Christmas on Lily Pond Lane
Emily Harvale
Rating: 4 stars
Snow is falling in Little Pondale, lights are twinkling and the smell of pine trees and roasting chestnuts fills the air...
But Mia Ward is in a bit of a jam. She'd planned to rent out Corner Cottage for Christmas but thanks to her best friend, Ella Swann, it's double-booked. Now Mia's got to let one 'party' down, or find another cottage - fast.
Best friends and single mums, Cathy Cole and Christy Franks want their kids to have an old-fashioned Christmas. Ice-skating, carol singing, making decorations, and tobogganing are on their list of festive fun and Little Pondale is the perfect place. Especially as it has no mobile reception. That will make it harder for Cathy to be found.
City banker, Leo Hardman is wondering if renting a cottage for Christmas as an anniversary surprise for his parents, was such a good idea. Little Pondale may be where his parents met, but his mum doesn't seem pleased to be back, and his brother, Hal isn't happy that the village is so tiny and only has one pub.
Meanwhile, Jenny Lake is settling in at her cousin's bakery, having left her (broken) heart in Florence, but Christmas was never her favourite time of year. And Reverend Glen Fox has taken over at St Michael and All Angels. He's glad it's a temporary post because village life is not for him.
But luckily, for locals and visitors alike, there's a sleigh-load of Christmas magic heading for Lily Pond Lane; enough to put a spark in everyone's festive season. Although Christmas may not go quite as each of them has planned.
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I know this is probably the wrong time of year to be reading this particular type of novel, but I've been loving the Lily Pond Lane series so much that I simply didn't want the story to stop! I was a bit skeptical at first as to whether I would get into it, but once I got started I couldn't put it down! Once again I was drawn in. As always, the cover remains basically the same, but with little changes here and there. I love the bright red Christmas sky, the snow and of course all the pretty decorations! It all looks so festive and makes me want to visit a place like Little Pondale!
As always, the novels follow main characters Mia along with best friend Ella, mum Lori, neighbour Hettie and new boyfriend Jet. However, with this one we also read about some other characters point of view, such as Glen (the new vicar), Jenny (the new baker), Cathy (who was renting Corner Cottage for Christmas) and Leo (who ends up renting Sunbeam Cottage for Christmas). And as much as I loved reading about Glen and Jenny, I felt the storyline behind Cathy and Leo was a little bit rushed. If the novel had been a bit longer and it was drawn out over a space of time, I felt it would have been better, but it just kind of felt a bit rushed and all over the place.
I loved reading about Jenny's cakes and sweet treats and couldn't wait to see what love had in store for herself and for Glen. They seemed like such lovely people and I was hoping that everything turned out well for them. Hettie was another of my favourite characters and I'm pleased that she wasn't forgotten or left out of this Christmas novel - she has such a quirky nature that I love (even if I did suspect her in parts 1 to 4!!!). As I mentioned above, we also got to meet Cathy and Leo who both decided to visit Little Pondale for Christmas for different reasons. Cathy was escaping someone and Leo wanted to impress his mother and father. I just really felt that there was no build up to their relationship, I think they met about once and hardly spoke and after that they had fallen in love? Which is quite disappointing as I would have loved to have read more about their relationship building and growing.
I think, because of the Cathy and Leo storyline, that we didn't really get to read much about our other characters in the novel such as Ella and Gill. I'd love to read more about their relationship progressing, but I think Gill was mentioned once or twice and that's it - which is a shame as he was quite an important character in the last novella in the series. And I think maybe we didn't get to read too much about Mia either - and Mia's my favourite character!
As I say, it's a shame but at the same time it was nice to read about new members of the Little Pondale community. I loved the rest of the novel, just not Cathy and Leo's storylines as much! Which is why I could only rate this a 4 star, instead of the 5 I have usually given.
As always, the novels follow main characters Mia along with best friend Ella, mum Lori, neighbour Hettie and new boyfriend Jet. However, with this one we also read about some other characters point of view, such as Glen (the new vicar), Jenny (the new baker), Cathy (who was renting Corner Cottage for Christmas) and Leo (who ends up renting Sunbeam Cottage for Christmas). And as much as I loved reading about Glen and Jenny, I felt the storyline behind Cathy and Leo was a little bit rushed. If the novel had been a bit longer and it was drawn out over a space of time, I felt it would have been better, but it just kind of felt a bit rushed and all over the place.
I loved reading about Jenny's cakes and sweet treats and couldn't wait to see what love had in store for herself and for Glen. They seemed like such lovely people and I was hoping that everything turned out well for them. Hettie was another of my favourite characters and I'm pleased that she wasn't forgotten or left out of this Christmas novel - she has such a quirky nature that I love (even if I did suspect her in parts 1 to 4!!!). As I mentioned above, we also got to meet Cathy and Leo who both decided to visit Little Pondale for Christmas for different reasons. Cathy was escaping someone and Leo wanted to impress his mother and father. I just really felt that there was no build up to their relationship, I think they met about once and hardly spoke and after that they had fallen in love? Which is quite disappointing as I would have loved to have read more about their relationship building and growing.
I think, because of the Cathy and Leo storyline, that we didn't really get to read much about our other characters in the novel such as Ella and Gill. I'd love to read more about their relationship progressing, but I think Gill was mentioned once or twice and that's it - which is a shame as he was quite an important character in the last novella in the series. And I think maybe we didn't get to read too much about Mia either - and Mia's my favourite character!
As I say, it's a shame but at the same time it was nice to read about new members of the Little Pondale community. I loved the rest of the novel, just not Cathy and Leo's storylines as much! Which is why I could only rate this a 4 star, instead of the 5 I have usually given.
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