Just for you, two festive holiday book reviews: A Cornish Christmas at the Farmhouse Bakery and Bright Lights, Big Christmas

341 pages Aria publisher October 12, 2023 publish date

ABOUT THE BOOK

Newlyweds Ivy and Adam Taylor have put their heart and soul into building their own businesses, but when circumstances conspire against them, it all comes crashing down. Could a Christmas miracle be just around the corner when best friend Jess suggests Ivy open the bakery she has always dreamed of at her Cornish Farmhouse.

Ivy is not so sure she has the heart to start over and winter is hardly the best time to launch a new business near the seaside… but it’s not long before the couple realise that although they are starting from scratch in a new place, they are far from alone.

There is nothing the community at Renweneth Farm does better than Christmas, and as the nights draw in and the snow falls, nothing is impossible…

MY THOUGHTS

Book 2 of The Escape to Cornwall series.
When I’m ready for a great relaxation read with snow and wind blowing outside, I turn to books like this. Set in Cornwall this one was hard to put down.

I enjoyed reading Adam and Ivy’s story. He is so sweet and supportive of her and all her endeavors going forward. Making the hard decision to relocate because of personal and business decisions we follow along with the couple as they experience ups and downs. Hard work pays off though in the end. Warm, feel-good read with holiday festivity.

Pub Date 12 Oct 2023
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

THE AUTHOR

Linn B. Halton is a #1 bestselling author of contemporary romantic fiction. In 2013 she won the UK Festival of Romance: Innovation in Romantic Fiction Award. Originally from Bristol, she now lives in the Welsh Valleys with her husband and Bengal cat, Ziggy.

For Linn, life is all about family, friends and writing. She is a self-confessed hopeless romantic and an eternal optimist. When Linn is not writing, she spends time in the garden weeding or practising Tai Chi. And she is often found with a paintbrush in her hand indulging her passion for upcycling furniture.

Her novels have been translated into Italian, Czech and Croatian. She also writes as Lucy Coleman.

Linn is represented by Sara Keane from the Keane Kataria Literary Agency.

Visit Linn & Lucy’s websites at:

Home

https://lucycolemanromance.com

285 pages St. Martins Press publisher September 26,2023 publish date

ABOUT THE BOOK

When fall rolls around, it’s time for Kerry Tolliver to leave her family’s Christmas tree farm in the mountains of North Carolina for the wilds of New York City to help her gruff older brother & his dog, Queenie, sell the trees at the family stand on a corner in Greenwich Village. Sharing a tiny vintage camper and experiencing Manhattan for the first time, Kerry’s ready to try to carve out a new corner for herself.

In the weeks leading into Christmas, Kerry quickly becomes close with the charming neighbors who live near their stand. When an elderly neighbor goes missing, Kerry will need to combine her country know-how with her newly acquired New York knowledge to protect the new friends she’s come to think of as family,

And complicating everything is Patrick, a single dad raising his adorable, dragon-loving son Austin on this quirky block. Kerry and Patrick’s chemistry is undeniable, but what chance does this holiday romance really have?

Filled with family ties, both rekindled and new, and sparkling with Christmas magic, BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CHRISTMAS delivers everything Mary Kay Andrews fans adore, all tied up in a hilarious, romantic gem of a novel.

MY THOUGHTS

The Tolliver’s are Christmas tree farmers living in North Carolina. Every year they cart their trees to New York and make a nice profit. This year their dad is sick and can’t go, siblings Kerry and Murphy are tasked to do it this year.

Traveling in “Spammy”, an old vintage camper they set up the family stand on a corner in Greenwich Village. While there they meet the neighborhood, quite the eclectic group of people. The neighbors are charming and enjoy the fast-paced Manhattan lifestyle.

I enjoyed meeting single dad, Patrick, and his son, Austin. A slow burn romance starts but will anything come of it in the short time they are at the tree lot?

Heartwarming, MKA does it again, writing a hard to put down book tugging at your heartstrings. Old man Heinz was my favorite character and I enjoyed seeing the character development. He is hiding a secret but it’s wonderful seeing how he opens up to Kerry as he comes to trust her and lets her care for him. A little bit of Christmas magic comes alive in this book.

Pub Date 26 Sep 2023
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

THE AUTHOR

MARY KAY ANDREWS is the New York Times bestselling author of 27 novels (including Hello, Summer; Sunset Beach; The High Tide Club; The Weekenders; Beach Town; Save the Date; Christmas Bliss; Ladies’ Night; Spring Fever; and Summer Rental, all from St. Martin’s Press, as well as Savannah Breeze; Blue Christmas; Hissy Fit; Little Bitty Lies; and Savannah Blues, all Harper Collins), and one cookbook, The Beach House Cookbook.

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, she earned a B.A. in journalism from The University of Georgia (go Dawgs!). After a 14-year career working as a reporter at newspapers including The Savannah Morning News, The Marietta Journal, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she spent the final ten years of her career, she left journalism in 1991 to write fiction.

Her first novel, Every Crooked Nanny, was published in 1992 by HarperCollins. She went on to write ten critically acclaimed mysteries, including the Callahan Garrity mystery series, under her real name, Kathy Hogan Trocheck. In 2002, she assumed the pen name Mary Kay Andrews with the publication of Savannah Blues. In 2006, Hissy Fit became her first New York Times bestseller, followed by twelve more New York Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestsellers. To date, her novels have been published in German, Italian, Polish, Slovenian, Hungarian, Dutch, Czech and Japanese.

She and her family divide their time between Atlanta and Tybee Island, GA, where they cook up new recipes in two restored beach homes, The Breeze Inn and Ebbtide—both named after fictional places in Mary Kay’s novels, and both available to rent through Tybee Vacation Rentals. In between cooking, spoiling her grandkids, and plotting her next novel, Mary Kay is an intrepid treasure hunter whose favorite pastime is junking and fixing up old houses.

Enjoy your day. Thanks for stopping in.