Tonight I'm sharing another new Christmas release from a favourite cosy Christmas author - Tilly Tennant's The Christmas Wish.

Here's the summary from Goodreads...

Christmas is coming but it doesn’t feel that way for Esme Greenwood. Recently jilted by her cheating fiancee Warren, she’s had enough of London life and escapes to Thimble Cottage in the Peak District, home of her beloved grandmother Matilda.

While Esme mourns for the wedding she’ll never have, Matilda puts her granddaughter back together again with comforting words and generous helpings of fruitcake and together, they plan the trip of a lifetime, to Lapland to see the northern lights, somewhere Matilda has always dreamt of going.
But tragedy strikes and when Matilda dies, Esme screws up the courage to go on the trip on her own to honour her beloved grandmother’s wishes. At the airport she meets a motley crew of characters including Zach, a handsome, brooding, out-of- work actor and together they set off for an adventure.

Beneath the indigo skies of Lapland, Esme and Zach grow closer. But when Esme is bombarded by messages from Warren promising he’s changed and she discovers that Zach is hiding something very significant – will her head be turned? And when a trip to the northern lights reveals the full extent of Zach’s own secret past, is there any hope that Esme will get the happy ending that her grandmother wished for her?

To be honest, this one wasn't quite what I expected! It starts pretty heavy - with Esme trying to escape an abusive relationship, and then her grandmother passing away - and I'd say it took until about 25% in to get to the Lapland trip and more of the cosy, romancey, Christmassy story I was expecting.
Once that all got underway I did enjoy it - and Lapland was such a fantastically fun Christmas setting.

I did have a little bit of trouble spending so much time in Esme's head because of how little confidence she has in herself and how self deprecating many of her thoughts were. This is something I always struggle with in books where the protagonist has low self confidence - I find their POV really uncomfortable, which gave kind of a weird vibe in a Christmas novel.

Overall this was sweet and mostly fun, and I liked the secondary characters a lot. It is possible that some readers could find the controlling aspects of Esme's relationship with Warren triggering, so that is definitely something to watch out for. I gave this one 3 stars!

I have previously read two other Christmas novels by Tilly Tennant - A Very Vintage Christmas and A Cosy Candlelit Christmas - both of which came out last year and were also really lovely. I think the latter was my favourite - so much snow and Christmassiness! I actually reviewd both on my blog - you can find them here.

Don't forget to let me know if you read any of these, or if you'd like to share your favourite Christmas read in the comments!
xo Bron


*** The Christmas Wish ***
Out now from Bookouture.
On Goodreads
Source: Free ebook provided for review by Bookouture via NetGalley
Find Tilly Tennant online here.