Whilst recovering from a recent illness, portrait artist Meg is barely aware Christmas is approaching. After all, they didn’t celebrate the festivities at the commune farm where she was brought up. That is until a steamroller of a woman turns up at her door insisting Meg live in at her home on the Lancashire Moors to paint herself and her husband.
Unable to politely decline in the face of such a forthright character, Meg packs up and heads North but upon her arrival a face from the past brings up unwanted memories. Memories that might provide a less than idyllic atmosphere for her stay at the Red House.
With the deadline for the art fast approaching and her love for this eclectic family growing every day, can Meg find a way to bury the past and truly discover the magic of Christmas?
This is the book that contains the family festive fun everyone wishes for themselves!
As usual, Ashley writes an incredible cast full of quirkily brilliant characters. Each individual is easily lovable, even the not so nice ones lend a certain humour to the mix. I especially warmed to Clara, the quick witted and plain-spoken Lady of the house, together with her husband, Henry, they provided a charming head for this eccentric household.
The Lancashire Moors provide a wonderful wintry backdrop to the story, and it was lovely to hear familiar names and places from previous books. The imminence of snow and frost lent this story a real air of excitement and made it especially easy to snuggle down and let the mind wander into Christmas, even if it is only October!
At 528 pages, this story is a lot longer than one would expect for this genre, but I felt it gave time for the story to unfold perhaps a little more naturally and realistically. This book is an extremely worthy Christmas read and I expect it to be flying off the shelves to fill stockings!
** Thanks to Bantam Press, via NetGalley, for this ARC **