Before I get stuck into my book review for the fabulous How To Stuff Up Christmas by Rosie Blake, I just wanted to take the opportunity to wish all of my blog readers and social media followers a very happy new year - I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a fabulous start to 2016!
How To Stuff Up Christmas was one of those books that I desperately wanted to read over the festive season and was delighted to have been able to squeeze it in between Christmas and New Year. As the last book I read of 2015 it was a brilliant book to end the year with as it was an extremely enjoyable and heartwarming read that was packed full of emotion.
In How To Stuff Up Christmas we first meet Eve when her parents are round at her place encouraging her to get up and live her life after splitting up with Liam who completely broke her heart. Christmas is fast approaching and, with little desire to spend it at her parents house with all her family where she would be surrounded by memories of the previous, perfect Christmas, Eve decides to take herself and Marmite the dog away to a houseboat in Pangbourne. Whilst here she enrols herself on a pottery course, develops a love for cooking she never really knew she had and falls a little bit in love with the local vet, Greg.
Eve was one of those characters who you couldn’t help but instantly warm to and want the best for from the very first page. I loved the way that she was surrounded by so many other fantastic characters who were all so supportive of her and everything she did. Even Marmite the dog became a source of great comfort and support to Eve and it was pretty easy to see why with his cheeky, mischevious and thoroughly amusing ways.
This was quite simply a joy of a book to read. It was beautifully written and really easy to get into, kept me entertained and also had me guessing and wanting to find out about the secret Daisy - Eve’s best friend - was so obviously keeping, what was going on with Greg, and who it was that Liam had been caught cheating with. I had my theories on all of the above and was proved drastically wrong on each proving that this is not a predictable read and that Rosie has spent much time carefully thinking through her plot.
What was also really lovely about this book, and an added little bonus, was the fact that most chapters contained a recipe at the start which seemed pretty easy to follow. These are great particularly if, like me, you’re not exactly a pro in the kitchen so I will definitely bear these in mind and dig this book back out again next Christmas if I fancy rolling my sleeves up and getting creative in the kichen.
This was a fabulous book that I adored from beginning to end - I truly loved being a part of Eve’s world - and I’m really looking forward to reading more by Rosie in the future. In the meantime I’m definitely going to be checking out her first novel called How To Get A (Love) Life.
