Friday, 22 December 2017

Away for Christmas - Jan Ruth


Jonathan Jones has written a novel. Losing his job a few days before Christmas means the pressure is on for his book to become a bestseller, but when his partner drops her own bombshell, the festive holiday looks set to be a disaster.

When he's bequeathed a failing bookshop in their seaside town, it seems that some of his prayers have been answered, but his publishing company turn out to be not what they seem, and when his ex-wife suddenly declares her romantic intent, another Christmas looks set to be complicated.

Is everything lost, or can the true meaning of words, a dog called Frodo, and the sheer magic of Christmas be enough to save Jonathan's book, and his skin?


What did I think?

Just the thing to get us in the Christmas spirit is the latest novella from Jan Ruth, although the main character is more of a grinch than a jolly Santa Claus.  That's why I liked him!  I wasn't sure what to make of Jonathan Jones at first: he's an accountant who wants to swap numbers for letters and become an author.  His idea of keeping warm when it's cold outside is to wear two sweaters - give this guy my number, it's like looking into a mirror!

When Jonathan loses his job at the same time as his partner quits her job, it looks like Christmas isn't going to be much fun.  Add to this Jonathan's struggles with his publisher, who seem to forget he even exists, and even the coldest heart would start to feel sorry for him.  Things start to look up when he becomes the surprise new owner of a charming but neglected bookshop where he finally sheds his accountant skin and takes a few risks that could see all his dreams come true.

A book with books in it is always going to get a big thumbs up from me - it's definitely a book for booklovers.  I could virtually smell the books in Beachside Books and I knew it would be a place where I could spend hours browsing the shelves.  I loved Jonathan's dreams of becoming an author and taking risks which would be completely against his nature.  To see him evolve from an unhappy accountant to a much happier person at the end was well worth it.

Although it has Christmas in the title, it's not too Christmassy so you could definitely read Away for Christmas at any time of the year.  Whenever you read it, I know you will enjoy it as much as I did.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:




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