Find Love this Christmas

I’m so excited to help kick off the Deck the Shelves Christmas book tour, and to be a part of the Christmas Extravaganza! This was the perfect book to kick off my holiday reading.

About the Book

Harriet is facing her second Christmas on her own since her husband walked out. With little child support, she’s struggling to manage financially, not helped when daughter Sara is invited to a posh birthday party and needs a new outfit.

When Owen, a passionate environmentalist and popular blogger, overhears Harriet bemoaning her situation, he challenges her to only buy second-hand until Christmas, and Harriet accepts. What she doesn’t know is that Owen is reporting her journey anonymously to all his followers…

Though the challenge is proving successful, it’s not without its troubles. Can Harriet really keep her children and bank balance happy this way? As Owen’s feelings toward Harriet deepen, he begins to panic about the blog – how will she react when she finds her life documented online?

Foxmore’s inaugural Christmas fayre is fast approaching and will either be the toast of the town – or the downfall of their relationship.

A festive romance with buckets of heart, for fans of Holly Martin, Jessica Redland, and Sue Moorcroft.

My Thoughts

This has been the year of thrillers for me. And I’m sure I still have a few left in me. But I’m excited to kick off some holiday reading. And this was a fantastic one to start the season with if you’re looking for a recommendation! It starts in September and runs the gamut of the holidays – Halloween to Christmas. Of course, it’s not Thanksgiving because it’s set in the UK. I haven’t done a lot of Christmas reading. And most Christmas movies I’ve seen are set in the US, so that was a bit odd. No Thanksgiving. But obviously, we know that it doesn’t exist in the UK. Just like most people in the US don’t celebrate Bonfire Night.

The quirky, delightful cast of characters is everything you want from a holiday, small-town romance setting. The charming, struggling single mom with the good, but equally struggling kids. The handsome, mysterious stranger with a secret. A firecracker lady boss who’s like family and goes well out of their way to support the main character. A bet with so many opportunities to go wrong. So many lovely holiday story tropes. And we holiday, feel-good romance readers are here for it! We like what we like, and we’re going to start our holidays at midnight the day after Halloween if we want to, dagnabit!

The writing was cozy and supported the storyline. It carried me along, rushing toward the end. The need to see the main characters together urgently kept me turning pages. Is there any doubt in these books that there will be a happy ending? No. But somehow, we’re desperate to know! It’s about the candy cane-coated journey, not the destination. I really enjoyed the eco-twist in this particular story. I haven’t read any eco-themed romances, and I really enjoyed all the focus on environmentalism. You don’t see a whole lot of social commentary in romance books, but this offered some without hitting you over the head with it in a preachy way. The characters were learning and experiencing, but that lets you do it along with them. I think the author has a writing style – romance – and a mission – saving the planet – and has married them together well. As a fellow writer, I applaud the beautiful combination. I also agree with the messaging, even if I probably would have failed the challenge after like a day. It has, however, made me consider a little harder whether I need my purchases. So even that is better.

The author seems to have a huge backlog of books, even one in this series about the shop in town. I’ll have to take a look at some of her other works. I am so grateful to her and Love Books Tours for including me on this tour.

Who’s It For

If you keep your TV tuned to Hallmark or one of the other 24-hour Christmas movie stations throughout the holiday season, you’ll love this book. It has all the small-town, feel-good charm of one of those low-intensity holiday romances. And sometimes, it is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Content Warning: Adult Situations, Adult Language, Parental Abandonment, Divorce, Bullying, Poverty, Pregnancy Talk, and More.

Question of the Day

Do you read holiday books? When do you start?

About the Author

Lilac lives on a Welsh hillside with her very patient husband and incredibly sweet dog, where she grows veggies (if the slugs don’t get them), bakes (badly), and loves making things out of glitter and glue (a mess, usually).

She’s been an avid reader ever since she got her hands on a copy of Noddy Goes to Toytown when she was five, and she once tried to read everything in her local library starting with A and working her way through the alphabet.

She loves long, hot summer days in the garden, and cold winter ones snuggled in front of the fire, but whatever the weather she’s usually writing, or thinking about writing, with heartwarming romance and happy-ever-afters always on her mind.

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