Another Christmas story … when Bea falls ill and requires a visit to a London hospital, Rachel does the only thing she can do and asks her old school friend Laurie if they can trade their Yorkshire cottage for her Brixton apartment. With the way things have gone lately in the office, the fashion city lover Laurie manages to talk herself around to the idea of a break and jumps on the train to Skipley.
Apart from the time of year and the reference to a Christmas cookbook, it didn’t feel very Christmassy. The overall concept of this book was about Rachel and Laurie discovering themselves again – Rachel loosened up and Laurie rediscovered her passion for fashion.
The plot was reasonably entertaining and had enough curve balls that you couldn’t guess what the final outcome would be. The ongoing relationship between Rachel’s daughter, Milly and her ‘pen friend’ from back home added a different dimension to the story – it provided a new writing style (email chatter), an insight into the mind of a moody teenager and the mystery of who her ‘pen friend’ was… the eventual outcome was a surprise to me!
I enjoyed the acts of kindness that were in abundance throughout this book from redecorating Lily’s flat to baking Bea’s treats to creating some bespoke pieces for the charity auction…. it made me smile to read all these lovely moments and reminded me how sweet and thoughtful people can be… when they have the time!
I didn’t dislike this book but I didn’t particularly rate it either. Has anyone else read anything by Abby Clements – I’m wondering if her non Christmas books are any good?
Until next time, Chloé x
Reviews by Chloé 