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Winter Magic at Hollybrae Castle by Jaimie Admans #Review

  Winter Magic at Hollybrae Castle by Jaimie Admans was published by Boldwood Books on September 9th. A Scottish castle, a fake marriage… and one very real Christmas romance?   After a window display goes disastrously viral – thanks to a malfunctioning animatronic Santa and an unfortunate encounter with Paddington Bear – Lula Haines finds herself without a job just weeks before Christmas. So she jumps at the chance to decorate Hollybrae Castle in Scotland for the holidays. There’s just one complication: her handsome new boss, Oliver Bracewell, needs a fake wife for the festive season. To secure a promotion that could save his family’s castle, Ollie has been pretending to be a married father-of-two to impress the family-focused firm where he works. Now his bosses are coming to stay at Hollybrae over Christmas… expecting to meet his non-existent wife and children. At first, playing along is easy as Lula is swept up in the magic of turning Hollybrae into the perfect f...

The Lottery Win by Rosie Green #Review #LittleDuckPondCafe

 

I am delighted that it is time for another visit to the Little Duck Pond Cafe for another novella by Rosie Green. The Lottery Win is number 28 in the series which is amazing!

 
Krystle has always yearned to live a different kind of life, so when she hits the jackpot, quite literally, she's over the moon. At last she'll get the chance to live in a gorgeous house, drive the car of her dreams and maybe even track down that elusive soulmate at last! It all sounds perfect – but can reality ever live up to your dreams?


 My Thoughts

I found Krystle to be quite an interesting central character in this volume, and I was quite surprised that I had to struggle really hard to warm to her until quite far into the story. As she made one infuriating decision after another, my patience with her was really stretched! However, as I hoped, she went through quite a bit of growing up and I am sure, looked back at her choices through different eyes.

    You are also kept guessing about some of the other characters and kept in the dark about their motivations. It showed up quite clearly how difficult sudden wealth can be for people, due to other people's reactions and suddenly, Krystle struggled to know who was genuine and who wasn't. With the nearby setting of Sunnybrook and some of the familiar characters who make an appearance, this is a lovely addition to the series and fits in well with its predecessors.

 

In short: money, money, money



About the Author

Rosie’s series of Little Duck Pond Café novellas is centred around life in a country village cafe. ‘The Cheesecake Challenge’ is out now. Look out for ‘A Kiss under the Stars’, out in August 2023.

 

You can read my review of more of this series here:

 
You can follow Rosie here:   Twitter
 
Book link: Amazon UK
 
 

Thanks to Rosie Green and Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources for a copy of the book and a place on the event.  



 

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