The Christmas Love Letters: a gorgeous, heartwarming new Christmas romance to cosy up with this winter by Sue MoorcroftMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Three and a half stars.
Maddy Austen lives in the small Norfolk village of Nelson's Bar with her daughter Lyla and her great aunt Ruthie. Life has been hard for Maddy after her husband Adey disappeared nearly seven years ago leaving her pregnant, with mounting bills, a flooded house, and no home insurance.
But Maddy pulled through and now she and Lyla survive on the rent she receives on her old cottage and her carer's allowance for looking after Ruthie who is sight-impaired and has asthma.
A few weeks before Christmas a man visits Ruthie to say that he has found evidence that Ruthie had an affair with his late father, Nigel, and that Nigel and his wide Sindy adopted the child that Ruthie had with Nigel after she was born. The man, Raff, and his sister Ffion have found the love letters which Ruthie sent to Nigel and Ffion would like to meet Ruthie.
But just when it looks like Maddy's life is coming together and she can have Adey declared presumed dead after being missing for seven years, Maddy starts receiving text messages from a withheld number, which might be from Adey. Is he still alive after all this time? Will he want half the cottage? And how will this affect her developing romance with Raff?
The trouble with romance novels is that we readers get very set in our ways and I leaped to the conclusion that Maddy's romantic interest was going to be someone else so I was not predisposed to like as the romantic lead. Even when it was clear that my initial assumption was wrong and the individual in question was not the good guy, I just couldn't get over it. To be honest, I got a lot of things wrong about this novel, which probably proves the saying that if you assume you make an ass out of you and me, I was wrong about who sent the text messages (and why).
If you like a small-town holiday romance featuring School nativity plays, Christmas markets, misunderstandings and a HEA then look no further.
I was offered an ARC by the publisher Harper Collins via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
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