I enjoyed this book, but there were a couple of things that did unfortunately put me off a little.

There are some points of repetition throughout the book. Whether it's for emphasis, or merely to remind us about the events involved, it was superfluous.

I liked Jay, and loved his and Lottie's connection.

This book deals with cervical cancer, an issue that's a rather hot topic in Ireland at the moment. I don't think it was dealt with wrong, but I do wish there was more focus on the storyline involved. If nothing else, it will have people more wary of their own health.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC of this audiobook.

In the past few weeks to try to keep my mind off Lockdown 2, the increasingly scary COVID figures and the fact we’ll probably have a very low-key Christmas this year, I have been mainlining cheesy Christmas romcom books and films. I’m looking for something easy and sweet which requires very little effort and has a nice happy ending and is a simple distraction from the crazy real world.

This is probably the best of these books I’ve read so far this year. It has a nice setting for a Christmas book, an estate in the Lake District with a Christmas tree farm and wedding venue. It has an intriguing premise, a woman is abandoned by her fiancé only to discover she has to plan his wedding the following Christmas. The writing is of a high standard, the dialogue is not too cheesy. There is a nice balance of romance and melancholia. The situations aren’t too far-fetched or contrived and there aren’t too many irritating misunderstandings which could just be fixed with a simple conversation. It does exactly what you expect and want from an escapist Christmas romance.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book which is well read by Laura Kirman. I thought her northern accents were pretty good and narration style was engaging.

From this book, Phillipa Ashley seems to be a superior writer in a genre full of plenty of examples of substandard, lacklustre, repetitive writing. I will definitely look out for other books by this author.