A mixed bag for me. Overall I liked it and when I didn’t think too many about things I enjoyed it. However there were a lot if things that didn’t sit right. The fact that the mothers just changed things without asking, the fact that the main character had all these secrets. If I’d known these people in real life I don’t think I’d like them very much

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

This is just a beautiful heart warming read. I really enjoyed this and found myself smiling so many times. So so easy to read to! Stunning!

This book was a brilliant read and one that is perfect to escape for a few hours and loose yourself.
Characters that fall out of the pages of the book and make you fell apart of the story, the setting is lovely and captured well with words.
A great read. that I would highly recommend.

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

This was a gorgeous book, focusing on friendship, self-discovery and love. I was completely transported in to this book and became quite attached to Fliss and all of her friends. There was a lot that this group had to face and overcome and I think they managed it brilliantly. Despite all of the secrets and possible broken friendships, they all came out the other end better people, with the weight of the world finally off of their shoulders.

A perfect chick-lit novel with a juicy story that needed unfolding.

Great Christmas chick lit book! One of my favourite styles of writing with each chapter from a different characters point of view. All about love, friendships and Christmas, great book.

This is a book that is about friendship, self-discovery and love.

Fliss and her university friends are all together for the first time in ten years on Mistletoe Island for her wedding. A lot has changed over those ten years but can they all face that truth.

I really enjoyed each of the characters and their differing personalities. I found it interesting to see how they interacted with each other in roles within their group that were created more than ten years ago and how they fell back into them once they were all back together again.

There are many secrets hiding underneath the surface no matter how much they all try and pretend otherwise.

I enjoyed following their self-discoveries, because as much as this was a romance/chick-lit novel I think this was the biggest factor of the book.

Mistletoe Island sounded divine, and picture perfect and was the perfect setting for this story to unfold.

For those who don’t enjoy full on Christmas novels, then this one is for you. It is set in the week leading up to Christmas, but the festivities aren’t a major factor in the story. I highly recommend it!

A solid chick lit with a band of likeable characters and a chilly Christmas setting !

Weddings , wounded heroes and mended hearts... what’s not to like?

The story takes place in the run up to Christmas and although there are plenty of festive touches, it isn't the focus of the book. It is the web of friendship which is there between the group of friends who are reuniting to attend the wedding- the bride being among them. There are plenty of surprises as everything is not as it seems and it is intriguing trying to unravel who knows what.

The group of friends are an interesting lot. You realise early on that the bride, Fliss, has a secret hidden away. As the story develops, you see her becoming more self- aware. With several couples amongst the group, I enjoyed seeing how they were all at different stages of their relationships and how within the group of friends, they seemed to have given each other roles to fulfil. With a gorgeous setting and lots of Christmas sparkle and a touch of humour to be found, I loved the experience of reading the story. Within the festive novels which I have read this year, it stands out as one of the best.

In short: Friendship is put to the test in this festive romance. Thanks to the author for a copy of the book.

The Wedding on Mistletoe Island certainly has a lovely Christmas cover to get you in the mood for the festive season. But between the covers of Sophie Pembroke's new book there is a lot more going on than just fun in the snow and enjoying all the festivities that go along with this magical time of the year. A group of friends have gathered off the Scottish coast on Mistletoe Island to celebrate the wedding of Fliss and her fiancée Ewan. It has been ten years since they have all gathered together on the island when they spent some time celebrating their graduation from university. Some major things happened during that stay and the affects of these still reverberate down through the group to this day.

The group as individuals or in pairs may all have met in the interim at various points but never before have the same people all been together in one place. In the week leading up to the big day will secrets and tensions long held beneath the surface come rushing to the fore? Will already strained relationships and friendships began to fracture even more or will it all be a bed of roses and fun and laughter uniting to celebrate a marriage? I thought the latter but a few chapters in to this story it soon became apparent that this wasn't going to be the fun and light read the cover suggests it to be and that the undercurrents running through the group will form the dominant themes throughout the book.

There are lots of characters to familiarise yourself with, and honestly it took me awhile to settle into the rhythm of the book, and to be able to easily identify who was who, how they were connected to other characters and what were their back stories. The story itself at various points moves between the present day and ten years previous in order to give us an insight into what exactly happened to make characters feel and act the way they do now. Each chapter is told from alternative characters viewpoints yet Fliss is a dominant focus given her wedding is the reason for everyone gathering together.

