This was a stunning christmas read filled with magic and romance. It makes you feel cosy and warm inside and the characters are a delight to follow.

Brilliant Christmas read
A book to get lost in and get you all Christmassy
The past and the present mixed together so good
Thanks NetGalley

What a surprise! I wasn’t expecting that! This book is filled with magic! Usually I am not super fan of stories with magic elements but here it works really well ! Especially as it happens around Christmas time! Christmas is a magical time after all! And if you love historical books you will like this one as we go back to the past several times during the story. There is also a lovely romance building in this book! So many nice aspects to this read! 4 stars out of 5 for me!!

A sweet and cosy romance perfect for the christmas season

Settle down with and nice warm drink and be prepared to full in love

Elle is sitting on a bench contemplating her life when she sees an advert for a live-in writer. She's unemployed and homeless, so she goes for the job.
Estelle and Angela take Elle and Ben through the magical tales of Christmas House. Not everything is quite as it seems.

I loved this. There were a few magical elements I guessed (or rather hoped for) but the stories are engrossing and magical. I got a bit behind on my reading - I read this in February, I wish I'd read it 'on time' in December for an extra dose of Christmas magic.

I'll be looking out for more books by Ali McNamara now.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced ebook copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a magical, heart-warming read.

The perfect book for snuggling up with at Christmas - I loved it

Absolutely captivating, magical story. I adored reading this book. There’s upset and pain but also the most uplifting sense of love and romance all shrouded in mystery. Absolute escapism. Fabulous read! I highly recommend any time of the year!

Thank you Netgalley

A truly magical read in every sense of the word.
When Elle and Ben end up staying with mysterious Estelle and Angela, their world is turned upside down.
Estelle hires Elle to write her stories of Christmas House on Mistletoe Square, but Elle (and Ben after the first story) are transported to times gone by.
I loved this story, with it's other stories intertwined, and found it an emotional read.
A lovely story of the past, the present, love, heartache and joy, I struggled to put it down.

Oh wow It Always Snows on Mistletoe Square by Ali McNamara was just perfect. Devoured in one sitting I could not put this book down. The stories throughout the book take you back to earlier times and I just loved reading of how the house was during the different time periods.Estelle and Angela who are magical, bring this story to life, but I was sad to reach the end of this book as I could have continued reading it, I loved it. This book will stay in my memory for a very long time.

Elle has lost her job, her home, her man and really doesn’t want to go back home to her parents. When a chance encounter with a mysterious man and a newspaper advert leads her to Mistletoe Square with the promise of a job and home, it seems too good to be true.

It is for Elle as she also has to be a fan of Christmas too. Something she clearly isn’t,. Desperate times, call for desperate measures and she gets the job and finds herself in the company of Estelle and Angela. Whilst it is not too good to be true, it is a magical place and we are transported along with Elle, back through the house and Mistletoe Square’s history.

In that time, we learn about all of the residents, and how now in the present it is all coming together for the future. This novel, was something of a cross between A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life and is a book to transport you away and one I think I could read again and again, every Christmas for it’s magic.

Perfect Christmas reading! Ali McNamara’s books keep getting better and better.

Sadly, I didn’t get around to reading as many Christmas books as I would have liked for 2023 but of the few I did read, It Always Snows on Mistletoe Square was definitely a stand out. Technically, it still is Christmas as here in Ireland Little Christmas or Women’s Christmas takes place on the 6th January so at the time of writing this review you could still read this fabulous, magical and very special book. But to be honest I have been known to read Christmas books in the summer as they are really quite addictive. The cover for this book is simply beautiful and very inviting and right from the start I was drawn into the story.

I fell back in love with Ali McNamara’s writing last summer, having not read anything by her in a number of years, when she published Cornish Clouds and Silver Lining Skies. I realise now that there is always an element of magical realism in her books and to be honest I usually find this too far fetched and over the top as I like having something solid that can be explained to be present in a book. But here and with the previous book, the author makes it work and despite that niggling feeling of wanting a definitive answer even towards the end regarding one aspect of the overall storyline, it really only was a niggle and I loved every minute of the time that I spent with Elle, Ben, Estelle and Angela.

