Skip to main content

Featured

Maddy's Christmas Wedding by Rosie Green #LittleDuckPondCafeBook37#review

  Here we are at Book 37 in the Little Duck Pond Cafe series! Maddie's Christmas Wedding is the latest novella by Rosie Green.   With the wedding of the year approaching, excitement is running high at the café! But there's just one problem. Maddy is grappling with a secret. Could it derail all of hers and Jack's glorious plans for their big day? Will there actually be a wedding?   My Thoughts In this latest festive story, we are taken out of Sunnybrook, in fact, out of the country and taken for a wintry stay in Lapland. It is Maddy's hen party gathering so some of the Little Duck Pond characters are along too. The story continues on from the earlier Cosy Nights and Snowball Fights . The setting is idyllic and so different to life at home. Everything shimmers and shines in the snow and the temperatures are extreme. Maddy should be having the time of her life but she finds that she has a lot on her mind and a heartbreaking decision to make.     With the men le...
Post a Comment
Read more
Labels

Christmas Island by Natalie Normann #Review

 

Here is one of those ultimate Christmas reads! Christmas Island by Natalie Normann is published by One More Chapter.


Cosy up in front of a fire and discover Christmas the Norwegian way…full of romance, cosy traditions and hygge!

In the bleak midwinter…

A really frosty wind is making Holly’s life absolutely miserable

After all the years of hard work it took Londoner Holly Greene to become a doctor, now it could all be taken away and she only has herself to blame. She’s retreating to her brother’s rustic home on an island off the coast of Norway to lick her wounds. Only, it’s the middle of winter and icy slush plus endless darkness isn’t exactly the cheery, festive getaway she had imagined.

Nearly stumbling off the edge of a cliff in the dark, Holly is saved by Frøy, a yellow-eyed cat of fearsome but fluffy proportions, and his owner – grouchy, bearded recluse, Tor. Tor has his own problems to face but the inexplicable desire to leave a bag of freshly baked gingerbread men on Holly’s doorstep is seriously getting in the way of his hermit routine.

Call it kindness, call it Christmas, but Holly’s arrival means midwinter has never looked less bleak.

My Thoughts

 This story is crammed full of Nordic traditions. It is full of the atmosphere of dark Christmas nights (and I mean dark!), seasonal food, good company and old traditions. Set in the middle of all this are the two central characters, Holly and Tor. They both have their own reasons for wanting to escape to the Norwegian island. You can't help but like Holly. Family means a lot to her and her determination to help her brother shines through. Tor seems more complicated. You see glimpses of a softer side when he skypes his old friends and through his care of the redoubtable Froy. 

    The descriptions of the island are vividly written and you can visualise the community. Set off the mainland, it seems to offer warmth through the efforts of its inhabitants. This is a gentle, comforting read which charms the reader and leaves you rooting for Holly and Tor.

In short: Escape into a Nordic Christmas

 

About the Author


Natalie Normann grew up in a shipping town on the west-coast of Norway and always wanted to be a writer. Actually, she wanted to smoke cigars and drink whiskey like Hemingway but settled for chocolate and the occasional glass of Baileys.

Her writing journey started with short stories in women’s magazines until her first book was published in 1995.

You can follow Natalie here:  Twitter  |  Facebook

Book link:  Amazon UK

Thankjs to Natalie Normann, One More Chapter and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for a copy f the book and a place on the tour.  

 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment