Written in the third person, this is a rich, well written story with lots of believable and compelling characters. The three step sisters are completely different from each other and it was interesting to read about them. Thank you #netgalley

Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

I enjoyed reading this story which was about three sisters.

Following spending some years separated, three sisters, Maggie, Star and Simone come back to the village of Rowan Thorp, to attend the reading of their father’s will.

As part of what they inherit, his wish is for
the Winter Solstice Festival to be restarted.

It follows their story of their lives, and what their relationship is like with each other, and how the people of Rowan Thorp help them in bringing their fathers wish alive.

I loved the characters.

I recommend this book.

This book was such a quirky read. I actually really enjoyed it.
The characters were fantastic and it was such a joy to read.

What an unusual story! Its quirky characters, strange shop and heartfelt message makes this a different sort of read for the festive season.
Three half sisters meet up again after the death of their hippy father. All three have issues to resolve and their fathers will will help them to work through them.
Some beautiful scenes and festive celebrations make this a great read for the holiday season.

Totally loved this quirky tale of unusual families around winter festivities.
Three sisters Maggie, Simone and Star are brought back together for the funeral of their shared father after years of being apart. Their father Augustus North has left them some missions to complete in order to get their inheritance which bring up old memories secrets and more! After spending every summer together as children now many years later they have to work together in order to get what they need.
Fantastic wonderful characters, such a joy to read. Quirky and quintessentially English this is great!! Not your usual Christmas read but just as if not more enjoyable!!
Thank you NetGalley and Pan books for the early read.

Augustus North has led a merry bohemian life. On his final trip away Augustus dies, just short of his 96th birthday.
His three daughters are summoned to the solicitors for the reading of his will, in the small village in South east of England, called Rowan Thorp.
It’s been a long time since the “Summer Sisters” have all been together.
Augustus has left them some tasks that have to be completed together. Will they manage to do so?

I found the first part of the book a little confusing, working out who was who? The second half was more to my liking.
The characters are all totally different, Maggie, Simone and Star, being the three sisters.
I thought the character Star was the most interesting.
The book is about family love, and a village community pulling together.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Publisher for an advanced e-book copy. Opinions about the book are entirely my own.

A cosy Christmas story involving an eccentric deceased father and three estranged sisters who have to come together in order to fulfill the will of Augustus and find their way back to one another

A December to Remember by Jenny Bayliss is a bewitching novel about three very different sisters who are brought back together after the death of their father, Augustus Balthazar North. The North sisters - Maggie, Simone and Star - have only spent childhood summers together and aren’t particularly close, but that all changes with their father’s mysterious will reading. Augustus has tasked the sisters with bringing back the winter solstice festival, which was once celebrated annually in the idyllic village of Rowan Thorp - the Kent village that is home to North’s Novelties and Curios. Will the sisters overcome the issues in their own lives and work together to pull this off?

Bayliss’s writing captures the essence of the festive season, making A December to Remember the perfect book to cosy up with during the run up to Christmas. It is filled with an eclectic cast of characters, all bringing something to the story and showing the importance of community. I also loved the descriptions of the village - I feel like I’ve actually visited Rowan Thorp and can picture all its landmarks in my mind. Bayliss is also a very funny writer and cleverly captures the little quirks of life.

If you’re a fan of The Gilmore Girls, Practical Magic, cute coffee shops and fairy lights, then this is the Christmas book for you. Thank-you NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for this ARC, in return for an honest review.

This was just delight to read. Loved this book. I was hooked from the first page.
Thanks to Netgalley for this Arc.

Absolutely loved this book!

The authors writing style is amazing!

I look forward to reading more from them!

This delightful seasonal read is a heart warming tale of 3 sisters after the death of their father and his unusual will. The story is tightly plotted and populated with a great cast, including some very outspoken women. I particularly liked Duncan, the historian from Sotherbys, he is different to many male leads in novels. I definitely recommend this book!

A beautiful heartwarming read which features three sisters reconnecting with each other and building a connection after the death of their father and his last wish in order for them to recieve the inheritance.

A heartfelt story, reuniting three sisters.
After years apart, Maggie, Simone and Star return to a small Kent village, Rowan Thorp, for the reading of their father’s will.
He wants them to reinstate the Winter Solstice Festival as part of their inheritance.
It’s the story of the three women and their journey, their choices and priorities and their relationship with each other, but also how the community of Rowan Thorp had a major role to play in realising the dream.
The characters were funny and engaging.
The whole story is loving and caring, full of second chances.
A gentle way to ease you into the festive season and get into the Christmas spirit.
Thanks @BaylissJenni, @panmacmillan and @netgalley for the eARC

This is a delightful Christmas read; you'll need a cosy armchair, cosy blanket and a mug of mulled wine!

Maggie, Simone & Star share a rather eccentric father called Augustus. He has recently passed away and leaves his antique/curiosity shop to his daughters along with instructions to find hidden amongst the contents a certain number of Monopoly game houses! The half sisters are almost estranged and this is bringing them all back together intentionally!

They must re-establish the annual Winter Solstice celebration for the whole village; will this enormous task make them or break them?

Read this delightful book to learn how relationships, thought lost can be re-established better than before, along with broken hearts made whole with new romance!

Loved it!

An enjoyable read by Jenny Bayliss. Three sisters with the same father and different personal challenges. Can they come together and fulfil their father's last wish?

