The Christmas Cottage | Sarah Morgan
REVIEWED BY LINDA HILL
High flying, and hugely successful events manager, Imogen, seems to be in total control. But little do her colleagues know just what painful personal secrets she’s hiding… until Imogen’s carefully curated life starts to unravel.
The Christmas Cottage: book review & synopsis
What an absolute joy! Readers looking for fantastic storytelling, believable characters, love and tragedy all blended into a perfect Christmas narrative should look no further. Sarah Morgan has the unerring ability to provide Christmas in book form so that it’s impossible not to love every word.
The plot is so engaging and entertaining. There are unexpected elements that stop the reader in their tracks. There are moments of heartbreak and moments of sheer bliss, making The Christmas Cottage unmissable. This is such a gripping, heartwarming and emotional book.
Imogen engenders real sympathy from readers because at the start of the novel she is loneliness personified. Her relationship with Tina, her mother, is complicated, prickly and painful. Imogen is frequently hurt by Tina, but with no other family, we understand why she is frequently drawn back to her toxic mother.
The dynamic between them illustrates the way nature and nurture impacts on who we become. It’s impossible not to want Imogen to find happiness. I’d defy anyone not to want to climb into the pages of the book and hug her.
Family is a central theme to the narrative…
In contrast to Tina, Dorothy shows how a caring mother should behave, albeit when making mistakes along the way. This makes her such an appealing person as she is not perfect, but is simply doing her best.
I loved vet Miles, too, and for those seeking a swoon-worthy hero, he fits the bill perfectly. He adds romantic interest, but he’s also a sounding board for Imogen so that he adds depth and humanity, too. Indeed, this story is multi-layered, with deep emotion balanced by humour and lightness of touch. It really is a wonderful, wonderful story.
Alongside the themes of family, independence, and the basic need for human connection, there’s a lovely developing romance and a gorgeous depiction of Christmas, with every traditional element we love from snow to food, and with a few aspects we don’t expect, like alpacas, making The Christmas Cottage feel utterly absorbing.
It’s hard to think of a lovelier Christmas book. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
The Christmas Cottage by Sarah Morgan is out now (HQ, PB, £9.99) and available from Amazon.
Read more fiction reviews by Linda Hill including A Skye Full of Stars by Sue Moorcroft, Foster’s Mill by Val Wood, All I Want For Christmas by Karen Swan, City of Silk by Glennis Virgo, Things We Lose In Waves by Lucy Ayrton, Beautiful People by Amanda Jennings and A Merry Little Christmas by Cathy Bramley.