Fliss is a very complex character who is pretending to be someone she is not and has been for as long as she can remember. The mothers as they soon become known are taking over her wedding and already her hopes and dreams for her big day have been taken away from her. To my mind, Fliss needed to make some major decisions. She was too biddable and needed to find her voice and express really how she was feeling instead of letting others coral her into their way of thinking and acting. She was well able to express to the reader that she felt trapped and caged and that she put on this act for the group and her family. She was expected to be a certain way and always lived up to this performance whereas deep down there was a rebel Fliss waiting to break out. But had she the guts and determination to do this? Was she leaving things too late especially when it came to matters of the heart?

If the friends knew the real Fliss, she was worried would she be accepted given her supposed solid, steady nature. She wants to be a new person, a new woman and to have a new life starting over with Ewan. I felt there was an awful lot of repetition informing us of Fliss's state of mind and whether she was worrying over what others supposedly thought of her. Time and time again we were told the same things with regards to her emotional stance and whether she was going to act on any of the thoughts or feelings she was experiencing but once it had been mentioned for the fourth or fifth time I felt I had been told enough and would she just ever get on with it and make a decision as to what to do one way or the other. At times it made me turn against her and then at others I was surprised as to some of the revelations about her that came spilling forth and it made me think twice about her as a character. Was what she was engaging in now and also had various junctures in the past the right thing to do? Or if it truly became known amongst the friends would it create a permanent fracture in an already volatile and shaky group?

The other members of the group are Harry, Lara, Jon, Alec, married to Ruth, and Neal, married to Caitlin. Each are dealing with their own issues and given the small proximity of the island there is no place to run and hide when they are forced to confront their fears and secrets. Lara was once in a long term relationship with Jon whilst at university but that all changed the last time they were on the island. Lara has been running ever since but now maybe it is time to stop and take stock and finally admit what drove her to refuse a question so many would love to say yes to. Lara really needed to relax and stop worrying about a past she couldn't change. Yes she has a history with the island but many years have passed and she needs to look to the future and find some sort of happiness instead of always living with regret and at times fear. She is eaten up by the past and I hoped her reasons for decisions made over ten years ago were valid and worthwhile given they seemed to be shrouded in secrecy almost cloak and dagger like. When it emerged things made sense but in a way I thought it would have been something even more earth shattering. Lara clearly needed to figure will herself and Jon be friends again and move forward or is there something more that can be done about their situation?

Caitlin featured more on the periphery as Neal had a more major role to play but to say any more would give things away. Caitlin having married into the group assumed the role she had adopted and maintained and that was one of being the organiser, the one who thought of every little touch and never left anyone out. She thought of things none of the others would dream of. She was solid and reliable but maybe underneath it all she was far wiser than any of the others gave her credit for and she could see what was going on when others did not. The question was would she act immediately on her instincts and her observations or would she keep them close to her chest until the time was right?

As for poor Ruth she feels neglected by Alec. She has experienced trauma and suffering in recent months and cannot come to terms with it. It is eating her up inside and she feels no way of letting out or expressing how she feels. She thinks Alec doesn't understand her or will not comprehend how she is feeling but maybe she should give him more credit than she is at the moment? Ruth was just awash with pain and she hopes that given the island is renowned for its healing nature that maybe some small little miracle will work its magic on her and allow her to release everything so tightly bottled up inside her in order to move forward and come to some form of acceptance.

All of the characters featured in the story are multi-layered and complicated and its not easy to read into them. You really have to sit back and just let the story unfold and not make snap judgements about anyone given they are all hiding so much. It's almost like they are all playing parodies of themselves and are reluctant to let go of that summer ten years ago. But we can't cling to the past we can only keep pushing and moving forward to see what each new day will bring us. Of course we can determine that to some extent and the decisions we make to do this needed to be carefully selected.

The Wedding on Mistletoe Island was a good read but it didn't blow me away. I felt it could have been slightly shorter given the repetition surrounding one character especially. I did love all the mentions of Christmas and the days leading up to the wedding and showcasing all the activities and delights that were on offer. The mothers did provide humour but I felt there needed to be more to counter balance the serious tones of the book and the various issues the many characters were grappling with. Overall a good book, intense at times but with plenty of romance and some fun too.

If a title contains a word associated with Christmas, you would think that the storyline would follow the same path, right? Wrong!

