Snowflakes and Christmas Cakes by Lindsey Paley
Published: 15th June 2015
Publisher: Purple Heather Publishing
Pages: 178
Available on Kindle
Blurb
When all-round buttercream princess, Millie Carter, becomes stranded at Craiglea Manor Cookery School, she believes her chance of enjoying a merry festive season is over.
The village of Aisford is Christmas-card perfect, but Millie hates it - she hates the snow, her freezing fingertips, and being forced to look like her Aunt Marjory in a mud-splattered wax jacket and wellies instead of her beloved shorts and sparkly sandals.
She plots her escape but ends up locking spatulas with the estate manager, Fergus McKenzie, who is forced to rescue her before she succumbs to a severe dose of hypothermia. Things start to improve with the arrival of handsome Sam Morgan, fresh from the beaches and rum shacks of the Caribbean.
Can Millie accept her fate? And will Aisford sprinkle some of its seasonal magic on her troubles?
Snowflakes and Christmas Cakes is a festive story of love and friendship and reaching for the buttercream icing and edible glitter when life gets tough.
Review
Snowflakes and Christmas Cakes is the first book in Lindsey
Paley’s Camille Carter series and is a book which is full of mishaps and
festive treats surrounding Camille Carter or Millie as she prefers to be known.
Millie Carter’s a girl who adores the sun and living in the
south of France she gets plenty of it, this year she has reluctantly agreed to
spend Christmas with her sister Nicole in cold and wintry England.
Arriving in London with not even a coat Millie is about to
get a shock when sister Nicole suddenly cancels their holiday plans and asks
Millie a huge favour. Will she replace Nicole as a cookery demonstrator at
Criaglea Manor in the Lake District to deliver a course on the perfect
Christmas dinner. With no other option Millie agrees and heads north towards Criaglea
Manor and hopefully a cosy Christmas sharing her passion for cooking with a
group of enthusiastic learners.
However as Millie arrives things are not as she dreamed,
Aisford where Craiglea Manor is situated is covered in snow, the only way to
get around is via quad bike and she’s going to need to buy herself a huge coat
to keep out the chill in the air. When she arrives at the Manor things are even
worse the heating’s broken and the cookery course has been cancelled.
Stranded at the Manor for the weekend with no way of escape
Millie entertains herself with thoughts of handsome estate manager Sam, baking
up a mountain of Christmas treats and most of all trying to avoid the frosty
Fergus who sees Millie’s whole presence an inconvenience, especially after he
has to rescue her from hyperthermia when she tries to make her way back to the
train station.
As Millie reluctantly settles into village life for the
weekend and meets many of the villages lovely residents is there someone
special who can thaw her heart and convince her life in the snowy village isn’t
as bad as she thinks.
I really enjoyed reading this book and found myself warming
to Millie despite her being quite a standoffish and cold character to begin
with. I liked her a whole lot more once
she began to get settled in the village and could see her fitting in well with
the group of characters who became her friends.
I thought she was quite a lucky lady too as there seemed to
more than one man who had noticed her arrival and I was glad with the choice
she finally made.
I loved that this was more than a chick-lit romance and had
some more serious moments involving some of the characters. I also loved the
comedy moments Millie provides by being angry and clumsy. The aftermath of her
kitchen bake-off I can totally relate, I also leave a trail of mass destruction
wherever I go so loved this characteristic in Millie.
I’m so glad this is part of a series as I’m really looking
forward to reading more about Millie and hopefully other characters from the
village. This story was well written with some heartfelt moments and plenty of
laughs, an ideal read for a wintery afternoon by the fire.
Thank you to Neverland Book Tours for inviting me to be part
of this tour and for the review copy of the book.
Giveaway: open to UK residents only
1 eBook copy of Snowflakes and Christmas Cakes and an actual Christmas cake. Mmm!
Click on the link below to enter, good luck x
A huge thank you, Joanne, for being part of my very first blog tour and for the lovely review. Lindsey
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