Book Review: Twelve Days of Christmas by Trisha Ashley

Christmas has always been a sad time for young widow Holly Brown, so when she’s asked to look after a remote house on the Lancashire moors, the opportunity to hide herself away is irresistible – the perfect excuse to forget about the festivities.

Sculptor, Jude Martland, is determined that this year there will be no Christmas after his brother runs off with his fiancée and he is keen to avoid the family home. However, he will have to return by the twelfth night of the festivities, when the hamlet of Little Mumming hold their historic festivities and all of his family are required to attend.

Meanwhile, Holly is finding that if she wants to avoid Christmas, she has come to the wrong place. When Jude unexpectedly returns on Christmas Eve he is far from delighted to discover that Holly seems to be holding the very family party he had hoped to avoid.

Suddenly, the blizzards come out of nowhere and the whole village is snowed in. With no escape, Holly and Jude get much more than they bargained for – it looks like the twelve days of Christmas are going to be very interesting indeed!

When I originally picked my Christmas reads for this year, Twelve Days of Christmas wasn’t on my list, but then I heard lots of good things about it and saw it on offer in my local supermarket so I decided to treat myself. I’m so glad I did because this is a lovely Christmas read and I really enjoyed it.

The story focuses on Holly Brown, who despite having a lovely Christmassy first name, goes out of her way not to celebrate Christmas. Holly is a chef and to give herself a break during the winter season, she is also a professional house sitter. At the start of the book, we find out that Holly is a widow, having lost her husband in an accident at Christmas time eight years earlier. As the book opens, Holly’s gran who raised her has also passed away, leaving her without family. Her booked house sitting job has also fallen through and all looks to be going wrong, but at the last minute an emergency call from the Homebodies agency sees Holly heading off to Little Mumming to look after a large house called Old Place.

I took to Holly straight away; she is a no nonsense, straight-talking character and although a bit of a recluse to begin with, I liked her more and more as the book went on. The story is told entirely from Holly’s perspective and her sharp thoughts and quick comments made me smile. I enjoyed seeing things from her point of view and watching as she gradually changes through the book.

The relationship between Holly and Jude Martland (the man Holly is house sitting for) is well written and at times they seemed like a modern day Darcy and Elizabeth with their arguments and assumptions about each other. For the first half of the book, Jude is abroad and he and Holly have some particularly fiery telephone conversations but things really begin to hot up when Jude returns on Christmas Eve. Whilst Holly and Jude were both hoping for quiet Christmases alone, circumstances conspire to cajole Holly into hosting several of Jude’s family members over the Christmas period and heavy blizzards mean that the family (and a few extras) are stranded together at Old Place.

I really liked the supporting characters in this book – they are all quite dramatic and eccentric in their own way but my favourites were quirky Oriel, owner of the local shop and twelve year old Jess, Jude’s niece who is writing her own vampire novel!Holly soon attracts the attention of local farmer, George and with the addition of Jude’s competitive brother Guy and stranded actor, Michael, there are plenty of suitors for Holly but she is determined not to fall in love again.

At the same time as Holly is having her Christmas plans turned upside down, there is also a sub-plot running through the book involving some diaries that Holly discovered after her Gran’s death. From her arrival in Little Mumming, each chapter starts with an excerpt from one of the diaries, revealing a family mystery. Holly exhibits the patience of a saint not to skip ahead and find out what happened to her Gran but it works brilliantly to keep the plot moving and kept my interest right to the very last page.

This is the first book of Trisha’s that I’ve read and I will certainly be adding her others to my reading pile. Twelve Days of Christmas is written with warmth and humour and is perfectly paced to snuggle up with this Christmas. If you are looking for drama and action, this probably isn’t the book for you but if you are looking for a nice gentle read that will leave you with a warn glow, this is it.

4/5

You can find out more about Trisha and her books at: http://www.trishaashley.com/