I was half expecting a fully blown, inflatable-esque Santa type storyline where the characters lived and breathed Christmas. However what I got was a book which contained a little dusting of festive activity, and a lot of soul searching from both myself AND the characters. Was I disappointed that the book ended up being something I wasnt expecting? No, far from it, in fact I was genuinely surprised by how the storyline became a book that I hadn’t even realised I needed.

Fliss is due to get married to Ewan on Christmas Eve Eve. She has her theme the way she wants it, her cake is literally the icing on the cake, and she cannot wait to become Mrs Bennett. Of course the mother and the mother in law had their own ideas as to how the wedding should be, ignoring the fact that they were making changes against the brides wishes, turning the wedding into something Fliss no longer recognised. But that’s ok….yeah?

With her group of friends beside her, Fliss cant help but reminisce about their deeply entwined paths where certain nicknames were given, relationships were made, and memories were cemented into everyone’s brains; both the good AND the bad. But how well do the group really know each other? Are they just pretending to be a person who they think others would like, without being true to themselves? Or are they being genuine and honest, rather than throwing a spanner in the works by disagreeing with one of the strong personalities?

At first, I couldn’t work out what route the story was taking, nor could I see the point behind each of the characters throwing things up in the air and the storyline leaving them dangling until much later. Of course I needed to be patient, which I soon realised the more of the book I read, however I couldnt help but be a little doubtful.

Good things come to those who wait, and the point of the story became much clearer in the latter half of the book. Finally truths came out and the characters ended up showing who they truly were and why they ended up hiding. Or, in Lara’s case, what was worrying her. Well, they all had worries.

The whole soul searching aspect of the book was such a poignant piece of writing and it certainly made me stop and think about my own character, and whether I am actually being true to myself. I think that everyone lives their life for another person at some point in their lifetime, yet people need to realise that living life for yourself is in no way selfish, and is your right as a human being.

Seeing as I thought that Sophie Pembroke’s novel was going to be a lot more light hearted, I really did appreciate the emotive situations and deep rooted thoughts between the characters, which in turn led me to think outside the box. I was not expecting it at all and, now that I understand what the author was trying to achieve now that I have read the entire book, I can safely say that ‘The Wedding on Mistletoe Island’ is a story that delivers on humour and inspiration, whilst also being rather emotive. I ended up really enjoying this book, and I am so glad that I told myself to be patient as this was definitely something worth waiting for.

THE WEDDING ON MISTLETOE ISLAND by Sophie Pembroke is an excellent story about being true to oneself and the ever-changing nature of friendship and feelings, and I could not put this book down, it was that compelling.

Ten years ago Fliss gathered her close group of University friends together at Holly Cottage which has always meant so much to her. This was their final time together before they entered adulthood and life started to take them in different directions but when a proposal got turned down and hearts got broken, the group dynamic was altered forever.

Now, ten years later, Fliss has finally found her prince and is getting married, and her close friends are gathering together once more at Holly Cottage, but this time for her wedding. But it isn't long before the tensions of the past rise to the surface again and shocking secrets come bubbling out. As each of the group tries to deal with their own personal dramas and emotional upheavals, hearts will be bruised, old truths will be faced head-on, and friendships will be broken, but maybe they will each find out who they really are and face the truth about what they want for the future.

I absolutely loved this book and this quirky group of friends who are so close but also hide so much of who they really are and what they really want from each other at the same time. Fliss is the nice one of the group - the one who looks after everyone and the one they feel they have to protect but they do not know the other side of Fliss, only one person knows the real her. Caitlin and Noel have always been the mum and dad of the group but it isn't long before everyone starts to notice the cracks beginning to show. Alec and Ruth are struggling with a very personal loss and this wedding trip is the last thing Ruth wants when she has always felt like an outsider but maybe this island can heal them a little and help them find their way back to each other. Ten years ago, Lara and Jon's lives went in opposite directions but how will they handle being back in each other's personal space and the fact that they still seem to have a connection? And then there is Harry, the messer of the group. But maybe Harry knows and understands more than they could possibly imagine. Throw in some interfering mothers and the wedding preparations from hell and this story is set to keep you hooked from beginning to end.

THE WEDDING ON MISTLETOE ISLAND by Sophie Pembroke is a compelling story about friendship and love and I highly recommend it to all womens fiction fans as well as fans of Christmas novels.

Much More than a Winter Warmer

I don't often get the chance to read a seasonally themed book, so when this one crossed my path, I was quite looking forward to the change of pace. With autumn finally nipping at our heels, it feels good to snuggle down on the sofa with a blanket, a hot chocolate and the drama-filled lives of fictional characters.

