Your Favourite Snowmance

I review books and in the last three months of the year many of those I’m offered have a Christmas and or winter theme. So you wouldn’t think that I’d find it too tricky to choose a book today. The truth is that I can remember only a handful of these books by the time I’ve finished them. They’re mostly badly written and/or mawkishly sentimental and/or derivative and/or wildly unrealistic.

But there are a few that I have actually kept and re-read. One of these is The Christmas Project by Maxine Morrey. I really like Maxine’s books but there are some that are better than others. This is one is right up there. Kate Stone is a professional organiser (a job I very much want for myself) and as a favour to her friend Janey she takes on an extra client about a month before Christmas. The client is Michael O’Farrell, Janey’s brother, and after their first meeting that relationship is the only reason Kate doesn’t walk away from the job.

It’s not rocket science to work out what happens in the course of the book, but the route to the ending is engaging and not always expected. One of Maxine’s great strengths is her ability to create living, moving, believable characters and fascinating relationships between them. I like her books so much that you’ll read more of her this month.

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