The Christmas Calendar Girls by Samantha Tonge

This Christmas fall in love with the town of Chesterwood... 

Christmas is meant to be a time of giving, so with Chesterwood food bank under risk of closure Fern knows just what to do to save it. She's going to get the town to create a living advent calendar.

Fern, and her best friends, call for help from the local community to bring this calendar to life. When Kit, the new man in town, offers his assistance Fern's heart can't help but skip a beat (or two).

As they grow ever closer, Fern must admit that Kit's breaking down the barriers she built after the death of her husband. But his past is holding him back and Fern doesn't know how to reach him. No matter how hard she tries.

In this town, Kit's not the only one with secrets. Domestic goddess Cara is behaving oddly, burning meals in the oven and clothes whilst ironing, and Davina's perfect children are causing trouble at school leaving her son, Jasper, desperately unhappy.

Can the Christmas Calendar Girls find a way to bring the community together in time to save the food bank, while still supporting their families and each other? Can Fern find love again with Kit?

This is a story about kindness and letting go of the past. It's about looking out for your neighbours and about making every day feel like Christmas.

Title: The Christmas Calendar Girls

Author: Samantha Tonge

Published By: Aria

Publication Date: 3rd October 

Links: UK: Amazon    US: Amazon

Our Review

The Christmas Calendar Girls is predominately about friendships and women supporting each other through various problems. It highlights the fact that whilst people’s lives seem perfect on the surface quite often they are fighting problems in private.

The concept of the living advent calendar was brilliant and totally unique which really brought a sense of a community coming together for Christmas and ultimately for a very good cause.

Fern was widowed and left to bring up a young daughter on her own so she moved to Chesterford to start afresh and became well established there having made great friends.

Her daughter Lily had a precious notebook that her dad Adam had made for her with lots of advice in and that was very touching.

Grief is a very strong factor throughout the book because Fern, still trying to make sense of the world without her husband in it, had lots of flashbacks of her life with Adam, they’d had such wonderful hopes and dreams for their future and that was devastatingly ripped away from them.

I think it was lovely how Fern slowly began to think of someone else she could have a future with and how that friendship developed over time. But only after she managed to help him lay his demons to rest. I also loved how Adam still played an important part of both Fern and Lily's lives especially through the notebook and various pieces around the house.

I loved the descriptions of the Christmas Market and could visualise the advent calendar vividly.

I really was rooting for Fern to have the happy ending she and Lily deserved and I certainly wasn't disappointed.

This book deals very sensitively with various addictions, grief and homelessness and how easily lives can spiral out of control but also shows that there is always hope and optimism for a new future. 

Sincerely

Book Angel x

About the Author

Samantha Tonge lives in Manchester UK with her husband and children. She studied German and French at university and has worked abroad, including a stint at Disneyland Paris. She has travelled widely.
When not writing she passes her days cycling, baking and drinking coffee. Samantha has sold many dozens of short stories to women's magazines.
She is represented by the Darley Anderson literary agency. In 2013, she landed a publishing deal for romantic comedy fiction with HQDigital at HarperCollins and in 2014, her bestselling debut, Doubting Abbey, was shortlisted for the Festival of Romantic Fiction best Ebook award. In 2015 her summer novel, Game of Scones, hit #5 in the UK Kindle chart and won the Love Stories Awards Best Romantic Ebook category. In 2018 Forgive Me Not, heralded a new direction into darker women's fiction with publisher Canelo. In 2019 she was shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists' Association romantic comedy award.

http://samanthatonge.co.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SamTongeWriter
Instagram: @samanthatongeauthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Samantha

Follow the rest of the blog tour here...

 

One Winter Morning by Isabelle Broom

Genie isn't feeling very festive this December.

The frosty mornings and twinkling fairy lights only remind her it's been a whole year since she lost her adoptive mother, who took her in as a baby and raised her as her own.

She's never felt more alone - until she discovers her birth mother's identity.

And where to find her: New Zealand, half the world away.

Travelling there could be her one chance to meet the woman who gave her up.

But will she find the answers she has been looking for? Or something she could never have expected?

Title: One Winter Morning
Author: Isabelle Broom
Published By: Penguin
Publication Date: 17th October 2019
Links: 
UK: Amazon      US:  Amazon

Waterstones

WHSmith


Our Review

Isabelle Broom has done it again, I’ve just finished One Winter Morning and the last line literally gave me tingles because it was so beautiful.

I’ve loved each of Isabelle’s books so far, they aren’t just stories but also informative little travel guides. She describes her settings so vividly that they almost become characters themselves. The writing is sublime and I feel that Isabelle’s talent as a writer is getting stronger with each book.

One Winter Morning is set in New Zealand and whilst I’ve never been I can see the Koru Stables very clearly in my mind as well as the beautiful mountains and lakes.

I loved all of the characters, especially the hunky Kit but the character of Tui was my absolute favourite, I completely fell in love with her, I loved her carefree ways, her joyfulness and her laugh.

The concept behind the story is just brilliant and I really hope that Isabelle follows this up by writing the children’s book which featured strongly in the book.

I really feel that Isabelle has captured so well that absolute raw emotion and grief that comes from losing someone close. Also the innocent and protective love she felt for Tui was so sweet. I bawled my eyes out at 18% in as I felt such a good connection.

I really didn’t know what was going to happen from one moment to the next and was quite shocked in parts.

A beautifully written journey of one young lady’s journey through grief. Totally uplifting, intriguing and filled with pure love.

I can totally tell that Isabelle has poured her heart and soul into this book, it’s absolutely perfect and her best one yet. 

Sincerely

Book Angel x

About the Author

Isabelle Broom was born in Cambridge nine days before the 1980s began and studied Media Arts in London before a 12-year stint at heat magazine. Always happiest when she's off on an adventure, Isabelle now travels all over the world seeking out settings for her escapist fiction novels, as well as making the annual pilgrimage to her second home - the Greek island of Zakynthos. Currently based in Suffolk, where she shares a cottage with her two dogs and approximately 467 spiders, Isabelle fits her writing around a busy freelance career and tries her best not to be crushed to oblivion under her ever-growing pile of to-be-read books.

If you like pictures of dogs, chatter about books and very bad jokes, you can follow her on Twitter or Instagram @Isabelle_Broom or find her on Facebook under Isabelle Broom Author. To find out more about her books, visit her website www.isabellebroom.com