Book Review: A Christmas Wish by Erin Green

Aria, August 2017

Flora Phillips has an excuse for every disaster in her life; she was abandoned as a new-born on a doorstep one cold autumn night, wrapped in nothing but a towel. Her philosophy is simple: if your mother doesn’t want you – who will?

Now a thirty-year-old, without a boyfriend, a career or home she figures she might as well tackle the biggest question of them all – who is she? So, whilst everyone else enjoys their Christmas Eve traditions, Flora escapes the masses and drives to the village of Pooley to seek a specific doorstep. Her doorstep. But in Pooley she finds more than her life story.

She finds friends, laughter, and perhaps even a love to last a lifetime. Because once you know where you come from, it’s so much easier to know where you’re going.

For those that know me, you know that you won’t hear too much about the actual story from my reviews. If you want those, then there are plenty of other reviewers and other sites that will tell you all you need to know about the story. No, I believe in telling you my thoughts on the style of the writing etc.

I have made it a habit, a joy of life to follow debut authors from the Romantic Novelists Association and it was with great joy that I came across this young lady’s’ first release. Getting published is a very difficult thing to accomplish, believe me, I know, however when you come across a story of this quality you know that all the hard effort that the author has put in is worth it as we, the reader, get to enjoy the fruits of her labour.

Briefly, this is a ‘Christmas’ story with a difference as despite the title, the story actually begins on Christmas Eve as our protagonist, Flora, is drawn back to the town in which she was abandoned as a new-born and the story is of her quest to find her mother. Aided by local copper, Joel, she finds more than she’d bargained for, and ultimately, the price she pays emotionally for the truth is more than made up for by what she gains from her spur-of-the-moment decision to leave a party to make the journey into the unknown.

For a debut author, I am very impressed by the skilful way this author weaves a tale of multiple characters, all with interlocking stories and motives that you swiftly get used to. It’s an unusual way of telling a story, though by no means less enjoyable for it and I’d be happy if I had half the skill to tell a tale so well. We switch from Flora, to Joel, to ex’s, landladies, doctors and well, you name it, we get it.

I’m very pleased to report that each character is well written, you can feel the love the author brings to each of her creations and this is a very, very accomplished first outing.

I shall leave you with one final thought – keep an eye out for this author because after you have finished reading ‘A Christmas Wish’, the first thought that will go through your mind is when will her next book be out?

by

Mick Arnold

Mick reviews books and will also be chatting about his experience as a male author in the romantic genre. Mick is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association, New Writers Scheme. He lives in Northamptonshire and is the proud keeper of two cats, Gus and Elphaba. When he’s not trying to write books, Mick has a deep-seated love of reading that he’s brought from his teens to the current day with no signs of waning. He’s also mad on the music of the Beach Boys and enjoys the theatre and humouring his Manchester United supporting wife. Mick can be followed on Twitter: @mick859