There was a brief prologue where we are introduced to children’s author Elle who has a little quizzical moment occurring in London in December 2023. Yes the opening was slightly strange but I have come to expect the unexpected from the author but very much in a good way. We are then taken back to December 2018 and Elle describes herself as being in a miserable quagmire of her life after having a run of bad luck. She is in a pit of despair with problems enshrouding her. She has lost her job, home, best friend and fiancée. I mean could it get any worse for her?

Elle is sitting on a bench staring out at the Thames and trying to figure out her next move. She is in a deep and dark place when a stranger sits next to her and she somehow starts to share her story. The man says these wise words ‘If you have the courage to trust and follow your own path, Elle, instead of fighting it, you’ll never be truly lost in life’. With this said he disappears leaving a newspaper behind him in which Elle discovers a job highlighted. It sounds like the ideal job for her considering her current circumstances.

An experienced writer is wanted to write the story and history of a house. Accommodation will be provided and above all else the successful candidate must like Christmas. Elle arrives at Mistletoe Square and it’s like stepping back in time. It’s as if all around it London has moved on into the present but Christmas House and the Square have retained the charm and magic that they have had since they were first built. Estelle, along with her dog Alvie, lives in Christmas house and it has been in her family for over 250 years. Her housekeeper Angela is more like a sister to her than a servant.

Estelle doesn’t want her family’s history to disappear. The stories need to be written down and this is where Elle comes in and from this point on Elle forgets about her own worries as she becomes completely caught up in the numerous stories that Estelle shares. It was almost as if Estelle knew that Elle was at the end of her tether and things could really have gone either way for her and that this opportunity would transform her life in so many ways. Amidst the light and laughter there were some dark moments but they all perfectly balanced each other. Ben has recently moved into Holly House next door and he too has suffered with relationship troubles. Before long, he is drawn into the stories that begin to unfold.

Elle sets about her task of writing the history of the house and she learns lots of information through Estelle sharing the stories. The stories are told in a flashback format and I loved the historical element that began to come into the story alongside the fantasy/magical aspect. There are too many stories to go into but each details a family in the house and there are a lot of characters to keep track of and you are constantly asking yourself could there be a connection between them all or even to the present day? The manner in which Estelle begins the stories and the strange events that occur well it is rather unbelievable but I’ve learned to just go with the flow when it comes to the authors writing as I knew it would all eventually make sense and have a reasonable explanation which for the most part it does. There is a method behind Estelle’s madness and I found her to be a very clever and intuitive character. She is showing Elle how one little moment can change a life. The only one constant throughout the story is the Christmas tree. It makes its appearance every year despite the changes the residents have gone through.

I have been intentionally vague throughout this review for to detail each story would be too much and it would give too much away. I’ll admit there was a point where I was questioning where was everything going or would things just turn into a big anti climax? I needn’t have worried at all as I was in capable hands and when things started becoming clearer I quickly came to realise how clever the author had been and how brilliantly plotted the entire book was with such a special message and themes being explored. Elle soon comes to understand that ‘Family is everything, whether that’s the family you’re born into, or the family you chose to live with, and we need to appreciate it while we can. Especially at Christmas’. That’s what Elle is missing in her life and I sincerely hoped that Elle, Angela and Ben might offer what had been missing from her life.

It Always Snows on Mistletoe Square was a unique, special and memorable read that I devoured in short order. When I wasn’t able to read it due to work and life commitments I found myself itching to get back to it to discover what would happen next and what stories would be revealed. The characters and their messages will live long in your mind once you have read the final page and you will be reluctant to leave the but the ending is deeply satisfactory. Ali McNamara is now firmly back on my reading radar and I hope she is hard at work on a summer book for this year if not another Christmas book would be brilliant.

having read books by the author before i was looking forward to this and have saved it for christmas! i was not disappointed a fantastic festive read to lose yourself in

A truly magical Christmas book. Ali really knows how to make her readers fall in love with a book.
I loved how she brought well known people into the story as well.
Estelle and Angela were fabulous characters and made the magic of their stories all so real.
Loved it one of my favourite Christmas reads this year.
Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this lovely magical Christmas book.

Couldn’t get to grips with this tale at all. It had all the promises of a great Christmassy read, but I got too confused with the flitting between decades, so sadly didn’t finish it.

