The Hygge Holiday: The warmest, funniest, cosiest romantic comedy of 2017 by Rosie BlakeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reminds me a little of the film Chocolat.
Clara is a Danish girl travelling around England with her rucksack. Spending an evening in a Suffolk pub (quaint ye olde outside but depressing interior) she is entertained by one customer, Louisa, who arrives in her pyjamas and dramatically announces that she is selling her toy shop and moving abroad. Despite her initial misgivings, Clara feels she wants to spend more time in the village so she offers to house-sit Louisa's apartment and the toy shop while she is away.
The village of Yulethorpe is suffering, the shops are closing and people are moving away. Louisa's toy shop and the pub and Roz's post office shop are practically the only places still open. Clara feels a deep need to bring the Danish concept of Hygge to the village. If you don't know what Hygge is, its a feeling a warmth and comfort - that feeling when you are all toasty warm in front of the fire with a fluffy blanket on your lap and a dog sitting on your feet, sipping hot chocolate and reading a good book.
Louisa's son Joe is horrified to find that his mother has just dashed off and left a perfect stranger living in her home and running her business. Joe works in the City in M&A, he is Very Busy and surgically attached to his iPhone. Clara thinks Joe is more in need of Hygge than any other person she has ever met.
So far this book has made me want to clean my house, buy some rugs, start drinking hot chocolate and move to Suffolk! This is such a lovely book to read, the characters are warm and inviting, well apart from Roz who is a bit tetchy, I love the idea that one person could stimulate life back into a village and create such a sense of community.
It's funny and honest, loved this bit:
I read Mansfield Park for nothing; that Fanny Price must be the most boring woman in literature, I genuinely thought I might die before reaching the end of it ...I couldn't agree more I thought it was the most tedious book, full of religious piety until the last 100 pages when all hell broke loose.
If you are looking for a sweet romance set in the country (and don't mind foul-mouthed parrots with a weakness for screeching famous lines from movies, accompanied by an ad-libbed obscenity) then I can't recommend this highly enough. Beware, though I was outright blubbing at one point.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Bumped for release.
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