Wealthy New York City girl Claire Lindell isn’t looking for a Christmas miracle or happiness when she abruptly decides to hole up for the holiday at her godmother’s cottage in a little Yorkshire village, and lick her wounds from a near disastrous romantic decision.
After her car skids into a snow bank, Claire may have accidently found her perfect Christmas and the family and love she’s craved when she offers Noah Bradford of Ayesgill Farm help to push the back end of one of his sheep out of the icy mud, even if she’s going to ruin a brand new pair of Prada boots during the rescue.
What’s a little leather when love’s on the line?
✼
I was looking for something light to read on the build up to Christmas, and I remembered I had this story downloaded onto my Kindle from a couple of years ago. As most of my family grew up in Yorkshire, I was immediately drawn to this title, but I had never managed to find time to read it until a couple of weeks ago.
It was such a sweet story. Claire is running away from her problems in the US, and intends to spend an isolated Christmas alone in Yorkshire. When she runs almost immediately into Noah, however, things unsurprisingly don't play out that way. This story is incredibly predictable, but in the most charming way. It was a lot shorter than I was expecting, but I actually didn't mind at all. I think this story worked better as a shorter book; any longer and it had the potential to be disappointing.
A really sweet book that is perfect for the busy period over Christmas.
Rating: ✫✫✫
SPOILER ALERT
The Story
I should start by saying that I had no big expectations for this book. I've read a lot of free Kindle books over the last couple of years, and they've ranged from pretty good to appalling. On starting A Yorkshire Christmas, I knew that it could have swung either way. I'm happy to say that it pleasantly surprised me!.
The story is incredibly predictable, but I wasn't mad about it. The real charm of the story is in the simplicity of the plot. We only meet three characters, and hear of only another couple on top of that. Claire, Noah, and Noah's daughter carry the story all by themselves. I actually think that Noah was the really remarkable character, and I don't think the book would have been as successful if he had not been written the way he was. He was strong and masculine yet vulnerable and reserved. His problematic relationship with his daughter endeared me to him as a reader, and added the emotion to the story. As nice as I thought Claire was as a character, she alone was not enough to really make you root for her, and for her to progress with Noah. Noah, however, and the way he leaned on Claire for the sake of his daughter, was sweet.
The actual idea for Claire and Noah bonding over his daughter was really sweet. It reminded me a lot of the film The Holiday, with Cameron Diaz swooping in to get to know Jude Law and his daughters. Maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much. The plot was not particularly exciting, and there were so few characters that there was no real depth at all. It was very simplistic. But that's kind of why I liked it. It was simple but charming. And just the kind of story you would want to read over the busy festive period.
The Verdict
As I've already mentioned, this book wasn't particularly outstanding. The plot was basic, the book was short, and there were so few characters that it's a wonder it was at all engaging.
However, it was improved by the setting of the book. It's based at Christmas, with a lot of winter snow, Christmas trees and family gifts. If it was set at any other time of year, I feel it would have been largely disappointing. But the magic of the Christmas period made this very sweet and cosy, and enjoyable. It's a lovely story to sit and read, possibly in one sitting, in the build up to the big day.
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