Eve is heartbroken after discovering her fiance is cheating on her. Being surrounded by the joys of Christmas is more than Eve can bear, so she chooses to avoid the festivities by spending Christmas alone on a houseboat in Pangbourne. Eve gets gets an unexpected seasonal surprise when handsome local vet Greg comes to her rescue one day, and continues to visit Eve's boat on a mission to transform her from Kitchen Disaster Zone to Culinary Queen.
Author: Rosie Blake
Title: How to Stuff Up Christmas
Publishers: Corvus
Publication Date: 5th November 2015
Link: Uk: Amazon US: Amazon
My Review
Having met Rosie at Paige Toon's book launch I was really excited to read her book as she was such a lovely full of fun person and I remember what the title of this book was going to be!!
Having now read the book I was certainly not disappointed and really enjoyed it.
The story was about Eve who had found out in a very explicit way that her fiance, Liam, had cheated on her just a couple of months before Christmas. Feeling heartbroken she knew she didn't want to spend christmas with her family as it would remind her too much of the previous one when he had proposed. Much to her mother's disappointment she decides to go away and books herself onto a pottery course in the country, she can't find any reasonable accommodation so has to stay on a tiny houseboat, off she goes taking her dog Marmite with her to start a scary but exciting new adventure.
When she gets there she finds she is terrorised by a wild goose and is often caught outside in her pyjamas by a gorgeous man named Greg. When he finds her in the river with a soggy phone he takes charge and tries to help her by fixing her phone and helping her to cook but he often has to disappear and Eve feels she can't trust men after what Liam did to her especially when he lets her down on a date. Eve also feels a bit let down by her best friend Daisy as she can tell she is hiding something from her.
I loved the comfy cosy, christmassy feel to this book and found Rosie's voice very soothing and relaxing and absolutely hilarious in parts. I loved the tentative relationship between Eve and Greg and felt she conveyed very well how hurt she had been and her need to slowly recover from that. Liam was a sod. I especially liked Eve's relationship with her sister Harriet and niece Poppy. It was nice to have the recipes for the thoughtful dishes in the book as you could have a really interactive time with it.
I really loved it and will be sure to read Rosie's other books.
Thanks to Corvus for the review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Sincerely
Book Angel x
About the Author
Rosie is an author of comic commercial fiction. She spent her university years writing pantomimes based on old classics. The 2003 production of 'The Wizard of Odd: Search for the Ruby Strippers' enjoyed critical acclaim. This was followed a year later with a successful showing of 'Harry Potter: The Musical' (complete with moving opening number, 'In my Cupboard I will Stay'). Rosie went on to write a winning short story in the La Senza/Little Black Dress Short Story Competition, features for Cosmopolitan magazine, The Lady Magazine and Stand Up Drama and then started writing books. After some false starts, and horrendous jobs that she wishes to keep a closely guarded secret (or write about in the future), her debut novel 'How to get A (Love) Life' was published by Novelicious Books in January 2014.
Rosie likes baked items, taking long walks by the river and speaking about herself in the third person.
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