I always feel so privileged to be part of Sue Moorcroft’s street team and so it gives me enormous pleasure to be part of the launch celebrations for her latest book, A Christmas Gift, by sharing my review today.

Sue is a regular here on the blog and you can see other Linda’s Book Bag posts with Sue in the following links:

Discussing One Summer in Italy

An interview with Sue Moorcroft

A guest post from Sue on over-sharing and my review of The Christmas Promise

A guest post from Sue on her fantasy holiday companions

My review of Just For The Holidays

A guest post from Sue on loving a village book

My review of The Little Village Christmas

A Christmas Gift was published by Harper Collins imprint Avon on 1st November 2018 and is available for purchase through the links here.

A Christmas Gift

Georgine loves Christmas. The festive season always brings the little village of Middledip to life. But since her ex-boyfriend walked out, leaving her with crippling debts, Georgine’s struggled to make ends meet.

To keep her mind off her worries, she throws herself into organising the Christmas show at the local school. And when handsome Joe Blackthorn becomes her assistant, Georgine’s grateful for the help. But there’s something about Joe she can’t quite put her finger on. Could there be more to him than meets the eye?

Georgine’s past is going to catch up with her in ways she never expected. But can the help of friends new and old make this a Christmas to remember after all?

My Review of A Christmas Gift

Georgine’s life is in a bit of bother, but could it be about to change?

Oh, I love A Sue Moorcroft book and A Christmas Gift is everything I have come to expect from her writing.

Firstly, there’s a smashing plot. Whilst there is, as I would expect, a romance in which the path of true love certainly doesn’t run smoothly, but which leaves the reader feeling tingly and satisfied, there’s so much more besides. I think Sue Moorcroft has excelled herself in A Christmas Gift as, although it is as meticulously researched as are all her books, this one held an extra layer of depth for me. The college setting and activities are believable and engaging but the social understanding and presentation of Joe’s past in particular I found incredibly touching – possibly because I taught in Peterborough near to the Middledip setting of the book. I also taught youngsters who came from exactly the kind of homes Joe lived in so that there was a deep emotional pull as well as a hugely entertaining story for me here. Alongside the socially affecting moments there is also a lightness of touch and a humour that made me smile and left me feeling uplifted and warm inside. A Christmas Gift is a heartwarming, wonderful read.

I found the balance of characters worked brilliantly. Because of the nature of the plot and setting there’s quite a few people to encounter, but not one felt extraneous or undermined the depth of Georgine and Joe’s characters and they became people I cared about. I thoroughly enjoyed the developing relationship between these two and I’d love to know more about them in a future book. I think it’s the deftness of touch in dialogue that brings them alive so well. Sue Moorcroft also seems able to convey how someone is feeling with such alacrity and style. There’s also such an ease to the writing. That’s not to say it’s simplistic, but rather that the experience of reading the story is effortless so that nothing jars or ever feels out of place. I really appreciate this when I’m reading.

My only reservation about A Christmas Gift is that I think some readers eschew books with Christmas in the title. With A Christmas Gift they would be so wrong to do so. Certainly the events build up to Christmas, but the smashing storytelling, the vibrant setting and the warm, human characters are relevant, engaging and interesting at any time.

I really loved A Christmas Gift. It is Sue Moorcroft on top form – again!

About Sue Moorcroft

Award winning author Sue Moorcroft writes contemporary women’s fiction with occasionally unexpected themes. The Wedding Proposal, Dream a Little Dream and Is This Love? were all nominated for Readers’ Best Romantic Read Awards. Love & Freedom won the Best Romantic Read Award 2011 and Dream a Little Dream was nominated for a RoNA in 2013. Sue’s a Katie Fforde Bursary Award winner, a past vice chair of the RNA and editor of its two anthologies.

The Christmas Promise was a Kindle No.1 Best Seller and held the No.1 slot at Christmas!

Sue also writes short stories, serials, articles, writing ‘how to’ and is a creative writing tutor.

You can follow Sue on Twitter @SueMoorcroft, find her on Facebook and visit her website.

There’s more with these other bloggers too: