Calling Mrs Christmas by Carole Matthews

Cassie Smith has been out of work for a while but she has an idea. Drawing on her love of Christmas, she begins charging for small things: wrapping presents; writing cards; tree-decorating. She's soon in huge demand and Cassie's business, Calling Mrs Christmas, is born.

Carter Randall wants to make Christmas special for his children, so he enlists Cassie's help, and his lavish requests start taking up all her time. Thank goodness she can rely on her loving partner Jim to handle the rest of her clients. 

When millionaire Carter asks Cassie to join his family on a trip to Lapland, she knows she shouldn't go . . . Suddenly Cassie finds herself facing a heart-breaking choice that could change her entire life.

The first book in our 2013 Christmas book feature is Calling Mrs Christmas and let me tell you this book has started this feature off with a Bang! The cover is very traditional and festive, this will definitely catch your eye on the book shelves this Christmas.

Cassie has been unemployed for some time now and with her confidence dwindling and with both her and husband Joe finding the pinch living on one wage she is desperate to work and bring in some money. After being turned down by all her job applications she decides that she will start a business of her own and has a plan to be a Christmas planner. Before long she is in demand and her main client Carter has many Christmas needs but will Cassie be able to cope with this ontop of her other clients and how will husband Joe feel about the time she has to spend with the handsome millionaire Carter?

This is going to be such a hard book to compete with this Christmas. This was a truly fantastic book that was everything I could have dreamed of for a Christmas themed book. Each and every one of the characters in this book I loved, Cassie was a very down to earth warm character, there was a couple of times where I wanted to shake her but I felt as though her actions were a result of the pressures she felt from when she was unemployed. My favourite characters though were Rozzer and Smudge and their story really intrigued me it is something I haven’t seen featured in a book before and it is quite clear that Carole Matthews done a lot of research on this topic.

This had everything you could hope for in a Christmas themed book, presents, decorations, card writing, Santa and his elves and to top it all of Lapland! One thing you can always count on with books by Carole Matthews are the scenes that she sets are going to be very detailed and this book is no exception not only when Cassie is in Lapland with all the amazing adventures she partakes in but also when she is at home decorating too.

I love that although the book is very festive and entertaining there are also some raw, hard topics that are used with the young offenders and also with the recession and unemployment and the effects they have and yet this still doesn’t bring the joy of the storyline down at all.

Calling Mrs Christmas will definitely get you into the festive mood, and it is a real page turner that is just impossible to put down. This is going to be an unforgettable book and it is certainly up there with one of my favourites by Carole Matthews. Another fantastically festive read by the Queen of Chick Lit, Carole Matthews is my Mrs Christmas this year!

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