Stevie‘s review of Cupcakes for Christmas (Return to Willoughby Close, Book 1) by Kate Hewitt
Contemporary Holiday Romance published by Tule Publishing 25 Oct 18
I’ve read and enjoyed Kate Hewitt’s Lake District romances, as well as several of the women’s fiction novels she’s written under a different pen name. Up until now, however, I hadn’t delved into her Cotswold romance series. Christmas this year, however, sees the start of a new series, revisiting the location of the previous series and, not unexpectedly, quite a few of the characters from that series also. There’s always room for some new folk too, of course, which always promises to be helpful for new readers unfamiliar with previous goings-on in the setting.
Olivia James is the village baker and tea shop proprietor, having taken over the role when her mother retired and moved from the village into sheltered accommodation. Olivia is determined to make the business a success, rather than simply letting it tick over as her mother did, especially as she worries what costs she’ll incur should her mother’s memory problems continue to worsen. Encouraged by one of her regular customers, the teenage daughter of a friend, Olivia decides to expand her experiments with cupcakes into a themed promotion in the run-up to Christmas, and hopefully attract more new visitors to the shop.
The first of these turns out to be Simon Blacklock, a musician and music teacher, newly arrived in the village and staying with his sister, while he settles into a job at the local school. Although Olivia is attracted to him from the start, she is wary, especially when one of her friends warns her that Simon left his previous school under some kind of a scandal. While the book dealt sympathetically and accurately with the mental health issues experienced both by Simon and by Olivia’s mother, I did feel that these topics were a little too serious to be tackled adequately in a holiday novella and that the whole story would have been better suited to a full-length novel. I also had a few issues keeping track of the various couples Olivia socialised with, although I assume they would all be very familiar to readers of the series from which this one has been spun off.
All in all, not my favourite of either this year’s crop of Christmas stories or of the Kate Hewitt stories I’ve read, but I’m prepared to try the next in the series, in spite of my issues with this one.
Grade: C
Summary:
Olivia James has always been happy running a tea shop and bakery in the Cotswold village of Wychwood-on-Lea, and helping her friends find their happily-ever-afters, topped by the perfect wedding cake. But as Christmas approaches, Olivia is home alone and questioning her choices while eating too many of her own specialty confections.
When Simon Blacklock, a handsome, whimsical stranger, breezes into her shop and buys a cupcake and then returns the next day and the day after, Olivia begins to dream. Can romance blossom amidst the sugar and flour? And after a lifetime of living on the side lines, is she brave enough to star in her own story?
Simon may be hiding a painful secret, but Olivia harbors secrets of her own. If they can dare to risk their hearts, this Christmas might be the most magical yet!
No excerpt available.
