Annie Pandoro and her husband Joe own a small Christmas cracker factory, are well set up and happy together despite life never blessing them with a much-wanted child. But when Annie finds that the changes happening to her body aren’t typical of the menopause but pregnancy, her joy is uncontainable.
Palma Collins has agreed to act as a surrogate, hoping the money will get her out of the gutter in which she finds herself. But when the couple she is helping split up, is she going to be left carrying a baby she never intended to keep?
Annie, Palma and Eve all meet at the ‘Christmas Pudding Club’, a new directive started by a forward-thinking young doctor to help mums-to-be mingle and share their pregnancy journeys. Will this group help each other to find love, contentment and peace as Christmas approaches?
I love this time of year, cosying up with a hot chocolate
and a festive read while it is cold outside! There have been so many beautiful festive
covers that have caught my eye this year but The Mother of all Christmases jumped
out at me with its snowy setting and traditional log cabins showcasing festive
wares and to top it off it is by a favourite author of mine, Milly Johnson.
This book follows the pregnancy of three women Palma, Annie
and Eve who form a new firm friendship after attending the Christmas Pudding
Club. Although the book centres around the women and through their 9 month journey
to motherhood we also get to know a whole host of other characters in this book
many of whom you will recognise if you are a Milly Johnson fan and have
devoured all her books. I loved being reunited with much loved characters from
her previous books but don’t be put off reading this book if you haven’t read
any of Milly’s previous books as this book can easily be read as a standalone
without feeling like you are missing something. It does take a while to get to
grips with all the characters and how they know each other but before long they
all become easily identifiable and play a great part in the storyline.
I loved all three of our main characters, Eve who we have
met before is still running Winterworld and as well as her pregnancy she also
has her vowel renewal looming too which has a fabulous festive twist to it. Annie
and her husband Joe run a Cracker business and it was clear that Milly had
obviously researched this subject well giving us the details of cracker making
and the importance of a good quality snap! It seemed such a friendly wonderful
place to work with great characters in Iris and Gill. Most of all I loved Palma,
her story is one that will stay with me for a long time yet. Palma was
determined to turn her life around and her pregnancy was a somewhat
controversial one but as her character develops and we see her journey through
her pregnancy and her determination to stand on her own two feet and get a job
of her own I soon warmed to her and wanted her to get her happy ever after. I don’t
want to give too much away as something that happens in this book broke my
heart in two and brought real tears rolling down my face, something that in all
the years I have been reading and enjoying Milly’s books she has never done. Milly
has such a lightness to her writing that carries you through the pages feeling
uplifted and I think this was why when such a sensitive and devastating event occurred
it had such an impact.
There was a gentle helping of festivity in this book but not
overly done so this book can easily be read any time of the year. You will
laugh and cry along with the characters in this book, it was such an addictive
read that had me hooked from the first page and it is the first book in a long
time that I have devoured in one sitting as I was eager to reach the end to see
how everything panned out. However now I have finished I don’t want to leave
these characters behind especially Palma. This book in true Milly form gets
another big thumbs up from me.
Kindle Paperback
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