An Island Christmas: From the bestselling author of feel-good festive fiction

Let me start by saying that stories set at Christmas are almost always going to be a winner for me. Christmas festivities, good food, open fires and snuggly blankets are my idea of heaven. So, when I went off on my jollies back to Mure, which let's face it, is almost at the end of the world and guaranteed to be freezing cold, I was beyond excited. Sadly, in this book, life isn't all sunshine and roses for some of the residents of Mure.

I must admit I love Jenny Colgan books but she seems to have dropped off my radar for a little while, but I am glad to say I'm back on track with her wonderful books! I think the main reason she dropped off my radar is because a few of her books have different titles for the same book and I get very irritated with publishers when they do that. You get all excited to read what you think is a new book by a favourite author only to find it's one you've already bought and read. Very deceiving and it really gets my back up. This book is the third in this series, and although I do wish I'd read them in order I am still looking forward to going back to read the other two and seeing how the characters have got the point they're at in this book. Flora lives on Mure and runs the Seaside Kitchen, a cafe which sounded lovely and welcoming. Her boyfriend, although he doesn't seem to think of himself as that initially, is Joel who is an American and has quite a few issues from his childhood to overcome, which from the sound of things were also addressed in previous books. He was quite hard work but a major issue later in the book gave him the kick up the behind he needed to realise what he had and appreciate it more and not worry quite so much. There are a few quite heavy issues going on in this book and yet, even though it was extremely sad in parts, it was just such a compelling reading, with humorous bits too. The characters are (mostly!) just so relatable. I even warmed to Tripp, Colton's estranged brother, who turned up unexpectedly and was a real idiot to start with. There are definitely a couple of unresolved issues by the end of this book with a few of the characters so I can only hope that there are more books planned in this series as I for one will most definitely be reading them. Very easy reading, one of those 'just more one chapter' books for me that I was sad to finish.

Brilliant read