I am a big fan of Gillian Harvey's novels where she mostly tells the story of people making a fresh start in France. As soon as I saw there was going to be a Christmassy story I was in!
Nicola has just moved into a house is provincial France. Unfortunately, her husband Steven still has a few months to go until her can join her permanently due to his work situation. Nicola is just trying to hold everything together until he comes for Christmas, until he announces that he can't come. When she realises that he accidentally took her passport home with him the last time he visited, it looks like she is going to be stuck in France on her own for Christmas.
It isn't like Nicola isn't trying to settle into her new community, but even her closest neighbour is rejecting her friendly gestures. And the longer she is away from her husband the more distance grows in their relationship which just increases her feelings of loneliness.
Nicola's plan for the future is to offer art lessons which is a complete change of career from her life in the UK. When she meets her first student, Lucien, things begin to look up. Lucien wants to paint a special picture as a Christmas gift, but soon he is taking Nicola to nearby towns, especially to the nearby Christmas markets. At one of the markets, she acquires a wooden angel and is told to make a wish. Can wishes come true? Can she build her new life in France and be happy?
While we obviously got to read Nicola's story, we also got to know that of Lucien and Monsieur Remi's story. I loved the next-door neighbour's story. It was so sweet and touching. I was glad to see that not all the most obvious choices were the ones taken here. I am being a little bit obscure because I am trying to avoid spoilers.
I also loved that we got to hear about the differences in the way that French families celebrate Christmas. This always fascinates me. Being in Australia we normally have a hot Christmas, although we do things fairly traditionally British most of the time.
A few years ago now we were in Europe for Christmas. I went to a number of Dutch Christmas markets, and saw the decorations in chateaux such as Chambord in France, but by the time we go to France all their Christmas markets were done. Reading this book made me wish that I could visit again. A girl can dream right! I did recently hear that Shanghai has some amazing Christmas markets which might be a more achievable dream. Maybe next year!!
This was another fun read from Gillian Harvey with a Christmassy twist!
I am sharing this review with New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog. Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
Rating 4/5
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