Christmas with the Lords by Hannah LangdonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Three and a half stars.
After her boyfriend of ten years dumps her on 1 December, because he doesn't want her to get her hopes up for a Christmas proposal again, Penny decides she is going to do something radical with her life, as part of which she agrees to be a 'mother's helper' to Bunny Lord over the Christmas holidays at her brother-in-law's house in Devon while her husband Ben is stuck in town on business.
On arrival, Penny is met by said BiL, Lando, who turns out to be a very grumpy, antisocial carpenter who apparently hosts his entire family for Christmas on sufferance. Meanwhile, Bunny turns out to be an slightly ineffectual artist on commission deadline with two very precocious four-year old twins (I think two was redundant in that sentence). Add in Bunny's suave (some might say sleazy) brother Anders, Lando's charming if somewhat ouche father William, and Pilar the Spanish chef and there's a lot of people.
As Penny develops a bond with the twins, and friendship with Pilar and Bunny, she discovers that Lando was once a fun-loving, high-flyer in the City but suffered a breakdown, lost his high-maintenance girlfriend and chose to move to Devon and carve instead.
Despite his grumpiness Penny and Lando develop a sort of bond, but with his plans to relocate to Greece and hers to move to India to be with her parents is there any kind of future? Throw in both their exs and this could be a Christmas to remember.
This was a charming, funny, idealised Christmas romance. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I question Lando's comment that he wakes up really early when the sunshine comes through his studio windows (when its December). In fact I have google-checked it and sunrise on 23 December 2023 will be 08:05 in the UK - hardly earth-shatteringly early.
I was invited to read this book by the publisher Storm for an honest review.
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