The Merry Christmas Project by Cathy Bramley

The Merry Christmas Project by Cathy Bramley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 384

Publisher - Orion

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

Christmas has always meant something special to Merry - even without a family of her own. This year, her heart might be broken but her new candle business is booming. The last thing she needs is another project - but when her hometown's annual event needs some fresh festive inspiration, Merry can't resist.

Cole loves a project too - though it's usually of the bricks and mortar variety. As a single dad, his Christmas wish is to see his kids again, so getting the new house finished for when they're all together is the perfect distraction.

But this Christmas, magic is in the air for these two strangers. Will it bring them all the joy they planned for . . . and take their hearts by surprise too?

After all, anything can happen at Christmas. . .



My Review

Merry is taking a huge leap of faith, after stepping down from her job and living with her boyfriend she is giving it her all to set up her new candle business. When she thinks things are going in the right direction with her relationship fate has other ideas. Focusing on keeping busy she steps up to help arrange a festive memorial special event for the whole town. Cole is spending this year alone, his ex is with the kids far away from their wee town. Soon Cole gets swept up with the community festivities and a friendship with Merry and co.

If you want a bit of escapism with some Christmas spirit, relationships, friendships and a wee tug at some heart strings (nothing too heavy) then this is a perfect read for you. Merry is such a sweetheart and Cole's family is lovely too. It is a nice cast of characters and I think I needed that because there have been some belters of late. A community pulling together for this time of the year when it means so much to so many.

I liked reading about Merry's candle making too, it doesn't feature hugely in the book (I mean the actual process) but what it does I liked. I burn a fair few candles but never really thought about what all goes into the nor the tweaking, I liked how Merry came up with one particular scent inspiration.

This is my first dance with Bramley, it won't be my last. A nice wee break from reality read and ticks a good bit of the festives, 4/5 for me this time.

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