Book info

• Title It Must Have Been the Mistletoe
• Author Judy Astley
• Year 2014
• Genre Christmas

Thea's parents decide to host a big family Christmas in a house by the sea... even though they are, in fact, about to split up. And while her sister and brother are both settled, Thea herself is newly single - her boyfriend has ditched her in favour of his pedigree dogs, and Thea can't decide whether or not she minds. There will be copious food and drink, holly and mistletoe, lots of bracing walks and a wintry barbecue on the beach. If it seems an odd way to celebrate the final break-up of a marriage and the Moving On to new partners, no-one is saying so. But then no-one had anticipated that the new partners might actually turn up to complicate the sleeping arrangements...

Thoughts

This was a good set up for a story, people heading out of their comfort zone for a final Christmas together as a family, and I really felt the atmosphere nicely. I didn’t feel like there was a lot of plot to unravel, though - from the very beginning it was clear that the parents didn’t actually want to split, we knew straight away that there had been a miscommunication over the sexuality of our main couple, and all the other ones needed was a minute to relax. It was mostly just like spending time in the company of these characters, rather than actually getting a super-duper story. But still, very Christmassy!

Rating: 3 / 5