Book Review: The Little Village Christmas by Sue Moorcroft

Welcoming Sue Moorcroft back to Novel Kicks is a lovely way to kick off a Monday morning. She’s here with the blog tour for her latest novel, The Little Village Christmas which has recently been released by Avon digitally with the paperback release following at the beginning of November. 

Alexia Kennedy – interior decorator extraordinaire – has been tasked with giving the little village of Middledip the community café it’s always dreamed of.

After months of fundraising, the villagers can’t wait to see work get started – but disaster strikes when every last penny is stolen. With Middledip up in arms at how this could have happened, Alexia feels ready to admit defeat.

But help comes in an unlikely form when woodsman, Ben Hardaker and his rescue owl Barney, arrive on the scene. Another lost soul who’s hit rock bottom, Ben and Alexia make an unlikely partnership.

However, they soon realise that a little sprinkling of Christmas magic might just help to bring this village – and their lives – together again…

Christmas wouldn’t feel like Christmas, even in October, if there wasn’t a new Sue Moorcroft novel to enjoy – I was not disappointed.

Will that do? It should suffice as the line above should be all you need to know, assuming you’re familiar with the stories of Ms Moorcroft. If you’re not, then read on, but by the time you get to the end of this review and have then purchased the book, savoured the beautiful front cover and finally sat down to read said story, I’m certain you’ll be in agreement with my succinct review above.

Still not convinced? Very well, but be warned, if you want a more complete story outline, I suggest you go elsewhere. That’s not my style. I tend to give a brief overview of what happens, and concentrate on the writing style and characterisation, plus a small deal of procrastination thrown in for you fellow writers out there.

So, who do we have here? Our main characters are Alexia, an Interior Decorator who’s taking on one final project in her home village of Middledip (hurrah!) before, she hopes leaving for bigger things in London. However, as they do, the best laid plans fall apart when conmen steal all that’s worth stealing from The Angel Community Cafe she’s thrown into a steamy relationship with Ben, relatively new to the village who’d previously kept to himself for reasons that become clearer as the story progresses, that flounders and very nearly burns before it’s had time to get started.

A little about Ben. Ben had to sell his business when things went pear shape between him, his wife and his brother (we learn more of that as the story progresses), he’s a kind of skilled woodsman who has a pet Owl called Barney who very nearly steals the entire story. I challenge you not to fall in love with him!

Ms Moorcroft skilfully weaves a tale with multiple engaging characters and interweaving storylines that both delight and, yes this is the right word, shock you that the writer would dare do that to a character you’ve got to know and love – you know whom I’m talking about, don’t you Sue! All is perfectly woven together though as the tale ends at Christmas. There’s an epilogue that’s set about a year later which ties up things nicely.

This is a beautifully written and planned out book, which should be high on your list of Christmas (or October) reading. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

We all have our favourite authors whose latest releases we wait or with bated breath and Ms Moorcroft is one of mine, and I’m sure we all like to see them grown, develop their style and storytelling prowess; Ms Moorcroft does not disappoint as with each book there she demonstrates a maturity in her books that has one downside – the wait for the next one!

Over to you Sue.

The Little Village Christmas will be available to buy in paperback in most UK bookshops from 2nd November and online. Released by Avon Books UK in digital form on 9th October 2017. 

About Sue: 

Award-winning author Sue Moorcroft writes contemporary women’s fiction with occasionally unexpected themes.

She’s won a Readers’ Best Romantic Read Award, and been nominated for others, including a ‘RoNA’ (Romantic Novel Award).

Sue’s a Katie Fforde Bursary Award winner, and a past vice chair of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, and editor of its two anthologies.

The daughter of two soldiers, Sue was born in Germany and went on to spend much of her childhood in Malta and Cyprus. She lives in Kettering.
Sue can be found at her website: www.suemoorcroft.com, on her blog http://suemoorcroft.wordpress.com. You can also say hi to her on Twitter: @suemoorcroft and Facebook: sue.moorcroft.3

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