Challenge Participant

Pages

Monday 6 December 2010

All I Want For Christmas by Amy Silver


Twelve days and counting...It's Bea's first Christmas with her baby son, and this year she's determined to do everything right. But there is still so much to do: the Christmas menu needs refining; her cafe, The Honey Pot, needs decorating; and, she's invited the whole neighbourhood to a party on Christmas Day. She really doesn't have time to get involved in two new people's lives, let alone fall in love...When Olivia gets knocked over in the street, however, Bea can't help bringing her into The Honey Pot and getting to know her. Olivia's life is even more hectic than her own, and with her fiance's entire family over from Ireland for Christmas, she shouldn't be lingering in the cosy warmth of Bea's cafe. Chloe, on the other hand, has nowhere else to go. Her affair with a married man has alienated her friends, and left her lonelier than ever. But Christmas is a magical time, and in the fragrant atmosphere of The Honey Pot, anything can happen: new friends can be made, hearts can heal, and romance can finally blossom...
I really enjoyed this book - another book to curl up with on a cold winter evening.
The book is based around three people: Bea, a widower who owns The Honey Pot and has a small son, Luca; Olivia, has recently got engaged and is a magazine columnist and Chloe, going out with a married man, a legal in a firm of solicitors, who has no other real friends. The three women start chatting in The Honey Pot after Olivia nearly gets ran over outside by a cycle courier and Bea and Chloe fall out over Chloe's loud mobile phone call in The Honey Pot.
The story that follows is one where the women slowly become friends and offer each other support throughout difficult times. All three women must make a decision about their relationships in this book - but what will they decide??
The chapters are actually days in the women's lives and each women has her own section on each day. The book is an easy read and one which soon gets you interested, I was eager to find out what happened next and soon finished the book. Bea is told in the first person and both Chloe and Olivia are in the third person. I soon found myself feeling sympathy for Bea and I thought that her story was beautiful and one which young widowers could identify with - when is it right to find a new love following your partners death. The other two women also must make decisions - should Chloe split with her married lover and has Chloe made the right decision in accepting her partners proposal?
This book is set around the festive period, it actually ends on Christmas Day but is not a traditional Christmas read and therefore do not expect one full of Christmas celebrations, this book is more than that - a beautiful, wintry tale about three different women coming together and forming a great friendship.
I would recommend this book to those who would like a great read to curl up with on these cold wintry evenings.

No comments:

Post a Comment