It’s that time of year when I am feeling all festive, so grabbing myself a Christmassy book was essential! This weeks choice was The Little Village Christmas by Sue Moorcroft.

Alexia Kennedy – interior decorator extraordinaire – has been tasked with giving the little village of Middledip the community café it’s always dreamed of.

After months of fundraising, the villagers can’t wait to see work get started – but disaster strikes when every last penny is stolen. With Middledip up in arms at how this could have happened, Alexia feels ready to admit defeat.

But help comes in an unlikely form when woodsman, Ben Hardaker and his rescue owl Barney, arrive on the scene. Another lost soul who’s hit rock bottom, Ben and Alexia make an unlikely partnership.

However, they soon realise that a little sprinkling of Christmas magic might just help to bring this village – and their lives – together again…

Firstly I must confess to having owned this book for 3 years (damn you Amazon, and your ability to tell me when I purchased this novel and downloaded it my Kindle!!). In my defence I literally bought it a couple of days before Christmas, so I must have then missed my personal Christmas novel reading window! What my excuse is for the subsequent years of not reading it is, well that’s anyones guess!

Anyway, back to the book. The Little Village Christmas centres on Alexia Kennedy, a budding interior decorator who is so excited to have taken on the job of transforming an old pub in the village on Middledip into a much needed community cafe. She can’t wait to get started, she’s excited about the project but also about what it could do for her career. A project of that size really could push her up a level professionally. When disaster strikes, and every penny of the significant fundraising is stolen, Alexia finds herself at a loss, both personally and professionally.

Ben Hardaker is a new village inhabitant, and a hard man to read. Hidden away in his cabin with his rescue owl Barney, he very much keeps to himself. However when his uncles village community cafe project falls into disarray, he knows he needs to help. However with his own personal life full of secrets and mystery, he finds it difficult to connect with new people, even if Alexia, the project manager for the community cafe really needs him. They need to work together to solve the problems they are faced with, both personally and professionally.

I really loved this book! Alexia was such a great character, she’s full of drive and ambition. Despite all this though, it was almost reassuring to see just how much her confidence was knocked by what happens with her ambitious project – it made her much more realistic as a character and far more relatable. Sue Moorcroft really managed to get across Alexia’s hopes and dreams, as well as her disappointment and fears. With regards Ben, we are fed mere snippets of his life before Middledip, which adds a sense of mystery to the novel. I can honestly say that I was unsure of his whole story until it was finally revealed, and it really made his whole persona more relatable along with his fears of forming close relationships. Naturally Barney stole the whole show as our rescue owl with a good set of lungs him!

The setting of Middledip was perfect – a community coming together really does form the basis of a great, feel-good story. I think I can also guarantee that we all know a Carola, a woman set in her ways but really who just wants to feel needed.

All in all this is a fabulous Christmas novel, full of the feel-good factor. I am more than happy to recommend it to you all, so grab yourself a copy, snuggle under a warm blanket with a hot chocolate and enjoy!