In The Christmas Promise we meet Ava Blissingham who is a milliner, which for those that don't already know is a person who makes or sells hats. Ava's single, has lived with her best friend Izz for several years and has found it very hard to get excited about Christmas ever since her Gran passed away. One day, at a time when she's really not feeling too great she decides to accept Izz's invitation to a party with her colleagues. Here she meets the lovely Sam who she quite quickly develops feelings for, but with Sam's mother and her irritating, horrible ex who seems determined to make her life as miserable as possible will Ava be able to have a happy Christmas?
The characters in this book, particularly Ava who I wanted nothing but the best for were all perfect. Sue's created characters who you can really feel something for, whether a positive or negative emotion and Sue has simply done a brilliant job at portraying incredibly realistic and believable relationships which help to make this book so wonderful.
Something I love about reading is being able to learn something new and thanks to the amount of detail and research that has gone into this novel I certainly did learn something whilst reading it. I particularly enjoyed learning about the life of a Milliner and finding out so much about the art of making a hat - there's really a lot more to it than you could possibly imagine.
This is a story that completely astounded me, one that I was absolutely not expecting but that was so totally perfect in every possible way. Unlike many festive reads this book was not just about the sparkly tinsel and the pretty fairy lights but was a book that had many twists and turns a long the way. What's more it was most definitely a book that had a lot of depth and meaning to it and most definitely touched on some pretty heavy issues in an incredible manner. You might think that heavy issues would make for difficult reading but that is definitely not the case thanks to the wonderful way in which it was written, with Sue injecting appropriate humour and hope along the way. It all just seemed very real, inspirational and certainly unforgettable!
Just in case it isn't clear enough I LOVED this book so much and definitely promise that this most certainly won't be the last book of Sue's that I read. This is a book you don't want to miss and I highly recommend it!