If I had known what this was about I probably would have given it a miss. I'm so glad I didn't because it was a perfect, magical Christmas read with engaging characters.

A magical festive treat from a brilliant writer. She really makes you feel like there is magic everywhere.

Just when Elle was down on her luck she sees at advert for mistletoe square and this is where the magic truly began.


A heart warming book to get you in the mood for Christmas - just lovely

This was an enjoyable read full of the magic of Christmas. I liked the characters and the magical realism / slightly mysterious elements and the festive setting. I struggled a bit with the relationship between Elle and Ben as I am not a fan of instalove and this was very much that trope! But overall, a lovely christmassy read, full of heart and soul and very wholesome.

Thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown book group UK for this E-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of those books that’s a little silly, fun, and enjoyable, but more so if it hadn’t gone on for so long. Certain elements that came into play, especially towards the end, were a touch forced, maybe a bit too sickly sweet for me as they kind of gave me a case of the eye rolls and groans.

After a cute prologue, we meet Elle when she’s in a dark place, feeling a bit lost and sorry for herself in the run-up to Christmas. After her boyfriend has cheated on her with her best friend and boss, she’s homeless, single, and jobless. But an advert for a writer, offering bed and board to write the house and family’s history, seems like the perfect solution. There’s just one condition: the applicant must love Christmas, and Elle does not love Christmas.

Elle heads off to Mistletoe Square, where she meets Ben, who by coincidence has just moved in next door. In Christmas House, she meets Estelle and Angela, who are all too happy to share their home’s past with Elle.

I admit, considering it was part of the blurb, Elle’s not loving Christmas didn’t actually seem to impact whether or not she could do the job. It just felt a bit odd to put an emphasis on that particular thing when it doesn’t come into play in relation to the job itself. Okay, Elle isn’t the biggest fan of Christmas, but I’ve seen grumpy-doesn’t-like-Christmas characters enough now to see this is one of the weakest iterations. Ben, for pretty much similar reasons to Elle, also dislike Christmas. Admittedly, I prefer a sunshine/grumpy Christmas pairing, as I love seeing one character learn to love the season through another’s eyes.

The book, however, starts off fairly strong, if a couple of missteps – bit of a spoiler here, but admit I’m not a fan of “my partner left for another (same gender)”, especially when it feels like it’s being used for a bit of ‘shock’ value. We also keep getting told about how bad her relationship was, but we don’t see anything that leans towards that. Not to say it couldn’t have been bad, but paired with the reason for breaking up, it just seemed tagged on – though maybe the whole thing would have had more of an emotional punch if, from Elle’s perspective, the relationship had seemed good and solid?

After the first couple of ‘stories’ Elle hears from Estelle, however, the book hit a pattern. Around the middle it really felt like it was dragging, and I wasn’t invested enough in the relationship between Ben and Elle to make that side of things interesting. In every generation Estelle talks about, there’s at least one character is shown to be a bad partner or parent, maybe selfish or self-absorbed, yet from all this, Elle and Ben seem to walk away with the wrong message – family is everything, and Christmas isn’t Christmas unless you spend it with blood family! I guess I’m more of a found family type person, and the ‘blood family’ message at the core of this was kind of…not great. I think the ending came across as a bit convoluted, too, and it made the story itself drag out quite a bit.

This book was a sweet, fun enough read, but it quickly got repetitive and it’s not as strong as some other Christmas books out there. I might try the author’s other work, but right now I don’t think I’d be in a great rush to do so. I get that coincidences and nudges from mysterious white-bearded men and ‘otherworldly beings’ are a staple in Christmas fiction, but this one just felt a bit like it was trying too hard.

Thank you to Sphere for providing me a copy of this book via NetGalley – views remain my own.

Oh, this book! It's absolutely perfect. It's everything I want in a festive read and so much more!

There's magic, mystery, intrigue, family, romance, and so much Christmas cheer. The way the stories are woven together and the beautifully descriptive scenery brought this story to life. It truly felt like I was right there in Mistletoe Square. The whole book just came alive as I read. That's the magic of an Ali McNamara book!

Don't even get me started on the characters! I absolutely fell in love with them all. This is truly one of the most magical, wonderful books I have ever read.

A bit of an odd read if I’m honest. A bit predictable, a bit fairy story, a bit meh. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. Just unremarkable.