reinvent himself after some rather untimely PR disasters and so he agrees to turn on the lights, but he has other ideas at the same time.

Bringing Craig his long time friend and a cameraman with him to boot, it looks like the Shipley residents and the turning on of the lights is going to be the next reality show and it seems that Lily will be at the centre of it all.

Trouble is the residents have other ideas and Lily simply wants to fit in and write her novel.

This is a really lovely read and I have to confess for me the best of the three novels in this trilogy. You do not have to have read the previous two, they all work as standalone but of course some characters crossover, not so much that you cannot enjoy each book individually.

The friendships are all portrayed as genuine, the characters believable even if their actions might be unbelievably crass, you felt you part of the story. Of course there is romance, but what will become of Lily and the choices she makes? Well you will have to read the book to find out!

I loved the first two in The Beachside series and so knew I would love this one too. It was great to return to the wonderful Shipley, the seaside town where we've previously met the owner of the sweet shop and the woman helping out at the flower stall.

This time we meet Lily Ambrose, a former primary school teacher in a level of disgrace who has moved to Shipley because of the fond memories she has of her childhood holidays there. She's no sooner moved in than she's involved in the Christmas Lights Society on her street and promising to find a 'celebrity' to switch them on and judge the best lights on the houses of Lily's neighbours. Enter Ollie, former reality show star, and his cameraman, Craig.

I thought Lily was such a lovely person, down to earth, sweet-natured, fun and kind. Her first meeting with Ollie had me in hysterics and the rest of the book kept me smiling. Karen Clarke has real comic timing and she creates such fantastic characters, with some quite eclectic ways.

The whole storyline is very entertaining. Ollie is a bit unpredictable, causing all sorts of trouble in Shipley and roping Lily in as well. Craig is the one who is Ollie's much needed calming influence. The three of them together make for a madcap, yet utterly heartwarming, beachside Christmas. This is a fabulous festive read and a fitting conclusion to this fabulous series of books.

Karen Clarke has become one of those highly anticipated authors for me. When I hear she has a new book coming out I do a little squeal of excitement. I'm sorry that this is the last trip to Shipley but I'm looking forward to her next book and to meeting a whole new set of characters.

The Beachside Christmas is the newest edition of Karen Clarke's Beachside series set in Shipley, Dorset, England. Thirty year old former primary teacher Lily Ambrose has decided to move to beachside Shipley to begin a new life after the embarrassing way she lost her job, and her love.

Her new home sits on the lovely street of Maple Hill, an area of Shipley well known for its competitive Christmas light displays. As a way to meet her new neighbors, Lily attends a Christmas light meeting and finds herself making offers she might not be able to achieve. What she must do to follow through is get at least a minor celebrity through her best friend Erin, a talent agent. This celebrity will turn on the Shipley Christmas tree in a ceremony and judge the Maple Hill displays.

Erin is able to get naughty playboy reality star Ollie Matheson, who will stay with Lily while in Shipley. When Ollie arrives a day early and with his photographer/videographer Craig Daniels , they catch Lily unaware as she dances provocatively, drinks red wine, and decorates a massive tree. As she sleeps it off it would seem the playboy and photographer complete the decorations and restore order. This is the beginning of a very interesting relationship!

Ollie alternates acting endearing and obnoxious, and the neighbors and townspeople would agree. In fact, there are those that might like to run him out of town. Craig, on the other hand, is open and friendly and the citizens take to him readily.

With many surprises for Lily, Erin, the neighbors, and the fellows, this is a fun, and funny, holiday romp. I did enjoy this book and do recommend it.

The Beachside Christmas was just as cheesy and as fun as it sounds (and I kind of loved it!)
This is another cosy romance that is part of a series, and I felt like exactly the right amount of background was given about the characters - it definitely made me want to read the others in the series.
This was probably the funniest of the Christmassy books I’ve read this year - the characters were quite silly, in a good way, and the ‘friendly’ Christmas lights competition was well written.
I gave this one 3 stars and a festive bottle of Baileys

This was such a fun read, and it was only at the end that I realised that it is part of a series. I never felt like I had missed any crucial information. But obviously I would have got to have known some of the secondary characters better if I had been fully aware of the facts.

