Book Review: Christmas at The Falling-Down Guesthouse by Lilly Bartlett

Get ready to meet Britain’s Worst Innkeeper.

Put your feet up and tuck into the mince pies, because you won’t have to lift a finger to enjoy this Christmas at the Falling-Down Guesthouse!

Too bad the same can’t be said for single mother and extremely undomestic goddess, Lottie. When her beloved Aunt Kate ends up in hospital just before Christmas, Lottie and her seven-year-old daughter rush to rural Wales to take over her B&B. A picky hotel reviewer and his mad family are coming to stay, and without the rating only he can give them, Aunt Kate will lose her livelihood.

But Lottie can barely run her own life, let alone a hotel. How will she manage to turn the falling-down guesthouse into the luxurious wonderland the reviewer expects? And could the mysterious taxi driver, Danny, who agrees to help her, turn out to be the real gift this season?

Lottie is a single mother to daughter, Mabel. The only other family Lottie has is Aunt Kate who lives in Wales.

When something happens to her Aunt just before Christmas, Lottie and Mabel travel to Wales to run Kate’s B&B. Lottie has to help Kate get an important rating in order to keep the business open. When she gets there, she finds that it is going to be more of a challenge than she thought.

This novella is set over Christmas so it already had me excited to read it. It was lovely to read something Christmassy and has got me in the mood for the festive season nicely.

Lottie is truly thrown in the deep end and I really felt for her as a character. It seems to be one thing after another for Lottie and yet she still tries to keep her sense of humour and attempts to remain calm. Danny is also an interesting character and the two had a good dynamic together. Both are loveable characters.

The setting for this book sounds so beautiful. I wanted to jump into the novel.

From the beginning, the plot had me hooked. I wanted to know what happens to all these people. The story is well-developed. I want to know what happens next through. I was also intrigued by Kate’s life prior to the story.

This novel is about what is important especially as Christmas. A sweet, warm seasonal novella that’s a perfect way to get you into the Christmas spirit.

Christmas At The Falling-Down Guest House was published by Notting Hill Press in October 2017 and is available to buy now. Click here to view on Amazon.

About Lilly…

Lilly Bartlett’s cosy romcoms are full of warmth, quirky characters and guaranteed happily-ever-afters.

Lilly is the pen-name of Sunday Times and USA Today best-selling author, Michele Gorman, who writes best friend-girl power comedies under her own name.

(Christmas At The Falling-Down Guest House was originally published as The Reluctant Elf.) 

by

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.