Christmas Every Day: The perfect uplifting festive read

A lovely light-hearted festive novel, embracing friendship, romance, secrets - and adding several touches of Christmas spirit! Jenny is on her own in the world; with no job and no home - not to mention a lack of friends - she jumps at the chance of living in her grandmother's old cottage. What she didn't bargain on was the isolation and a grumpy neighbour . . . An enjoyable book, this is my first venture into this author's work. It's not overly 'Christmassy', events take place throughout the year and the characters are well-developed and all easy to picture in my mind's eye. With a bit of mystery, potential for romance and burgeoning friendships it's a very engaging novel, and one I enjoyed. I didn't find any surprises, however, having worked out early on where it was heading and was already expecting the unexpected, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it's a pleasant read and one I enjoyed. I'm happy to consider this a four star read.

This was a very enjoyable story set around Sherwood Forest, with a variety of really interesting characters, apart from slimy Freddie who was obviously up to no good! I wouldn't say it was particularly Christmassy though as only part was set around Christmas, so the title is a bit misleading and the book can be read at any time of the year. Jenny has had a hard time recently, her snotty, thinks she's better than everyone, twin sister got engaged to Jenny's 'secret' boyfriend, and it was announced at a Christmas party when Jenny was expecting to be the one getting engaged. So she took herself off to a house in Sherwood Forest, that her estranged grandmother had left her Mother (now a nun!) and she'd passed on to Jenny, to hide and lick her wounds, after losing her home (she lived with her sister), her job (she caused a slight incident at said party!) and her (cheating) boyfriend. The house itself was one of two houses in the middle of nowhere in Sherwood Forest and the unknown grandmother had obviously been a hoarder as Jenny couldn't even get to the house to start with because of overgrown brambles, then could hardly get in the door because of the amount of 'stuff' she had in the house. Whilst trying to get into the house she meets her next door neighbour, reclusive, mysterious (and very handsome) Mack. Jenny then meets some local people and gets drawn into their worlds, including a book club, which is really lovely for her as she has always been the one on the outside of everything, even her family. She also ends up being a nanny for 5 children(!) for a few hours a day after getting persuaded by one of her new friends, Ellen (and the Mother of the children), as she is desperate for help, and ends up really quite enjoying it and really helps the children out, especially bullied Dawson. The house is getting cleared, slowly, and life settles into a pattern for Jenny. But there is always the mystery of what exactly is Mack doing holed up in his house all the time, no-one knows what his actual job is, although Jenny for some reason thinks he's a spy of some sort! I did guess what he did during the course of the story, but it isn't revealed until later. And then of course there's the wedding invitation she received to the wedding of her snotty sister and cheating ex, which she accepted (why?!) and said she was bringing a plus one... who ends up being Mack. There are some great happenings in the book club, which ended up being less of a book club and more of a challenge club. There is also a sad but quite uplifting part of the story too, along with the worry of who is trying to force Jenny out of her house with a few scary tactics, and why. Lots of things to keep the story interesting and amusing. Of course everything does eventually come together for everyone, especially Jenny, and there is a happy ending. A really lovely book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

Delightful! Written with wit and expression of the human heart.