Book Review - Cold Feet at Christmas by Debbie Johnson

 

Cold Feet at Christmas by Debbie Johnson

Released: 6th November 2014

Publisher: Harper Impulse

Pages: 222

Available on Kindle

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Blurb

Running out on your wedding shouldn’t be this much fun!

A remote Scottish castle on a snowy Christmas Eve. A handsome husband-to-be. A dress to die for. It should have been the happiest day of Leah Harvey’s life – but the fairytale wedding turns sour when she finds her fiancé halfway up the bridesmaid’s skirt just hours before the ceremony!

Fleeing the scene in a blizzard, Leah ends up stranded at the nearest cottage, where she collapses into the arms of its inhabitant – a man so handsome she thinks she must have died and gone to heaven!

And when Rob Cavelli suddenly finds himself with an armful of soaking wet, freezing cold, and absolutely gorgeous bride on the run, he’s more than happy to welcome her into his snowbound cottage this Christmas…

 

 

I received a copy of this through Net Galley from Harper Impulse in exchange for an honest review.

 Cold Feet at Christmas has a lovely festive cover and a plot which sounded a whole bundle of fun and I couldn’t wait to get stuck in. Leah, the main character is having the worse Christmas Eve ever; she’s run away from her own wedding after catching groom Doug in the arms of her bridesmaid, the car she runs away in then breaks down in the middle of a snow drift. With no phone signal her only hope is walk across a snow filled field to the only light she can see.  So is it any wonder when she arrives at the cottage, bedraggled, worn out and soaking wet that when the door opens she falls straight into the arms of the extremely handsome Rob Cavelli.

Rob’s come to Scotland to escape Christmas and some demons from his past, the last thing he wants is to be disturbed but when he opens the door to a dishevelled but still beautiful Leah, something stirs in him and he can’t help but let her stay.  These two are instantly drawn to each other and it isn’t long at all before the temperature in the cottage rises and they end up in bed together.  So begins some very hot scenes as these two make the most of being snowed in at Christmas. Rob asks Leah to come back to Chicago with him and as she’s lost her husband to be, her home and her job she agrees.  Back on his home turf Rob decides he should maybe have left Leah back in Scotland as being around her is causing his emotions to go into overdrive and the guilt from his past flares up. As the two can’t handle their feelings and unable to just be friends, they start to have petty little arguments whenever they are around each other. Will they ever be able to admit their true feelings and live happily ever after?

After reading the first couple of chapters  I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy this book as it just all seemed a bit ridiculous and over the top. How many people would jump into bed with a total stranger the day after their supposed wedding, not many I’m sure? I had a real issue with Leah just totally forgetting about Doug, okay he was a total idiot for sleeping with her bridesmaid but if I’d found my man messing about on our wedding day I would be DEVESTATED and probably uncontrollable with tears, not to mention angry, I would NOT jump into bed with next man I saw, no matter how hot he was.  I also had issues with Leah jumping on a plane and moving to a whole other country without telling anyone. I get that she doesn’t have much of a family but there must have been someone other than Doug who she cared about enough to talk to about leaving.

I wanted to hate Leah, but despite her man-eating tendencies and her extremely childish behaviour I couldn’t help but like her.  She seemed to always look on the bright side of things and nothing seemed to really bother her and I’m glad she was able to make a go of her life in Chicago. I didn’t like Rob, he might be gorgeous but I thought he was incredibly selfish taking Leah to Chicago as some kind of play thing and then abandoning her and being rude to her when her realised he actually had feelings for her, what a jerk! I really think his mother should have given him a good talking too and told him to grow up and stop letting his past guilt give him an excuse to be so arrogant.

I’m not exactly sure what this book has to do with Christmas, apart from the fact that Rob and Leah meet at on Christmas Eve there is nothing festive about it. No family togetherness, no forgiveness, no gift giving or anything related to Christmas, so if you looking for a book full of Christmas cheer this is not the book for you.  I think the title is very misleading, a better title might have been “Craziness in Chicago” because that about sums it up.

This book did make me laugh at the lengths Leah went to to try and get Rob to notice her.  Although I did have a number of issues with the plot and the characters I did still enjoy it.  If you are looking for a read which is light-hearted and you don’t want to take it too seriously then this could be the book for you, if you’re looking for your next Christmassy read then maybe not.

Rating 3/5