Karen Swan never disappoints and this book is no exception.
Brilliant characters who you immediately contact with and want to be friends with.
Although it is a book published for Christmas it can be read at any time. A great holiday read.
Cannot recommend it enough

I always enjoy Karen Swan's books, and this one was no exception. I did struggle to get into it initially though, because it begins with a flashback, which goes on for quite a while. I persevered and when I reached the modern day story, became hooked. It's one of those books you can't put down, even if you should be making tea! Loved Sam. It took me a while to warm to Lee, but I did eventually do so. Loved Jasper, as well as Lee's friends. It was great to learn about the Dutch festive traditions. An enjoyable read, with lots of different plot lines. With thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a massive fan of Karen Swan and once again she has written a masterpiece. This is unlike any Christmas novel I have read. It was brilliantly written and well researched. You can’t help but visualise everything as it is happening. It made me laugh and also had me in tears. It starts in Syria with Cunningham and Lee covering the war. Lee was the photographer. Lee eventually settled in Amsterdam with her son Jasper. She has no family however has made a circle of excellent friends. One day as she is going to work, she finds a book in her basket. Now how can this book change her life? What secrets unfold? This is a story of love, secrets and Christmas snow. Congratulations Karen on an absolute amazing read. I recommend that you have this on the top of your must-read list and go out and purchase this as soon as it is released. You will not want to put it down.

I couldn’t give anything less than 5 stars. I love Karen Swan and I’ve read all her books. I wasn’t sure how this one was going to go as it wasn’t her usual Christmas story. I need not have worried. right from the start I was drawn into it.
It follows Lee and her son Jasper. Less was a war photographer and very quickly you’re aware that she’s suffering from some of the traumatic things she’s seen in her life which has left her with issues. It takes you back in time to some of the places she’s been.
There’s quite a few characters in the book all with there own stories going on but Karen brings them all together so well.
Sam comes into Lee and jaspers life at just the right time and I fell in love with there story too.
I absolutely love Christmas books and Karen Swan and Christmas just go together. Definitely one of my favourites she written. Made me feel very festive with a touch of magic for the kids.
Also made me look further into Dutch traditions at Christmas.
Thank you Karen for such a fantastic book and Netgalley for the early copy.

This was a slow burner for me. Lee (Previously a War Photographer) is now living a peaceful life in Holland with her son. One day a mysterious book appears in the basket of her bicycle basket. Inside is written “Help Me”
Featuring a great selection of Primary and secondary characters, I only started to enjoy the book after the second half. Reading about the different Dutch Xmas activities was interesting and the ending was predictable. Nevertheless, a good festive read which explores PSTD, families and much more.

My thanks to Netgalley and publishers Pan Macmillan for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review. Wow!! I’ve just found a new favourite author. I’d often seen Karen Swan’s name, but had, wrongly, assumed that her books were chick lit which I don’t do. I break up my reading year with two or three feel-good novels usually aimed primarily at women, which is why I requested this book. I’m so glad that I did.

This well-written work does have the cosy seasonal feel in the present. Set in Amsterdam in the lead up to Christmas, it has all that iconic city can offer, plus frozen canals to skate on and festive lights twinkling in the trees. The female protagonist, Lee Fitchitt, is British, settling in Holland with the birth of her son five years previously. So we have a double helping of Christmas traditions, both Dutch and British, which she is determined that her son is going to enjoy to the full with the help of a small group of close friends. But with one of the two male lead characters, Harry Cunningham, comes a much darker side to the story. For years they had been a close team of war reporter and photographer, their work taking them into some of the grimmest action, their reports going around the world. Their last assignments had been in Syria for which they had been awarded the Pulitzer Prize. The research that the author put into that part of the story is admirable. We are taken there. This is no ordinary cosy romance. The war passages are interleaved with the story. No alternative chapters jerking back and forth, interrupting the reading concentration. The story flows. Lee establishes herself in Amsterdam as a celebrity portrait photographer with a difference, commissioned by glossy magazines. Again she is highly successful. But the mystery of why she so abruptly changed her work is gradually revealed. Of course, there is the romantic involvement with many twists and turns. Other issues are woven into the story and should a reading group be looking for a festive read, there is plenty to discuss, questions to attempt to answer.

