Christmas at Wynter House by Emily Harvale

3.5 Stars

Cosy festive read that has no real surprises buried within it's pages.  From the moment Neva arrives in Wyntersleap to spend Christmas at the remote village with her family you know how it is going to end up.  So much so the whole Wynter brothers triangle actually served to annoy me - it was clear from the moment she met both Adam and Rafe which way this was going to go.  I found myself more interested in the dynamics between Neva and her family (parents Dawn and Dennis and her sister Rowan, her husband Nigel and their fantastic daughter Sasha) than in the romantic aspects of the story.  Sasha was definitely the star of the book for me and an 8 year old that I found startlingly familiar - I was all about the Horror at that age, still am to some extent.

The village may be small but it is packed with quirky characters - although I did find it odd that with so few cottages a pub and a general store managed to survive, definitely a fictional moment.  It was a refreshing change that not all the characters were "nice" as this tends to be a pitfall of this genre.  Although, even the "nasty" ones turn out to just be a little bit misunderstood.

A good pick up and put down read that will entertain in between all the shopping, cooking and wrapping.

This was my first Emily Harvale novel and it was a decent enough read.  I note that she has a reasonably sized back catalogue so I may plunder that on my next book buying splurge.