I love that this was set around a Christmas Lights competition. Only at Christmas can you have something so ridiculous and so good. I loved the friendly competition and macho antics everyone had. And Doris Day was hilarious. She was the perfect village gossip.  Although my favourite has to be Marmite the Cat - he has such an attitude that it is hard not to fall in love with him.

I giggled to myself though the entirety of this book as Ollie - a posh reality star - tries to make the people of Shipley love him - he has his work cut out and he is a bit confused about why things are not going his way.

The one thing that I really did not like in this book was the romantic element. I did feel like it was a bit forced and pushed upon. Because let's be honest in this sort of book it is expected. It was naturally and I didn't think that there was any romance happening until it was rammed down my throat. Okay not literally, but you get my drift....

I did want a bit more action. Instead it all seems to happen at the end, while the middle dithers about. Oh and the reason why Lily left her job, could there have been a better reason, or am I being unsympathetic?

However this is a fun Christmassy read that will leave you with a smile on our face. Time to sprinkle some glitter and get in the Christmas spirit!

The Beachside Christmas by Karen Clarke is the third visit I have made this year to the coastal town of Shipley. It has one of the best Christmas covers I have seen so far during this festive season. The question is does the content that awaits the reader match up to the festive feeling clearly evoked by the cover? For the first part I definitely felt it did but for the second half I think things slightly lost their way. There is nothing wrong with the book overall, it just felt to me that it was over before it had even begun. That it was a very quick read that for the later part slightly lacked some substance. The chemistry between the main characters needed to be more evident as it seemed that things panned out all too easily and there wasn't that element of back and forth and hesitation and frustration that adds a bit of spice to the overall story. So the book was as they say a game of two halves for me but is a nice story to pass a few hours if you have spare time at the time of year when the manic preparations for Christmas can take over everything.

Lily Ambrose is 30 and looking to buy a property in Shipley. She used to come on holiday with her family many years ago and she has fond memories of special times with her family. But now her life in London has blown up and she needs to escape, to go back to basics and decide what should her next step be. The decision will change the course of her life but will it be for the better or for worse? Lily Buys Seaview Cottage, thanks to an inheritance left to her by her grandmother. This is the perfect escape for her as she feels she can lock the doors and try and get on with writing the novel that has been a long held aspiration of hers. Given the events of what unfolded in London which led to the dominant reason for her escape, Lily hopes for a quite peaceful time in the run up to Christmas. When I read the reasons behind Lily fleeing her teaching job, honestly I was appalled. Ok no one wants the confrontation that befell her but at the same time all I could say was – what on earth were you thinking Lily? I myself am a teacher and if there was any whisper of what Lily was experiencing we would be out on our ears out of a job. It's a territory you don't dare venture down not that I think I would want to anyway in any way shape or form. So it begs the question was Lily just that little bit gullible or was she letting her head rule over hear heart? Was there something making her judgement totally off at the time?

Lily is seeking an oasis of calm and time to reflect but little does she bargain for the residents of Shipley and the fiercely contested Christmas lights competition. Soon she is swept in all things concerned with flashing lights, blown up Santa's and snowmen. It was great to see the return of old favourite characters from the previous two books whilst at the same time getting to know Lily. The girls from the flower stall and the sweet shop were there as was Doris who has always held a soft spot in my heart. Doris Day is the head of the neighbourhood watch and also a member of the Christmas lights committee. She is like a mother figure to all, but at the time is sharp and witty and doesn't suffer fools gladly or let anyone take advantage of her. Doris can be very nosy and partial to a bit of gossip but really she only ever has good intentions at the heart of everything she does. So the fact that someone 'special' or with some ounce of 'fame' can't be found for the big Christmas lights switch on is really playing on her mind. As Lily attends a meeting of the committee she foolishly volunteers to find that someone. Lily certainly put herself under pressure to deliver and given she was new in the town she didn't want to promise something and then not be able to deliver.

