My review:
4.5⭐
Genre ~ holiday fiction
Setting ~ New England (I think New Jersey)
Publication date ~ October 27, 2026
Publisher ~ MIRA
Est Page Count ~ 381 (35 chapters)
Audio length ~ 10 hours 34 minutes
Narrator ~ Dara Rosenberg
POV ~ multiple 3rd
Featuring ~ snow storm, snowed in
Mabel is a lonely widow, and former successful children’s author, just looking to get through the holidays alone with her cats.
Brooke and her husband and 2 young daughters have traveled all the way from England to spend Christmas with her parents.
Izzy & Jason are trying to get home after meeting with a very demanding client.
And then there’s not one accident, but two, and all these strangers are spending Christmas together.
From having no filter, to being worried Santa won’t find them to the occasional melt down and to the bazillion questions, I thought that the 2 young girls, Elsie (8) and Poppy (4), acted their age.
Overall, this was so heartwarmingly sweet. There’s so much to love about this one. I have never hoped more for fictional characters to keep in touch forever.
Narration notes:
She did fine, but this would have benefited from having multiple narrators being it have multiple POV’s.
Add to your never ending TBR ~ goodreads
I’d love to hear your thoughts if you’ve read it.
Book blurb:
This year, nothing about Christmas is going to plan in bestselling author Sarah Morgan’s irresistibly feel-good novel full of friendship, love and festive chaos!
As the snowstorm of the century bears down on New England, reclusive author Mabel Miller is preparing to spend yet another Christmas alone with her cats. While everyone else is making merry, she’ll be avoiding the whole painful holiday. No decorations. No tree. No traces of Christmas. That is, until the weather intervenes and sends not one but two cars spinning into the stone wall surrounding her isolated cottage. Now she has a house full of strangers when the last thing she wanted was company for Christmas.
Yet Mabel’s unexpected guests—a family with two young children expecting Santa to drop gifts down the chimney, and two work colleagues who clearly have a history—are determined to make the best of the situation. As her attempts to protect her privacy are thwarted by the two little ones who are charmingly oblivious to her boundaries, soon Mabel is making cocoa and cookies for the first time in years, and allowing them into her library, a place that contains so many of her secrets.
Mabel has her reasons for keeping her truths so deeply hidden. But this Christmas, if Mabel is brave enough to share, she might finally be able to rewrite the past and find a festive happy-ever-after – for her new friends, but also herself.
Perfect for readers who love:
⚈ Feel‑good women’s fiction
⚈ Cozy cottage setting at Christmas
⚈ Books about books
⚈ Stories of friendship, love, and new beginnings
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Great review! Definitely on my list now!