Reviews :: An Unforgettable Christmas :: Tilly Tenant
November 08, 2017Hello and welcome to Christmas at Bookish Bron =)
I thought I'd start with a sweet pair of Christmassy stories from Tilly Tennant:
With bright red hair and an infectious smile, Dodie is a hopeless romantic and absolutely one of a kind, just like the pieces in her shop.
When Dodie finds a love letter in the pocket of an old woollen coat, she makes it her mission to deliver it to its rightful owner. Following the address, she manages to persuade the handsome but reluctant new tenant, Edward, to help her with her search.
As the story of the letter unfolds, Dodie is there, as always, to pick up the pieces and make things right. But who will be there for her when her own love story needs a helping hand?
It's the week before Christmas and Isla McCoy has just received an unexpected gift: a letter announcing she is due a life-changing inheritance, but only if she’s willing to make peace with the father who abandoned her.
She has absolutely no intention of making amends, but who could resist an all-expenses-paid trip to the French resort of St Martin-de-Belleville?
There she meets smooth-talking Justin and nerdy glaciologist Sebastian; two very different men, with two very different agendas. Torn between her head and her heart, Isla finds herself utterly lost in a winter wonderland of her own feelings.
Surrounded by twinkling candles and roaring log-fires, Isla’s resolve finally begins to melt. But will she learn how to reconnect, not only with a whole new family, but with herself and her heart?
***
Obviously it was the gorgeous covers of this pair that caught my attention at first - and the titles, I do love some alliteration ; ). And the stories were just as lovely! The books are companions to each other - Dodie and Isla are best friends, and the stories told in these run at the same time. A Very Vintage Chridtmas is the first book, and I thought that order worked really well.
Both books are super sweet!
A Very Vintage Christmas is set in a seaside town in the UK, and had that perfect cosy, snowy, christmassy feel. There were some parts where the timing and progression of the story felt a bit weird, but there were so many great characters that I found that easy to forgive.
A Cosy Candlelit Christmas, set in a ski resort, felt a tiny bit less Christmassy, but definitely more snowy. The story felt a bit more serious/heavy, but I found it entirely charming. There was one scene that made me a bit uncomfortable - where one of the guys tries to force himself on Isla and it is just kind of brushed off - I feel like I want to see a stronger message of how not ok that is in my books.
As a pair, I thought the books worked fantastically! I enjoyed the style of the writing in both, and I loved getting the perspective of both these women - also the fact that their voices were different enough that i didn't feel like I was reading the same book twice.
If you're after some sweet, fun, cosy, Christmassy romance I'd recommend checking these out!
Xo Bron
A Very Vintage Christmas and A Cosy Candlelit Christmas are both out now from bookouture. I received review copies in exchange for honest reviews, but only chose to read them because they sounded like books I would enjoy (life's too short to read books we don't think we'll enjoy). All opinions on my blog are my own, and I wouldn't tell you it a book was good if I didn't really think so. =)
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