Calling Mrs Christmas

Calling Mrs Christmas by Carole Matthews

Paperback, 452 pages

Published 24th October 2013 by Sphere

Shelves: adult-fiction, arc-or-review, better-than-expected, books-i-own, chick-lit, christmas-books, mums-books, read-in-2013, really-good

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Cassie Smith has been out of work for a while but she has an idea. Drawing on her love of Christmas, she begins charging for small things: wrapping presents; writing cards; tree-decorating. She's soon in huge demand and Cassie's business, Calling Mrs Christmas, is born.

Carter Randall wants to make Christmas special for his children so he enlists Cassie's help, and his lavish requests start taking up all her time. Thank goodness she can rely on her partner Jim to handle the rest of her clients.

When Carter asks Cassie to join them on a trip to Lapland, she knows she shouldn't go. As much as tries, Cassie can't deny how drawn she is to Carter and everything he has to offer, but she still loves her warm-hearted Jim. Suddenly Cassie finds herself facing a heart-breaking choice that could change her entire life.

Without much doubt, Calling Mrs Christmas was the stand-out book of Winter 2013 for me. Previously, I hadn't read any books written by Carole Matthews, but after reading this one, I was absolutely desperate to read more! It may no longer be the festive period, but I still believe that it's still a good time to pick up Calling Mrs Christmas if you haven't already. With scenes in dark and dreary England and the almost magical Lapland, this is the perfect book to cosy up with.

I'm still somewhat finding my footing with chick-lit authors, but it within a few chapters of this book, I knew that Matthews would become a firm go-to author within this genre. She managed to put everything that I wanted into this book - spectacular settings, strong characters and both heart wrenching and humorous moments. This is one of those books that would be lovely to sit and spend an evening reading, it's such a page turner and the writing flows so easily. 

This book revolves around our protagonist, Cassie, who decides to start up her own business, Calling Mrs Christmas!, helping people to organise their festivities. Cassie lives in a flat with her long time partner, Jim, who works with young offenders at a prison. Cassie's business  quickly becomes successful and she is hired by a rich and very charming client, Carter, who wants her to plan the perfect Christmas trip for his two children. Cassie plans a trip to Lapland, and is happily surprised when asked to attend the trip with them. Jim is left at home, continuing his work at the prison and specially taking two young lads, Smudge and Rozza, under his wing, helping them to adjust to leaving prison. Jim and the two boys both help out and do some of Cassie's work whilst away.  During Cassie's trip to Lapland, she forms a strong bond with Carter's children and a complex relationship with Carter himself, leading her to question her relationship with Jim. 

I had real affection for Cassie and Jim, so you can easily guess who I was rooting for. Jim and Cassie's relationship seemed very sincere and I could feel their chemistry. Both characters were easy to connect with and seemed very real, down-to-earth. Though he wasn't the main character, Jim was definitely a star of the book in his own right - I was just as interested in him as I was in Cassie and his bond with the two young offenders was really heartwarming to read about. I loved seeing how the four interacted together, even through the most testing of times.

Carter was a charming man, but mostly I appreciated his contribution of the trip to Lapland which provided us with exploration, education, fun and majestic settings. We got to experience sledging with huskies, the Ice Hotel and the Northern Lights amongst other atmospheric activities. I can understand why Cassie was swayed by him, but real moral, the question of the book was materialism vs love. To me, it was obvious who would 'win', but the questions and quandaries that were explored during Cassie's break were well handled and actually did have me seriously considering both options.

Overall, I absolutely loved Calling Mrs Christmas, and after finishing it, I immediately picked up and started reading another book by Carole Matthews (review to be posted soon!) who is definitely a new favourite author. A perfect winter page-turner, and something that I would definitely recommend to anyone who likes chick lit, or anybody who just wants to relax and get lost with an easy to read story. 

The Inn at Rose Harbour

The Inn at Rose Harbor by Debbie Macomber

Paperback, 416 pages

Published 16th August 2012 by Arrow Publishing

My shelves: arc-or-review, books-i-own, chick-lit, death, mum-has, mums-books, read-in-2012, realistic-fiction, series-or-companions

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

The Rose Harbour Inn welcomes you to Cedar Cove…
From the minute she sees the Rose Harbour Inn, Jo Marie Barlow knows that this is the place that will help her find the peace she craves. And if the inn can comfort her, surely it can offer the same refuge to her first two guests.

Joshua Weaver has come home to care for his ailing stepfather. The two have never seen eye to eye, but a long-lost acquaintance proves to him that forgiveness is not out of reach and love can bloom in the unlikeliest places. 

Abby Kinkaid left Cedar Cover twenty years ago after a devastating accident. But as she reconnects with family and old friends, she realizes that she needs to let the past go if she is to embrace her future.

Buy this book:

The Book Depository / Amazon (US/INT) / Amazon UK

My thanks go to Arrow for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

Debbie Macomber is a very popular, well known author and she's even one of my mum's favourites. Due to her popularity, I knew that I had to give her writing a go. Upon a little bit of internet searching, I discovered that she was starting off a new series, so I thought that'd be the perfect place for me to start. I picked up The Inn at Rose Harbour and before long, I'd finished it.

From reading only this one book, I can understand why many people enjoy Debbie Macomber's writing. This was a very pleasant, easy to read book. Though the book was effortless to read, there were still a plentitude of characters and some rather serious issues addressed. It is clear that Cedar Cove is a place that is set firmly in the author's mind - it feels very real and as though everyone living there really does have a history. 

The Inn at Rose Harbour is a series set in Macomber's famous Cedar Cove and so it features a lot of characters from her previous Cedar Cove series. I thought that I may have a little problem as I haven't actually read any of her other books, but it wasn't any problem at all. I think that it would have been even better if I had read her other books - I think it'd be great to be able to revisit old, loved characters, but as a new reader of her stories, it was still a nice introduction. I think Macomber had a fantastic idea when she decided to write this new series. I love the idea of a book set in a B&B - it allows so much room for exploration of ideas, for exciting plots and for so many new characters, whilst still having some constants.

The main characters we were introduced to were all very strong and each were interesting in their own way. We were introduced to Jo Marie, the woman who impulsively bought the Inn after her husband died in Afghanistan, Josh Weaver who stays at the Inn whilst he visits his hostile stepfather who is dying and Abby who is still trying to gain forgiveness for the death of her best-friend in a car accident. As you can tell, these are all deep, emotive issues. Though we are following three different stories, it doesn't get confusing at all and all three storylines were well developed. At the start, I felt myself favouring Jo Marie's story but by the end, Josh's story was by far my favourite as I felt it was the most intense, effective part of the book. This is a romance book and the romance was decent, but it wasn't anything that I got excited over. The most interesting romance, for me, seems like it's still to come and will be further explored in the next books as we get to know more about Jo Marie.

I did have a couple of issues with this book and the main one was that it was so predictable. After reading around only 50 pages, it was quite obvious who was going to pair up with who and what was going to happen. There wasn't one point in this book where I was shocked or even slightly surprised. Of course, this isn't always a bad thing. Sometimes knowing where a book is going and waiting for a happy ending is nice. Personally, I prefer some twists and turns but as I've said, this was a lovely, easy read. I will look forward to reading more of Macomber's books in the future.