The Hygge Holiday by Rosie Blake

The Hygge Holiday

Rosie Blake

Rating: 5 stars

Amazon UK (K £1.99 / P £7.99)

Synopsis:

The perfect recipe for hygge this autumn: make a hot chocolate, draw the curtains, snuggle under a blanket and read your way to happiness!

It's autumn in Yulethorpe and everyone is gloomy. It's cold, drizzly and the skies are permagrey. The last shop on the high street - an adorable little toy shop - has just shut its doors. Everything is going wrong for Yulethorpe this autumn. Until Clara Kristensen arrives.

Clara is on holiday but she can see the potential in the pretty town, so she rolls up her sleeves and sets to work. Things are looking up until Joe comes to Yulethorpe to find out exactly what is going on with his mother's shop. Joe is Very Busy and Important in the City and very sure that Clara is up to no good. Surely no one would work this hard just for the fun of it?

Can a man who answers emails at 3 a.m learn to appreciate the slower, happier, hygge things in life - naps, candles, good friends and maybe even falling in love?

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I've never read a book by Rosie Blake before this and I could kick myself now! This book was absolutely delightful and left me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside - and wanting to light about a thousand candles and fairy lights!

I wasn't entirely sure what hygge was until I read this book (you find out the actual definition about a quarter of a way in but it basically means cosy), and now that I've finished it, I want everything in my life to be hygge too! It sounds like the best way to live your life. If you live in London like me, then you'll know that everyone is always in a rush. So to read a book about slowing life down and just enjoying the view - it was really refreshing and I think it's a beautiful way to live life.

I loved main character Clara, I think she was so relatable and just a genuinely lovely person (just like most of the other characters in Yulethorpe too!). I'll admit that even I was a bit dubious on Clara's reasons to run the toyshop at first too, but after the book got into it, I understood that she'd finally found a place that felt like home - after all that happened to her the previous year.

I feel that Joe and Clara's story was beautiful and I just really enjoyed reading every page of it. The characters are all different in their own way and all relatable. I just want to go and live in Yulethorpe now! I adored what Clara done to the toyshop and because this book was set in Autumn and the run up to Christmas - it was all just so hygge! (I'm going to keep using that word forever now!).

Overall, a truly delightful story with lovely, happy ending. I enjoyed every minute. Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for a chance to read this novel, which I have reviewed honestly.