Dear Fellow Reader,

If you read last week’s review, you know that there is another Christmas book waiting review. Yes, I am finishing off my commitment to write about the ARCs that I have received. And might as well put the disclaimer in now – I was given this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

I will agree that it seems terrible to be reviewing Christmas books before Halloween. But think of it this way. If you want to get the book from the library, you can ask for it now. And I just checked, this book is available from my local library. I am not alone in reading Christmas books already because there are people waiting to read this book. It may be that the author has fans because this is her 15^th book.

To give you an idea about the book, the author describes herself in the following way:

“I love all things Jane Eyre”

That will tell you about the time period for the book.

An Ivy Hill Christmas is the story of Richard Brockwell, the younger son of in an English family. He has been living in London staying away from his family in Ivy Hill. His father had allowed him to stay in the house in the city with a skeleton crew, but his father is dead, and his mother and brother want him to return to the house at Ivy Hill. Richard decides that he will come home for Christmas. Richard’s mother wants him to marry and has invited some eligible women to be with the family at Christmas.

When I first started reading the book, I thought about Scrooge. Richard is not very giving. He seems rather caught up with himself. As the book progresses, we see a change or rather an unveiling of his personality and why he has been staying away from Ivy Hill. He has alienated his family to an extent with his standoffishness. But while he is at Ivy Hill, he rekindles relationships in the town, we see him warm up.

I did like that the story did not neatly wrap up immediately. The love interest did not swoon and fall into his arms. She did what she wanted to do and left Ivy Hill. It was a bit of a switch that I didn’t fully expect. Although as a bit of a gripe, why can’t these people ever talk to one another?  Oh, that is just me being crabby.

I did not realize this book was classified as a Christian Historical Fiction book. That probably would not have stopped me from reading it but I do have a comment about that. When I was reading it, for most of the book, I would not have said that it was a typical Christian book. It wasn’t until closer to the end that I noticed the Christian references. But I will say that they came on strong toward the end of the book. I almost felt like the author needed to pack it in at the end because she hadn’t had much reference to it before that. Now, you might not notice this. It is not anything that would stop me from recommending the book but the Christian references seemed a bit more at the end.

It is not a long story, I think it is considered a novella. It is about 224 pages long. A good length for a Christmas book. So, if you like a little romance at Christmas, I think you will like this book.

Thanks for reading.