Book Review: A Christmas Caroline by K.L. Crear

Published December 9, 2025 | By Laura

It’s a pleasure to be welcoming K.L. Crear to Novel Kicks and the blog blitz for her book, A Christmas Caroline.

Caroline’s got frugality down to a fine art. She can make a tin of soup stretch for days, considers “reduced to clear” her love language, and thinks Christmas is just a daft excuse for people to throw their money away on tinsel trimmed tat.

But Christmas Eve night takes a turn when her best mate, Marlene, drops in for a chat. Lovely, right? Except Marlene’s been dead for seven years and she’s got a message for Caroline, she will be visited by three spirits and if she doesn’t pay attention, her future’s looking bleaker than the contents of her fridge freezer.

Caroline’s convinced she’s having a hallucination. Ghosts? Surely not! But as the night goes on, she starts to wonder if she might just learn something worth more than her latest discount voucher. And for someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing, this might be the wake-up call she didn’t see coming.

Move over Ebenezer! This modern, laugh-out-loud retelling of the Dickens classic has a new Scrooge in town. Perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella.

*****

Caroline is not a fan of Christmas. She’d much rather spend 25th December alone than spend any money and time with others. In fact, to be more accurate, she’s not a fan of people and spending money throughout the year either.

However, she’s about to be shown the errors of her ways by a very specific group. Can Caroline find merriment in the festive season and beyond?

Oh I do love a festive story and this one did not disappoint.

The basic plot of this novel will be familiar to many people. However, it’s been given a modern twist and I totally loved how it was done. A Christmas Carol is one of my favourite stories and has been adapted a lot but with this novel, I wasn’t bored at all. I felt that the author has written this in a fresh, funny way. I laughed out loud at many of the lines and interactions between the characters. There were also heart warming moments and of course, life affirming ones – much like the book it’s been adapted from.

At the start of the story, Caroline is a sad character. She prefers to be alone. She hardly spends money for any reason, old beyond her years and prefers her own company. By the end, as a reader, you hope she does change her ways.

The supporting characters are wonderful.

It’s a short novel and is a superb way to spend a couple of hours. It’s a fun, modern take on a well known tale that reminds us to not take life for granted and that many wonderful things await you provided you’re open to them. I loved it and adored how it ended.

A Christmas Caroline is a brilliant festive novel, perfect for those evenings sat by the Christmas tree.

About K.L. Crear –

Karen (K.L. Crear) is an author, over-sharer, and walking cautionary tale. Think: a sweary teenager trapped in the body of a menopausal woman who can’t sneeze without risking a wardrobe malfunction. You’re welcome.

Once upon a time, she worked in banking, the Civil Service, and property management, or as she likes to call it, The Beige Trilogy. She spent decades being respectable (ish), responsible (occasionally), and quietly losing the will to live. Then one day she found herself broke, baffled, and built entirely out of biscuit crumbs and unresolved trauma. So she did what any sensible woman would do, she wrote it all down and flogged it in paperback.

Karen has battled cancer twice, and her coping strategy was to laugh at wildly inappropriate moments and shout “F*ck off!” at inspirational quotes. Spoiler: it worked. Her sense of humour is deeply questionable, but it’s kept her just about sane through grief, illness, love, lies, and the time she gave herself food poisoning with a dodgy prawn ring from Iceland.

After years of procrastination (and one too many vinos), she finally swapped Pinot for a pen. She now writes jaw-dropping memoirs and hilarious women’s fiction about women who’ve had enough, snapped slightly, and are thriving in spite of it all, usually with a glass in hand, some top mates, and a solid alibi.

Her hobbies include eating anything wrapped in pastry, shouting at the Real Housewives (“She’s definitely had something done – she’s melting!”), and threatening to adopt an axolotl because they look so absurdly cheerful. She once turned down hugging a sloth in Mexico, it dangles upside down, pees on itself, and honestly felt lihttps://www.novelkicks.co.uk/ke a warning from the future.

Karen lives in a sleepy Northern town with her long-suffering husband (he’s partially deaf, which helps) and their cat Pickle, who looks permanently disgusted with their life choices and the ongoing Dreamies rationing.

A portion of every book sale goes to Women’s Aid, Great Ormond Street, the Epilepsy Society, and Macmillan. because she knows what it’s like to need help. The world’s a shitshow, but we can all make a little difference in our own way.

Say hello to Karen via her website, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Amazon Author Page.

A Christmas Caroline is available to buy at Amazon UK, Amazon US, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble.