Published By: Bookouture
Pages: 291
Released On: 29/09/2023
Thirty-year-old Holliday Harrison is throwing herself into the festive season to give her life some purpose after losing her husband three years ago. Working at Christmas Resort, an all-year-round holiday village, with its sparkling lights and community of quirky characters, is the warm environment she needs right now. But everything is about to change…
The future of the magical place and Holliday’s new life are put at risk when handsome businessman Damon MacAndrew arrives to stay in one of the cute log cabins. He’s buying the resort, but his serious attitude is completely at odds with the jolly atmosphere around him.
Holliday makes it her mission to show Damon just how magical Christmas can be in the hope he will realise Christmas Resort is perfect just as it is. As they bake cookies and take sleigh rides together, Holliday finds herself intrigued by mysterious and complicated Damon, and a sizzling attraction begins between two people who couldn’t be more different.
The more time she spends with blue-eyed Damon, the more she realises that beneath his stern exterior he is also struggling with heartbreak. But when Damon appears to backtrack on a promise, Holliday has to decide if she’s ready to trust and love again. Will this turn out to be the best Christmas ever or will it end in heartbreak?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
Donna Ashcroft + Christmas + Scotland = the best literary combination.
An all-year round Christmas resort in Scotland? Sign me up! It sounds so delicious and if it really existed I would move in tomorrow.
Yes it’s an ideal book for those dark cosy winter nights, but it’s also perfect when its 33 degrees outside and you hate summer, and just want to lose yourself in a cold environment.
I adore Holliday, she is the sort of Christmas-loving person I aim to be, and I just loved her. And then when I grow up (I know I’m technically already grown up but go with it), I aim to be Bonnibell, she is absolutely gorgeous. I really liked Damon too. Yes he’s the enemy at first, but the festive spirit soon seeps into him and he is really lovely. There’s an array of other characters, guests, friends, relatives, employees, animals. And there isn’t a dud among them. I knew I could count on Donna to create a wonderful family of characters. There are some that feature in the previous Sottish Highlands book which was a nice touch but it’s perfectly fine to read this one first.
It’s a small thing, but I love all the festive baking involved. Baking was my thing before I go ill, and so I do miss being able to do it as much as I used to, especially at Christmas time, and so just reading about the smells of mince pies and gingerbread biscuits, oh it was so familiar and yummy.
It isn’t just a happy, cosy festive book. I mean, it is. But it’s deeper. It’s about loss and grief and love and friendship and wants and desires and dreams and community. It’s a really thoughtful and moving book wrapped up in a merry Christmas package.
Ok so I do know that there is already a Scottish Highlands series, of which this is a part, so that’s good that (hopefully) we will be getting more. Having said that, I really want a sequel of this exact story, with the same characters. The ending is perfectly lovely, but I want to live in this Christmas world for a bit longer please.
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