This festive romcom is a total joy from start to finish. It’s funny, lively, touching and ever so clever.
We first meet our heroine Daisy Jones getting ready to go out to a special dinner with her boyfriend Freddie. She’s convinced he’s going to ask her to marry him. As it is, the big announcement is that he thinks they should move in together. Not quite what Daisy hoped for, but she comes from a line of formidable women who have never been ones to feel sorry for themselves. She takes it on the chin and proceeds to be happy enough with Freddie.
The main action takes place three years later. In quick succession Daisy finds Freddie in bed with another man, and then is first threatened with redundancy by Caring Cards, the greetings card company she works for, and then later the same day sacked for allegedly breaking the conduct rules. She has no choice but to go and live with mum Sandra and gran Elsie, and great-gran Gwenda, usually called Gee-Gee, who visits a lot. Their interactions are just brilliant! There’s also brother David and his wife Zoe, whom Daisy has always considered a dumb blonde.
To bring good luck Gee-Gee asks for an old silver sixpence to go into the Christmas pud. Daisy swallows this, which ends her up in hospital to be checked out but a rather terse and heartless Dr Hart. Three more of Daisy’s nearest and dearest end up needing medical car in the following period. Some luck that sixpence brought. However, it does bring Daisy into contact with Dr Hart again. But this is a book bulging with cross-purposes and misunderstandings and we get most of these between these two characters.
I won’t say more, but this is a romcom so it’s not too much to hope for a happy ending! And at least the sixpence doesn’t make a reappearance in a pudding, although something else just might…
The book is truly unputdownable. Daisy is such a great character. She’s loyal, kind and steady, but has her foibles like the rest of us. She’s regularly driven up the wall by her family but always does the right thing. She’s a sweetie. So is Zoe, who in many ways is the strongest character in this book. She develops wonderfully, whilst quietly teaching Daisy a lesson about learning not to make snap judgements about people.
The book is packed with imagination and humour and makes for a fabulously entertaining read.
Published by Canelo Press. Buy the book here: https://amzn.to/2UfPgiw