Well, I did promise, didn’t I – Christmas all the way now? Last week I shared the twelve books I’m hoping to have time to read and review before the big day – you’ll find the post here – and I’m delighted to report that things are going really well. Well, reading-wise anyway – I’ve read six read so far (and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every one!), but I’ve been finding it ridiculously difficult to find the oomph (and time…) I need to write the reviews amid all the other pre-Christmas activity! But I have two clear days in my diary, so it’s catch-up time…
First one, and I’m really delighted to share my review of The Gingerbread House in Mistletoe Gardens by the wonderful Jaimie Admans – published by Boldwood Books on 12th September (one of those rare blog tours I just couldn’t fit into my diary!), now available for kindle (just 99p, or free via Prime Reading), in paperback and as an audiobook. My thanks to the publishers for my reading e-copy, provided via netgalley, with apologies that it’s taken me rather longer than usual to share my thoughts.
Unbelievably, I’d never read any of Jaimie’s books until I picked up The Beekeeper at Elderflower Grove last year – a wonderful romance with the perfect emotional touch, the loveliest humour, one of those books that got everything absolutely right, the most perfect summer read, and one of my 2022 Books of the Year (you can read my review again here). I was thrilled to hear she’d signed with one of my favourite publishers, and her first book with them, A Midnight Kiss on Ever After Street, a fairytale romance that might just have been even better – by the end, I’d laughed and cried, desperately hoped for a happy ever after, and remembered why I love reading romance so very much (you’ll find my full review here – and I’m really looking forward to the next book in the Ever After series, out in January!). I was heartbroken that I just couldn’t read this book – a standalone – when it was published, however much I wanted to, but I’ll admit it was always going to be the first read from my Christmas list…
The perfect cosy and uplifting romance to curl up with this winter!
In Mistletoe Gardens a legend exists: anyone who kisses underneath the mistletoe will be guaranteed another year of love…
When local baker Essie Browne discovers that Mistletoe Gardens is to be demolished in January, she’s determined to save the place she loves so much. So Essie proposes building a life size gingerbread house to bring in the crowds… just how hard can it be?
Well, quite hard actually. Essie can bake gingerbread blindfolded, but she hasn’t got a clue how to build an actual house with it! She needs help – and fast!
Enter local builder, Joss Hallissey. Essie is convinced that with Joss’s help they can pull this off. There’s just one tiny problem: Joss hates Christmas, gingerbread, and… well, just about everything else too.
Joss the Grinch makes it clear that her idea is ludicrous and pointless, but he reluctantly agrees to help with her plan.
Will the gingerbread house be enough to save Mistletoe Gardens? Or will Essie’s chance for a magical kiss under the mistletoe be lost forever?
Perfect for fans of Holly Martin, Kat French and Caroline Roberts!
The legend of Mistletoe Gardens – the guarantee of another year of love if you kiss under the mistletoe – just might not be enough to save it from being flattened and turned into a housing development. The residents of Folkhorton have rather forgotten its magic – but not Essie, and if this Christmas will be its last she’s determined to make it a special one. As a baker, she wants to build a life sized gingerbread house on its bandstand – but has no idea where to start. Until she enlists the help of local builder Joss – reluctant at first (in fact, downright hostile), distinctly lacking in excitement about anything Christmassy (but Essie has enough of that for both of them), coming up with a plan to put up a framework and build it brick by brick, and slowly discovering the magic of the season for himself.
The relationship between the two of them – a tentative friendship at first, that slowly becomes something rather more – is just wonderfully drawn and developed, and filled with the chemistry that the author always does so very well. Despite her sunshine smile and endless enthusiasm, Essie’s confidence has been knocked by her previous life experiences – her mother’s controlling behaviour doesn’t help much either – and romance is the last thing she’s looking for. And Joss has his own very good reasons for his Grinch-like approach to Christmas – a few secrets gradually shared, but not the one big one that makes Essie wonder why she ever began to open her heart again.
The supporting cast is just fantastic – a whole community, all with their own stories, from the seller of magic potions with her enigmatic pronouncements, to the shopkeeper who dresses as a dinosaur (a touching story all of its own), the local councillor who’s so determined the development will go ahead (but a little side-tracked by his attraction to Essie’s mum), and a large number of other well-drawn characters who offer support in their many different ways. And then there’s the baking – each chapter is prefaced with facts about the history of gingerbread, and the whole book is beautifully infused with the glorious aroma of Christmas spices.
Emotionally, the book is simply perfect – the romance everything I wanted it to be, and there were plenty of moments that made me quite tearful when it looked like all Essie’s efforts were to be in vain. But the humour is always there – dialogue that fizzes and sparkles, moments of the ridiculous to make you smile, and the odd moment that really made me laugh out loud. And the Christmas touches are quite wonderful, especially that night when… but no, you’ll need to read it yourself, and discover the joy of it in the same way I did.
Heartwarming and thoroughly gorgeous in every way, with characters I entirely took to my heart – this is a book everyone needs to have on their Christmas reading list. I totally loved it…
About the author
Jaimie Admans is a 37-year-old English-sounding Welsh girl with an awkward-to-spell name. She lives in South Wales and enjoys writing, gardening, watching Hallmark movies, and drinking tea, although she’s seriously considering marrying her coffee machine. She hates spiders, hot weather, and cheese & onion crisps. She writes quirky and uplifting romantic comedies and loves nothing more than escaping into a good book, whether by reading them or writing them!
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