Everyone’s idea of Christmas is different; some like the hustle and bustle, others like the peace and quiet. But for Lottie all she wants is to have that one last family Christmas that her Nana held every year since she can remember. Then everyone can move on with their lives and the only home that Lottie knows can be sold.
What can possibly go wrong?
Lottie’s cooking is not known to be great and the manor house is perhaps feeling unloved and needs some attention but the family descend and endeavour to honour Nana Rose memory.
Lottie’s widowed brother Zak arrives with his young daughter, Jessie and his new girlfriend, Emily. Their mother, Angie arrives with her latest young squeeze who looks oddly familiar to some.
Then there is Uncle Daniel and Auntie Nicola, tense and completely unaware of their teenage son Ryan’s new plans for his life.
Great Uncle Bernard resident already in the house with his carer Dayea has surprises of his own to share on the big day.
Add to this the return of Lottie’s old flame, Joe and it seems this Christmas is going to go off with the bang and that won’t be the crackers round the table.
With affairs, a frozen turkey, pregnancy, secret children, proposals, births, porn stars, scary dolls, snow and a dog called Dave this is one Christmas none of the characters are going to forget in a hurry.
This book has much love in it, but there is a great amount of humour as you see how all the characters interact when they are thrown together at such a stressful time and it was a book I could picture being brought to life on the big screen, it has so much visual potential. It works well as a book because it let’s your imagination run wild and it suddenly reminds you of all those ‘strange’ family traditions that we all have at Christmas.
As someone who comes from a very small family and has not experienced a Christmas such as Lottie’s (and I don’t want to) this was a fascinating humours insight which is worth reading to perhaps remind you that perhaps not all families are than unique! Especially at Christmas.
Thank you to the publisher via netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.
One Family Christmas is published on 15 October.
The Book Jotter 