The Present - Charlotte Phillips

Description

12 magical gifts, one love that lasts a lifetime…

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me … one romantic Christmas you won’t forget.

When helping to clear out her beloved grandmother’s home, Lucy Jackson discovers twelve beautiful Christmas decorations hidden in the loft. As she discovers their heartbreaking story, a touching romance develops with the handsome gardener next door.

Review

I have to admit I actually got this book by mistake as Harper Collins have another book out by DS Devlin called The Present with an identical cover apart from the colourway. Even Amazon have reviews mixed up for each book and the profile for Charlotte Phillips on the book page for Devlin! It doesn't help that both books centre on the 12 days of Christmas and a journalist. So - choose carefully, one is a romance - this one - the other a crime novel.

After starting to read the book and wondering when the crime was going to happen I decided I actually wanted to read this book too. The print length is given as 400 pages but I have to say that flew by and I read it in a day or so.

The story centres around Lucy and the discovery of some beautiful Christmas decorations covering the 12 days of Christmas, except one of them is missing and this is what hooked me in. Why was it missing?

The decorations belong to Olive, Lucy's Gran and she is at present in the hospital and so cannot help Lucy uncover the mystery. However, Olive's gardener and handyman Joe, comes to her rescue. At first I did feel this was a little contrived, but as I got slowly sucked in and some depth to the characters of Joe and Lucy evolved I needed to find closure with this book.

Maybe it's the time of year, but with such a seasonal setting and pictures painted of a snowy landscape I just settled down with this book and went with it. The little mystery got solved and I ended up loving it all.

I'm giving this book four out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley for a copy of the book to review.

I'm off to read the "other" The Present now!

Comments

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