A very enjoyable story about three estranged half sisters who have to join together after their father's death to unlock their inheritance by following certain instructions in his will.

Maggie, Simone and Star are completely different personalities. Maggie is the reliable one, she lives in the same village her father did (when he wasn't wandering the world), looks after her two children and runs a greengrocer. Simone is a physiotherapist and her and her wife have been trying for a baby, without much success, for a while. She's very cranky and judgemental, but slowly works through her issues. Star is the gentle one who floats around from place to place and loves everyone, sometimes to her detriment.

The three very differing personalities come together to work through the items in the antiques/curiosity shop their father left, and to set up a winter solstice celebration.

The story follows the different issues the sisters have had over the years, with their father and each other. They work through everything eventually and become the sisters they used to be in their childhood, when they used to spend a month with each other and their father every summer.

There are some very funny moments, along with some sadders ones, and some great side characters. I loved both Duncan (the Sotheby's appraiser) and Joe (Maggie's 'secret' love interest). The story got better as it went on, and there was a really lovely ending. There was also an epilogue five years later, which I really like in stories to see where the characters are now. I do like it when all the loose ends are tied up! Very enjoyable read.

I will start by saying that - for me - this isn't a Christmas book. Maybe I read too much into it. When I re-read the plot above, it doesn't actually say Christmas, it only says winter, so I obviously put 2 and 2 together and came up with 5. The Christmas element doesn't really come into until about 3/4 of the way through. This isn't a criticism as to the book itself, as it was clearly my fault. And so that was some self-caused disappointment, rather than disappointment in the book itself.

Okay, so my favourite character was Augustus. Which, considering it says in the synopsis that it is his death that kicks off the rest of this novel, it's fair to say, he's hardly in the book, but I still loved him just from the little bit we did see and how everyone else talks about him. There was something so enigmatic and charming about him that I felt I knew him very well.

Then we have the three sisters: Maggie, Simone, and Star.

I found the three sisters' conflicting storylines a bit confusing at first. They're all very different characters and I was struggling to figure out who was who and how they all linked together. But it didn't decease my enjoyment of it at all, I just had to get my head on straight. Having said that, the three separate sisters mean that we get to see three different characters, and we can find the bits we like and dislike about each. It keeps it interesting.

I admit I couldn't stand Simone at first. I felt she was so...hoity toity (not sure if that's a real phrase but here we go), and prim and felt she was above everyone else, but still acted like a petulant child. I won't give it away by saying whether that changes, but let's just say she didn't end up wholly as bad as I initially thought, but she is still probably my least favourite of the three. Maggie is the in-between sister. Not necessarily by age, but she's the middle man, trying desperately to smooth the cracks between Simone and Star, who are constantly at each other's throats (for reasons I will not spoil). And then we get to Star, who was my favourite of the three. She's been through some difficult stuff, and not all of it was her fault. Se's been handed aa rough deal but she is still positive and she just wants to see the best in everyone and everything. She's a bit alternative as it were, but she just shone on the page.

There's a lot of secondary characters, some with more page time than others, such as professionals, neighbours, relatives, strangers, and they're all fabulous in their own way, but for me, they exist only to help the three sisters shine. They hold the fort and they hold every page.

Whilst relationships are not a huge element of the main story, I would still dray it's a love story. But it's a love story amongst sisters and among families, those we have and those we've lost.

It covers some very difficult topics: death, grief, loss, loneliness, relationship problems, possible domestic abuse, controlling behaviour, pregnancy, fertility, housing difficulties....but it doesn't feel over the top or unrealistic. It felt very human and very relatable, which in turn made the characters relatable.

I love a good antique shop. I used to go quite regularly, rooting through all the tat, hoping you'll find that golden item. And so the idea of this huge antiques shop, filled top to bottom with historical and vintage curiosities, it was lovely. It leapt off the page, this dusty and beautiful location, that it just strengthened that love I had for them in the first place.

I know I said right at the beginning that I assumed it was a Christmas book, whereas it's more of a wintery book; having said that, I do wish the festive period had come a bit sooner. I know we are watching these three sisters live their lives and do what hey have to do, and it's great, building up this story and these relationships, but I just wanted a bit more, just a smidge more, a bit earlier. But that is a personal view, as some may prefer a slow festive burn and that's fine too.

I also love good epilogue. I wish more books had them. I'm not always ready to leave the world they've created.

But regardless of any misgivings I might have had, you can always rely on Jenny Bayliss for complicated characters, complex emotions, and a general feeling of hope amongst the concern. I would definitely recommend it as a multi-layered, deep, but hopeful story that actually could be read at any time of the year. It is very cold and cosy and warming, like a thick blanket wrapped around you and it just gets cosier and cosier as you read it.

3.25/5 stars! I liked the premise of the story, but it felt a little to heavy on the women's lit angle and a little light on the romance for my tastes. The sister's were strong and spunky but they didn't feel super individual to me. I did find it to be a sweet read and it ready pretty quickly for a book over 400 pages.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is a lovely heartwarming story that is focused around family and life.. I really enjoyed it, lots of tears

Three sisters, there mother's. They came to stay with their dad for a month every summer.. They grow up and apart. Can they work together to carry out their dads final wishes? Old resentments, old roles are comfortable but can they reconnect?
Sibling rivalry and loyalty at it's best.
Enjoy Maggie, Star and Simone story as they unite against common enemies.