About Books #31: The Little Village Christmas

So just yesterday I was talking about how I’m getting no reading done. And today I realise this is the 3rd or 4th book review to go up since the beginning of fall… In my defence? They’re Christmas books – easy to forget those when talking about your fallreading, right? That being said: The Little Village Christmas was certainly a joy to read. Even if it made me feel kind of stupid for not hearing about this author before!

Quick disclaimer: I got the chance to read this book via Netgalley. All opinions are completely my own, though!

Story

Alexia Kennedy – interior decorator extraordinaire – has been tasked with giving the little village of Middledip the community café it’s always dreamed of.

After months of fundraising, the villagers can’t wait to see work get started – but disaster strikes when every last penny is stolen. With Middledip up in arms at how this could have happened, Alexia feels ready to admit defeat.

But help comes in an unlikely form when woodsman, Ben Hardaker and his rescue owl Barney, arrive on the scene. Another lost soul who’s hit rock bottom, Ben and Alexia make an unlikely partnership.

However, they soon realise that a little sprinkling of Christmas magic might just help to bring this village – and their lives – together again…

Settle down with a mince pie and a glass of mulled wine as you devour this irresistibly festive Christmas tale. The perfect read for fans of Carole Matthews and Trisha Ashley.

First of all: can we just appreciate that this literally tells you how to read this book? Then again – mince pie and warm drinks? I can totally live with that 🙂 Even if the story wasn’t quite what I expected based on the Goodreads-page!

(Important note, here? This isn’t so much a Christmas book as a book that just happens to take place around Christmas. You know, Christmas isn’t the starting point so much as the final goal…)

Characters

I know I’ve mentioned this like a billion times, by now, but one of the reasons I love Cathy Kelly and Jill Mansell’s work so much? Their characters are real people. And now I can add Sue Moorcraft to my (so far) very short list of authors who actually can get that balance right.

Let’s be clear, neither Ben nor Alexia are just good people. They both make mistakes – I mean Ben is a grumpy thing for about the entirety of the first half of the book!

That being said? They are balanced – they are willing to forgive, but sometimes only after holding a bit of a grudge. They can have set ideas of people and then be proven wrong. And some of the best parts of this book come from that as well.

I mean, Jody and Carola? Gold. And don’t even get me started on Gabe. I love that guy.

Narration

For the main part, this book is just generally well-narrated. The descriptions of both food and interior design, though? They’re what make this story live.

With interior decoration being such a big part of the plot line, there was always going to have to be mention of that. The way Sue Moorcroft manages to set things up however, really meant that by the end, I wanted to go have a look at The Angel. And Alexia’s house. Then there’s Ben’s cottage – with that pond near. And of course: I need to know what exactly Gabe’s house looks like. They all just sound amazing!

Oh, and then there’s gems like this:

As Ben and Alexia hadn’t joined Snobby on hunger strike, the paused only to feed and water Luke then strode off to The Three Fishes, staking their claim on a table near the fire for a supper of lasagna with crusty bread.

Now that’s the kind of dry humor I can appreciate 🙂

Overall: 4/5

You know those books that are just so enjoyable to read? Where you just really want to know what and how happens next? That’s this book. It’s a good number of pages, but I read it in two sittings because I just really wanted to know what this and that person would end up with and as. And maybe the best compliment I can give it? As soon as I hit “publish” for this post, I’m going to add the rest of Sue Moorcroft’s oeuvre to my TBR. Obviously, I’ve been missing out on something.

Have you read this book before? Or would you like to? (If so: you can find it on Amazon! (affiliate link) ) Be sure to let me know below!

-Saar