I thought Lily so desperately wanted to be liked, approved of, accepted and to find her place that she would have done anything the committee would have asked of her. Soon a random act of kindness snowballs out of control as she takes on the search for a star who will come and turn on the lights and this leads to the arrival of has been reality star Ollie Matheson and cameraman Craig who pitch up to stay in the cottage. Right from when we first encounter him Ollie was totally over the top, flamboyant and the female version of a dumb blonde. It was like he had walked straight off the set of something like Made in Chelsea. One thing that I will hand to the author is the fact she had me fooled regarding the romance element of the story. Given how hurt Lily was by recent events I felt it was best that she would tread wisely but at the same time as I have already said there was something missing that made me believe in all the chemistry but that's not to say I wasn't happy with the overall outcome.

The Beachside Christmas is a nice, pleasant read but it didn't blow me away. I think The Beachside Sweet Shop still remains my favourite in this series. although Lily was a likeable enough character who tried her best and wanted to satisfy everyone she met but I felt on real connection with her for most of the book.Yes she was a people pleaser and wanted to bring Christmas back to Shipley but there was a slight lack of sparkle in the later half of the book that would have made this one of my favourite Christmas reads this year. If you've read the first two books in the series like me you'll want to read the third just to read of the continuation of the stories set in the same town but for new readers I think starting with the sweet shop book would be best. Read this for the fun , frolics and comedy surrounding the Christmas lights of Shipley and enjoy it for a simple Christmas read but for me it won't be my most memorable book of the year.

This was such a lovely book- full of Christmas magic and great characters.
Lily wants to escape over Christmas and stays in Shipley where she enjoyed special holidays as a child. She's keen to mix with the locals and finds herself promising to find a celebrity to judge the village Christmas lights. Then she has Olly, a reality star looking to revive his career turn up on her doorstep with his cameraman Craig. Olly is a loose cannon and a bit of a livewire to keep on the neighbours good side.
There are some really amusing scenes and also some lovely Christmas settings to start your Christmas festivities in the best way. The ideal book to curl up with after some Christmas shopping with a cup of steaming Hot Chocolate full of marshmallows- spoil yourself!

When Lilly's relationship with a married man ends in disaster she needs to get out of town fast.... but where to.... she decides on the seaside town of Shipley where she spent some happy childhood holidays. Once there in her little cottage she needs to make some friends and so volunteers to find a celebrity to turn on the lights.

Ollie is a good looking reality star with a bit of a bad reputation, and when he turns up to switch on the lights the locals start to wonder if it was such a good idea after all..... can Lily keep him under control!

A lovely light hearted read, good characters and great comedy moments, I will be looking out for more books by this author

Thanks Netgalley and the Author. Wish I had read the first 2 books but nevertheless I really enjoyed this book and where it was set. Shall look out for the first 2 now.

I loved the synopsis of this book and the cover is very eye catching. Unfortunately, the story line was a little slow for me and I had a hard time getting into it.

When I think of the most wonderful time of year, a "beachside Christmas" isn't what comes to mind. Intrigued I started to read this novel by Karen Clarke.

With quirky characters galore and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, The Beachside Christmas is the perfect choice to read this festive season.

This is the first novel I've read by Karen Clarke and I can assure you it won't be the last! Clarke has a lovely aesthetic to her writing, and reminds me of some of my favourite authors, like Trisha Ashley & Katie Fforde.

The Beachside Christmas is a highly entertaining, light and easy read that I just didn't want to put down.

**** stars from me!

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

Back in Shipley and loving every word. I adore Ms Clarke's writing style and her books contain all the correct ingredients for a heartwarming chicklit without being sickly or overdone.

This lady makes reading easy and her writing seems effortless.