I’m happy to be part of the blog tour for The Gingerbread Christmas Village by Kiley Dunbar. Thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources for my gifted ebook to write this honest review.
Everyone deserves a Christmas treat…
The annual Wheaton gingerbread exhibit (a model village made of gingerbread) and grotto has been an important part of the sleepy Cotswold hamlet’s Christmas celebrations for decades.
For years the gingerbread exhibition drew visitors from across the region and each year the model town grew more elaborate and ambitious but recently, interest has been dwindling. The gingerbread grotto needs to be rehomed or close forever.
Sixty-four-year-old Margi, the event’s founder, has had enough of village life (and its total lack of eligible men) and is planning to sell up and head to Birmingham to live closer to her niece.
She has lost her spark and her Christmas spirit and decides this will be her last gingerbread village, but despairs when she finds her only support is her old friend, Izzy, her niece Lucy from Birmingham, and Fern, the shy young farmer’s daughter. Oh, and Patrick, the gorgeous, reliable school caretaker.
As if this wasn’t enough, Lucy is determined to get her out dating again and persuades her to try some online dating apps but Margi’s had her heart broken too many times and wonders if she has just missed her chance.
Can they save the Gingerbread Grotto and can Margi get her old spark and her Christmas spirit back?
A cosy, totally feelgood seasonal read that will have you smiling. The perfect read to snuggle up and have you feeling festive! Fans of Jenny Colgan and Trisha Ashley will love this book.
Who doesn’t love an uplifting, festive read? Even if it was August? This is the first book I have read by Kiley Dunbar, and it won’t be my last.
The fact that the characters were multi generational made this book for me. Margi is in her sixties, and I love her attitude. She is a woman after my own heart. I am just over a decade younger but can relate to how she feels. She isn’t happy to sit down and say,’ My time for that type of thing is over.’ No, she is more of a ‘let’s have a go’ woman. I got right behind her and did love being part of her journey in this story.
Kiley Dunbar has created some very real characters. I loved their friendships and how they spanned generations. The warmth, the realistic characterisations of everyone, and the authenticity of the emotions throughout the book definitely tugged on my heartstrings. Every single story of each character resonated in some way or another, and this contributed so much to how captivating this book was for me.
The fact is that it’s set around Christmas, with the festive feelings and the fact I felt like I could almost smell the gingerbread, too! Had me wishing it WAS Christmas, really! Something I never wish for, and that’s all down to this author’s skill in her descriptive writing.
The Gingerbread Christmas Village was my first festive read of 2023, and it introduced me to an author I can’t wait to read more from. It was a fantastic, heartwarming read in time for Christmas.
Purchase Links
Apple https://bit.ly/3nM5iUG
Author Bio
Kiley Dunbar is a Scot living over the border in Northern England where she teaches English and creative writing, devours romance novels, fusses over Amos the Bedlington Terrier, and loves two little Dunbars. She thinks making imaginary people find happiness and fall in hopelessly in love has to be the best job in the world.
Social Media Links
‘Kiley Dunbar Author Book Page’ on Facebook
website and newsletter http://www.kileydunbar.co.uk/
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI8wM4Fmkbyg4S_XGSnfUCA
Twitter https://twitter.com/kileydunbar
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