The Christmas Party

This is my first Karen Swan book, and I loved it! The story is set around a castle in Ireland at Christmas and has plenty of family drama going on, a death, a near-death, affairs and family secrets, a real page-turner. The story is all about the Lorne family - there's Serena (Mother), Declan (very recently deceased Father) and the three daughters - Ottie (runs the campsite on the family land / having an affair with a married man), Pip (runs the stables / trekking tours, loves her horses) and Willow (baby of the family, left home to move to Dublin 3 years ago because of.... something, a big secret). When the will is read everyone is shocked, as although everyone was left part of the estate and land/business they dealt with, the majority went to Willow, along with the castle, and not to their Mother. Although that may seem like a great thing to be left, in actual fact they are barely scraping by, the castle needs lots of work doing to it, and there is no way they can survive by keeping it so need to sell. So Willow was left with the hardest task of all of them. The main story was set around the sisters and their lives, and they were all so different. Ottie, the oldest, having an affair with a married man, had her head in the sand about their relationship. He was obviously only interested in the excitement of it all, and I was surprised she didn't catch on earlier as she seemed to have a good head on her shoulders. Pip, the middle sister, was definitely the more fiery, impulsive one of the trio, which got her into a few scrapes (and hospital at a few points). Willow was the one I liked the most, she obviously had family 'issues' (that we eventually found out about), but even though she was the youngest she was the one trying to sort everything out. There was lots going on to keep the story really interesting, along with a big party at the castle just before Christmas with the (possible) new owners, arranged with two weeks to spare, and major renovations and decoration in those two weeks to enable the party to happen. There were some great side characters - Tom Gilmore (injured runner), Connor Shaye (possible purchaser of the castle), and Taigh (previous crush of Pip's from school who she always treated really badly when she saw him). Although the story is set around the Christmas period, and has a gorgeous festive cover, it really could be read any time of the year and wasn't what I'd call a Christmas book, probably a 3 out of 5 for the 'Christmas feeling'. It's more centred on the family dramas and relationships. Really good book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.