The Christmas Promise by Sue Moorcroft

Themes: Adult, Contemporary, Christmas Romance

The synopsis

For Ava Bliss, it’s going to be a Christmas to remember …

On a snowy December evening, Sam Jermyn steps into the life of bespoke hat maker Ava. Sparks fly, and not necessarily the good ones.

Times are tough for Ava – she’s struggling to make ends meet, her ex-boyfriend is a bully, and worst of all, it’s nearly Christmas.

So when Sam commissions Ava to make a hat for someone special, she makes a promise that will change her life. She just doesn’t know it yet…

Curl up with this gorgeous, festive read – the perfect treat for fans of Katie Fforde, Carole Matthews and Trisha Ashley. 

The review

I think I’ll stop with Christmassy books for this year and not just because we’re actually in January… I feel like none of the books I’ve read this year really felt like Christmas and this one is no exception.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad and was evolving around Christmas and was cosy, but it just didn’t have the Christmas atmosphere I was looking for. I don’t know if it’s just me or if it’s the writing but…

The positive point is that I had a good surprise with the different topics the book tackled, all related to what a woman can suffer in life. Here, trigger warnings for sexual and emotional harassment/manipulation from an ex and rape (mentioned). Finding these topics in a Christmas romance was unexpected but is still welcome, even though they are raising awareness in an already aware audience. Ava’s trauma was treated well but what surprised me was Sam’s reaction, I would have expected more tact from him given his past.

To be honest I wasn’t really convinced by the friends or the main couple. The friends lacked development for their actions to be really interesting and Ava’s and Sam’s personalities are really too different for their relationship to be credible. But I leave the last point to your own evaluation… What saved the book was the all-hat-making thing, which was nice, and the characters of Sam’s mum and aunt who were interesting and likeable.

In brief: Another Christmas romance that didn’t manage to truly convince me, though it was a nice one-time read!

My rating: 3/5