Review – Holly’s Christmas Kiss by Alison May

And just one final look at my Christmas reading! I wouldn’t normally write a full review of a novella – there’s rarely enough to write about – but Holly’s Christmas Kiss by Alison May really, really impressed me and I’d hate anyone to miss it and write it off as just another Christmas short read. 

Holly Jolly – who understandably prefers to use her middle name Michelle – has very good reasons to hate Christmas.  When her plans to take a holiday in the sun to escape all the festivities are thwarted, she’s taken under the wing of Sean Munro, and spends Christmas with him and his chaotic family. He loves Christmas – and has good reason to – and wants to share the magic with Michelle.  In 116 pages, this was an excellent story well told, with well-developed characters and bagsful of Christmas magic. Sean is fantastic – Michelle does everything in her power to put him off, but he’s genuinely one of the good guys and most definitely one of my most loved Christmas heroes. 

Published by Choc Lit, one of my very favourite publishers, this was an excellent read – and as it’s still available at 77p for Kindle, I’d highly recommend you snap it up ready for next year.  I loved Alison May’s writing style – and have already downloaded her full-length novel, Much Ado About Sweet Nothing, available for Kindle at just 99p at time of writing (but only for the next couple of days).

Alison May was born and raised in North Yorkshire, but now lives in Worcester with one husband, no kids and no pets. There were goldfish once. That ended badly.  Alison has studied History and Creative Writing, and has worked as a waitress, a shop assistant, a learning adviser, an advice centre manager, and a freelance trainer, before settling on ‘making up stories’ as an entirely acceptable grown-up career plan.  Alison is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, and won the Elizabeth Goudge Trophy in 2012.  She writes contemporary romantic comedies, and short stories.  I particularly love her blog, and she also has an excellent website.