Christmas Carol by Michele Gorman

Kindle Edition, Notting Hill Press, 2013.

One winter wedding, two happy couples, three ex-boyfriends… And a very uncomfortable weekend.

Carol hates Christmas. Being recently dumped, she’s not crazy about weddings either. So her sister Marley’s nuptials, over the Christmas weekend, are making her positively Scrooge-like.

When she arrives for the weekend at the stately home in rural Scotland to find her three ex-boyfriends in attendance, Carol has no choice but to face her ghosts to discover what really happened in those relationships, learning a lot about herself in the process. As the snow falls outside and the fire crackles in the hearth, might one of the wedding guests become the harbinger of Christmases to come?

This was a lovely modern take on Charles Dickens, The Christmas Carol. Romance and fiction, this story was great for me from the first page. Carol seems to have it together – she’s single but successful at her job. Her sister, Marley, is getting married and not being a fan of Christmas, Carol is forced a little into the festivities. Carol would rather be at work with her blackberry.

When all three of her ex boyfriends show up to the wedding, she’s not sure her time in Scotland could get any worse but through the clever use of flashback, we find out why all of these relationships broke up and I found myself cheering on my favourite and I hoped she’d end up with him at the end (to my surprise, it wasn’t who I thought but once I’d got to the end and found out what happened, I was pleased.)

The story was paced well and had me laughing out loud. Michele has a great way of drawing me into her books.

The supporting characters were fun (especially Granny who reminded me a little of my Nan,) and the setting sounded beautiful. I read it in pretty much one sitting, as I couldn’t put it down. It’s a great novella to snuggle up with in this horrible weather and get you into the festive mood.  I loved it. 

Christmas Carol is now available in paperback and eBook. 

• Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/15SFTd9
• Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1gZnuO8
• And on Barnes and Noble in the US: http://bit.ly/1gm1rB3

Michele is also on Twitter and Facebook or you can visit her website: www.michelegorman.co.uk

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Laura

I’m Laura. I started Novel Kicks in 2009. I wanted a place to post my writing as well as give other writers like me the opportunity to do the same. There is also a monthly book club, a writing room which features writing prompts, book reviews, competitions, author interviews and guest posts.

I grew up by the sea (my favourite place in the world) and I currently live in Hampshire. I am married to Chris, have a cat named Buddy and I would love to be a writer. I’m trying to write the novel I’ve talked so much about writing if only I could stop pressing delete. I’ve loved writing since creative writing classes in primary school. I have always wanted to see my teacher Miss Sayers again and thank her for the encouragement. When not trying to write the novel or writing snippets of stories on anything I can get my hands on, I love reading, dancing like a loon and singing to myself very badly. My current obsession is Once Upon a Time and I would be happy to live with magic in the enchanted forest surrounded by all those wonderful stories provided that world also included Harry Potter. I love reading chick lit. contemporary fiction and novels with mystery.