Trisha Ashley - Twelve days of Christmas

review by Maggie live on show 4th Oct 2012. This is a smashing book with the feel good factor. Holly Brown has every reason to dislike Christmas. She lost her mum, her gran and worst of all her beloved husband in an accident just before the big day. However eight years on she is preparing to take her life to a new dimension with plans to have a baby, on her own, but before that to spend Christmas with her best friend, who is also her sister -in-law. Her career is as a chef, but in the Winter she house sits and a last minute call from her agency sends her to a remote house on the moors in Lancashire where the owner Jude Martland is away and has pets needing tending. On her arrival Holly finds that not only the animals but elder relations plus a teenager from a branch of the family plus three dependents in the Alms houses in the village also need her care. She takes it all in her stride and when two more travellers get stranded by bad weather her house is full. I was amazed by her cooking skills and the competent way she copes with all the season throws at her. She was intrigued by the name Martland which was her maiden name, but thought it just coincidence that her Nan had whispered that with love on her death bed, events prove suprising with many twists and turns.I loved reading the book and it is highly recommended. Maggie Perkovic.