To that end, this lovely book was perfectly placed and a dream tonic during a week of personal drama. Because let's face it... it's always easier to revel in the pains of fictional families.

Pembroke has created a beautiful book full of complex characters and stunning scenery. The remote Scottish Island of Mistletoe is absolutely the perfect setting for Fliss and her band of friends to have one last 'hooray' before she gets married the day before Christmas Eve.Only, weddings are known for attracting drama... and with two overbearing mothers with their own ideas of the 'perfect centrepiece', a group of friends hiding secrets and an island with 'mystical magical feels' - this book is perfectly placed to help you escape this winter.

Pembroke writes with effortless ease and creates characters you connect with and champion. The pace of the book meant it was easily devoured in a day and left a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart.

Much more than just a story about coming together, it's a story that examines how we change. With challenges and difficulties thrown at each of the friends over the last ten years, it is easy to slip into old habits, but with their futures at stake, will they reveal how the past has changed them all to be able to move forward?

Sophie Pembroke has written the perfect tonic to a crazy mad world outside. So, curl up, escape to the snowy banks of Mistletoe Island and enjoy the drama that surrounds the wedding of the year. It may not be the most complex book on the shelves, you may very well guess a few of the twists, but it is a book that will leave you with all the fabulous feels this Christmas season.

Many thanks to Tracy at Compulsive Readers and Orion for inviting us on this blog tour.

This is set in the lead up to Christmas but still has a real festive feel to it. It is a will she wont she story. Very well written, it is the first time I have read Sophie Pembroke but it wont be the last. I have enjoyed every word and the romance made it all. Curl up, keep warm and enjoy, I recommend this to everyone who enjoys a good festive read.

A lovely little Christmas tale, a little slow going at times, but still enjoyable and it’s full of lovely characters, festive cheer and is a lovely little read.


Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

It's been ages since I was last able to settle down to a new Sophie Pembroke book, and it was definitely worth the wait. This one was fabulous.

It certainly has a fantastic setting of the remote Scottish Island of Mistletoe Island, which sounded incredibly picturesque, and there were some references to festive, but this is far more a Winter book set in the week before Christmas, than a full on festive feels sort of story.

Equally its a book with romance, but it has so much more than that, specifically whether you can really be the same person you were 10 years ago. It looks at how when you have a long standing friendship group you end up cast in a role, and no matter how much you change as a person, the rest of the time, when you get together with that group, you revert back to your younger self.

It is a theme and sentiment I could get on board with as I have often felt like I'm a different sort of person amongst different groups of people, and like Fliss I'm not entirely sure which one is the true me as such.

10 years ago, Fliss and her 6 friends had a week away on Mistletoe Island after graduation and it changed the shape of the group forever. Now they are all back ahead of Fliss's wedding to Ethan.

Predominately we get chapters and sections focusing on three of the ladies in the group, Fliss, Lara and Ruth, and between them we get to know all of the friends, who are all easily separated once you know who they are, and as Ruth hasn't know them as long as the others, we see the group from her slightly distanced perspective too.

Almost all of the group are hiding things from at least some of the others and its great fun to see what will be revealed.

For extreme comic relief, or the feeling of wanting to throw things at someone, I'd introduce you to the mothers - who have taken over the wedding planning, and Fliss is struggling to stand up to them,

There is a gentleness to the writing, its s style I really enjoy and I really got to grips with the story very quickly. I was hooked and just thoroughly loving it It was definitely a book that kept me on my toes and I really wasn't entirely sure who it would end up. I would love to see a sequel, I want more from these friends!

Thank you to Orion and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Fliss is on Mistletoe Island for the week before her wedding. her group of uni friends are also their with her, for the first time since there holiday there 10 years ago. A lot has happened since then, and everyone there is keeping secrets.

I liked how the book was told from different points of view, and even though it moved between present day and 10 years ago, it was easy to keep track of the story.

A great read.

I loved the cover on this book and the synopsis sounded like it was going to be a real warm Christmas book
I have to say unfortunately I was disappointed. It was very slow going and for me no real purpose and I hate to say this I gave up after a couple of chapters

This story is full of cosy Christmas feels, but more importantly it so insightfully examines the complex relationships that make up our lives in our thirties -- how the define and can confine us -- that it felt intensely personal. It explores friendship and romantic love with all the sensitivity and insight that I know to expect from Sophie Pembroke, and it comes with the most perfectly satisfying ending.