A Cosy Christmas in Cornwall

by Jane Linfoot

 

A December to remember…

Christmas in a Cornish castle? Sign Ivy Starforth up! Hired to kit out the holiday rental as the world’s most Instagramable festive dreamland, there’s only one thing standing in the way of her hefty paycheque – the lord of the manor.

Bill Markham could give Scrooge a run for his money but Ivy is firmly #TeamChristmas…even if her handsome host seems to be doing everything he can to sabotage her staging. Maybe she shouldn’t have stumbled in on him starkers in the hot tub?

As the temperature outside cools, things inside the castle heat up. It’s been a long time since Ivy allowed herself to give in to temptation…surely one little kiss under the mistletoe won’t hurt?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

… buying your own present might mean you forfeit those two seconds of amazement when it arrives. But the plus side is you get exactly what you want and you’re never disappointed.

 

And then there was a clatter of the phone being dropped, Fliss was telling Oscar not to lick his mango yogurt off the TV screen, and we got cut off. I must admit, conversations like this make me view the super-cute baby clothes in Daniels in a whole different light – the kind that has me whooshing off to Pet’s Corner. Five seconds listening to life on Fliss’s sofa is enough to remind me crooning over the tartan velvet coats and diamanté dog collars is a whole lot safer. Even if they cost ten times more than the human versions they’re cheap at the price when you consider what they’re saving you from.

 

It’s what my dad would call a FISH moment – frig it, shit happens.

 

Let’s face it, given the choice between teensy trousers or buttercream, in theory it’s great to say you’d go without and be skinny. But get a hundred percent real and squishy cupcake in your hand and it’s a whole other story. You’re mostly left with an empty bun case and a bad case of guilty regret before you even get around to thinking about your choice. I mean, who wants to be strong willed and skinny anyway, it’s hideous and boring and everyone despises you for it.

 

Tansy has a go at our eyebrows, and we all end up looking like we had an accident in the dark with a Sharpie and have to go and scrub them off.

 

I’m going to take a second to relive the last ten minutes, wrap them very carefully in tissue paper, and tuck them away in my safest memory box.

 

My Review:

 

This is my third time reading this clever and insightful author and have just realized what a witty and cunning minx she truly is.   Her characters tend to be complicated and multi-faceted and not always likable, yet there are always numerous reasons behind that and quite a few layers to go through to get there, so patience and forbearance were required but trust me, the HEA reward was well worth the effort. The busy, lively, and highly amusing storylines were well-balanced in tone, cast with an unusually peculiar yet intriguing and quirky slate of characters, and hit all the feels with agile levity as well as vividly described and shrewdly detailed observations.

The eventful story occurred over a two-week span in preparations for a wealthy and extremely driven and exacting client’s family Christmas holiday and was written from the first-person POV of Ivy, whose name should have been Rose or Thorn, as she was rather prickly. She was stridently bossy, rude, snappish, judgmental, and demanding towards the yummy Bill, the unfortunate man providing the venue which happened to be a castle. Ivy seemed to have a rather large yardstick wedged in an uncomfortable place, and there were several regrettable reasons for that, but until those causalities were fully enumerated, I had a difficult time appreciating Ivy, but I got there, as did she.

I gained a fun new entry for my Brit Word List with wodge, which is British informal for a large or bulky amount. Bill must have had a wodge of money to splash out for Dior Fahrenheit cologne as after Ivy’s obsessive mentions of his delicious scent I looked it up thinking of a possible gift for my husband. Regrettably, my wallet seized and my credit card melted at the cost. 😉