The tension in the latter part of the book began early and was sustained from one crisis to another. At one point it induced a physical reaction. It’s a rare book that will do that to this hard-boiled reader. I never become emotional about a book. It’s just words on a page, ideas from someone’s imagination, however good. But this one truly got to me. This many stranded story should come with a warning - - - - it’s a serious time waster. You can’t get anything else done once you get into it. But the reward is terrific. I was looking for a big warm hug of a book and I got it. It seems that Karen Swan began publishing in 2013, producing two books a year. Anticipating the catch-up, this is one very happy reader.

It took a while to get into this book, didn't feel like a Christmas book even though it was set in the Christmas season. It's very emotional and you really feel for the sights they have seen as war journalist and the effects it has on their lives. A slow but satisfying read

Karen Swan never fails in delivering a good story and likable characters.

The story is based on Lee and her past and present, her relationship with Lee and Sam, and her various roles in life. Without giving too much away her life now is ruled by her experiences as a photojournalist in the past and her relationships with men.

You will not be disappointed if you select this book for an escapist read.

I

Absolutely brilliant book as always from Kren Swan. Lee had been a war photographer in Syria along with Harry Cunningham an American Reporter. She put that behind her when her son Jasper was born and moved to Amsterdam. The graphic details of her time in Syria was so real. Wish I could give it more than 5 stars.

I’ve loved Karen Swan’s previous novels however I found this a little harder to get into than usual, possibly because Lee is quite a hard person in many respects although I loved her relationship with her son. This definitely got under my skin though and I really enjoyed the Dutch Christmas celebrations and also the obsession with elfstedentocht. There were some wonderful characters and a really great atmosphere especially as the story progressed and Lee really grew on me more and more. This offers a real festive warmth with a Dutch twist which is beautifully brought to life.

This book was completely different to what I expected and some bits were very difficult to read.

Without spoiling the entire plot. Lee is a troubled, award-winning photographer living in Amsterdam. It opens in a war situation that, through the book, clearly haunts her but you are unaware why until the closing pages of the book. This leads to her putting up barriers from outsiders especially in the way of relationships.

After a work shoot, and finding a book deposited in her bike basket, this entirely changes direction and we discover a more open Lee with her giving her son, Jasper, the best Christmas he could imagine.

I love that the books by Karen Swan include a great deal of history alongside with deep relationships.

I would recommend everyone reads this book but be prepared for sitting on the edge of your seat!

This was a sad story for a lot of the time with an interesting storyline and some good characters. A very dramatic conclusion ending on Christmas day. Great story!

Photographer Lee moved, five years ago, to Amsterdam with her baby trying to escape the painful memories of her past. She has made a small circle of friends and they are preparing for Christmas when Lee makes a bewildering discovery in the basket of her bicycle. Now there is a mystery to solve and unpleasant memories that are coming to light.

This is not a typical Christmas book, it deals with incredibly real trauma. If you enjoy a more gripping festive read, then this is certainly for you.

If you are looking for a typical cheesy festive read, this is not the book for you.
Covers some very real topics, lots of flashbacks between past and present day. The book starts off very slow but does pick up pace and sucks you in towards the end.

It is not often when I pause for a lunch break, with a book, decide that I'll read just one more chapter, and then just one more chapter and eventually I conceded that I was clearly not being budged from the pages of this book, and 3 hours later, I'm sitting here in wonder at just how amazing Karen Swan is.

I mean she's always been a must read author for me, and I love her books, but this has to be her best yet without a doubt. And definitely my new favourite amongst her Christmas books, with the possibly exception of Christmas Under the Stars which was also totally amazing.

There is just so much to this book, and I'm not even sure the blurb does it complete justice to the amount of threads, and tricky subjects that are covered. There is just such a depth to this book that I wouldn't be able to explain even if I tried.

