Released: 31 October 2019
Christmas in Cornwall is just around the corner but after last Christmas revealed a shocking family secret, Scarlett’s hardly feeling merry and bright. All she wants this Christmas is to know who her real father is. So Scarlett heads to the little Cornish town of Porthmellow, where she believes the truth of her birth is hidden. She just didn’t bargain on being drawn into the Christmas festival preparations – or meeting Jude Penberth, whose charm threatens to complicate life further. Everything will come to a head at Porthmellow’s Christmas Festival … But can Scarlett have the perfect Christmas this year, or are there more surprises on the way?
In my opinion
As I said I love a heart-warming romance set in a charming village location and even more so one set at Christmas. And, this was exactly that. Like sisters Scarlett and Ellie I too fell in love with the Cornish seaside village of Porthmellow with its cosy cafes, welcoming pub, village traditions and bracing seascape. The sense of community spirit as all the locals got involved in the Solstice celebrations and annual Boxing Day swim was really inspiring and heart-warming. The characters were also all extremely likeable, from main characters Ellie and Scarlett to supporting villagers such as the Carman's.
It was a bonus to be treated to not one but two budding romances, with both sisters falling for a hot, single local. However, this was also a slight negative for me as having two lead characters, along with a third person narrative, meant that it wasn't really anyone's story. As such, whilst I liked all the characters, I didn't really connect with any of them to any great extent.
The book started extremely dramatically and promisingly with Scarlett gate-crashing the pub's Christmas Day Lunch for the Lonely after a family history gift revealed her Dad wasn't actually her real Dad and her mum doggedly refused to comment. However, unfortunately this also set the scene for the rest of the book as her mum continued to remain silent, and continued and continued for chapter after chapter. As such the story was a bit slow and drawn out in places.
That said regarding the identity of Scarlett's father there were plenty of hidden twists along the way, and his eventual identity was completely unexpected, if a little far-fetched. However, after such a long build-up and such devastating effect on the family, surprisingly it was all over and done with in a matter of pages concentrating too much on the reveal rather than the back story. Similarly there were lots of other intriguing themes that were introduced, such as Aaron's post-traumatic stress, Auntie Joan's hedonistic lifestyle and Judge's jolting fiancee, but these were never really explored. I would have loved to have heard more on each of these.
Overall, this was an easy, enjoyable read but just not a must-read in my opinion. Because it was set over the course of a year it was sufficiently festive for a Christmas book but not so much that it couldn't be enjoyed at any time of the year. I believe this is the second of author Phillipa Ashley's novels to be set in Porthmellow, with some of the original characters making cameo appearances, but it
The author
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