The prologue was completely unexpected, in that it transports us to a situation I have never really seen before in the books I read, and for that alone it made me sit up and realise that this was no ordinary book.

The amount of research Karen Swan must have done is astounding, and everything came across as what I believe must be realistic, if not believable at least. Everything to do with Lee's past and her connection to Harry Cunningham intrigued me beyond belief, and some of the key info is drip fed to us, keeping me needing to turn to the pages to see what would happen next.

And this book is set in Amsterdam over Christmas, so we get to learn about Dutch Christmas traditions too, which was really interesting, and I always love seeing who Christmas is celebrated in other countries.

I'm reluctant to say much more, I went into this blind, just really having noticed a location on the blurb, and knowing it was by Karen Swan, and absolutely loved and it worked so well, I was continually intrigued and needing to find out what would happen next. There are moments of real adrenaline and I was very much invested in all the characters lives.

This was just the book I needed to read when I did, to remind me that when a story is written so well, it can completely grip me, even when my concentration levels have been iffy recently. Just wow, this is not just a book for the Christmas reading season, but could easily be read year round, and is just amazing.

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

Thanks to netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Lee was a prize winning photographer prior to moving to Amsterdam five years ago with a new born. She thinks she has put the past behind her but little does she know it’s all about to come to a head. She meets Sam an author who she falls for but can they deal with their past problems and move on together.

A good read from Karen.

The book is set in Amsterdam, with Lee and her young son Jasper. She is a photographer who has experienced the horrific conflict of war in the Middle East, and is haunted by the trauma of her experiences there.
At first she seems arrogant with a care for nobody attitude, apart from her young son Jasper, and I found it difficult to like or empathise with her. However, as the story unfolds, you realise the drama of photographing people suffering bombs exploding and bullets flying, along with her own personal horrific experiences, and begin to understand some of what she has been through.
The book is about Lee’s hidden feelngs for Cunningham, with whom she worked closely with in war zones, and her present lifestyle as a celebrated photographer taking images for celebrity magazines. Characters are finely drawn, and well described by this talented author, and the city where Lee is living is obviously well known and researched. I loved the descriptions of local celebrations, people cycling everywhere, frosty, bustling pavements and all the canals.
Lee becomes attracted to Sam, but is scared to become too involved, and the story explores their evolving relationship, along with her neighbours and friendships. She has a caring side to her nature which isn’t evident at first, and I like how characters develop as the story evolves.
An exciting, gripping story which is a real page-turner.

If you want a typical boy meets girl Christmas book put this book down. Single mum, pulitzer award winning photo journalist. Ex working partner and his wife who Lee won't engage with. Enter Sam with his own back story. Wonderful cast of friends and neighbours. You will not want to put this book down. I got totally invested in the characters and would love this to be a start of a series following up on the other characters. Fantastic book.

This is great book - great characters, great settings, great story, and great writing.
You think it’s going to be a romantic novel - and it is - but as well as being set in Amsterdam, we are taken to the war torn Syria of several years earlier. The main Character is Lee, an award war photographer, living in Amsterdam with her 5 year old son Jasper, and now photographing celebrities and models for magazines and holding showings of the meaningful work she does privately. She worked in Syria with Harry, a war journalist and they they are both still affected by their time there, but are now estranged, having once been each other’s best friend.
We slowly find out their back story while at the same time, Lee finds a message in a book which has been left in the basket of her bicycle for her to find, but she has no idea who it’s from and sets out to try and discover who left it for her. This in turn leads her to meet the author of the book, with whom she develops a complicated relationship.
My review can’t do this book justice, there are many threads woven together, Lee’s supportive set of friends, Sam the author of the book, her friendship with the old man living next door and the strange but outwardly friendly man living below him with his shy, nervous partner.
Please read it for yourself, you’ll get caught up in the story, just as I did.

The cover and the title of the book leads you into a sense of false security when you think that it will be 'another Christmas romance - how wrong I was. Yes, there is the romantic side to this book but the back story of all the characters kept me reading into the small hours, A book I have no hesitation in recommending.
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the advance copy of this book