Rachale's Reads

The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Lisa Dickenson

I’m very happy to be part of ‘The Twelve Dates of Christmas’ blog tour! Make sure you check out the other blogs on the poster below!

I’ve heard really good things about Lisa’s previous books, however I had not read any of them, so was ecstatic to be asked if I wanted to review this for the blog tour.

The cover is beyond gorgeous. The lovely turquoise colour of the back ground, the gold foil snowflakes and London eye, the silhouette of the London skyline and the white snow. Perfectly wintery and Christmassy. The typography as well is just beautiful. Now, time to stop fawning over the cover and onto the contents inside.

From the get go, this book was incredibly readable. Everything from Claudia’s struggle with her evil underwear to the incident in the bathroom was captivating and alot of it made me smile and laugh. Lisa has a fantastic way of writing to really get you visualising where Claudia is and how she is feeling is well written, clear and relatable.

Claudia’s close friendship with Nick and Penny is one of my favourite trio’s I’ve read. They obviously know each other really well and support each other. There is one incident when Penny tells Claudia something that made my Jaw drop and while I wish Claudia would have told Penny how she was feeling, I understand fully why she wouldn’t and it doesn’t matter how close I was to someone, it was a very difficult subject to approach, especially as she was denying her feelings to herself.

All the dates are varied but there are a few beyond the first one that are especially memorable. The blind date that Penny sets Claudia up with was just hilarious. Eddie was a disaster from the get go, but is a great example of the humour I was talking about earlier. The date with Billy was also one of my favourites and I really liked Billy as a character.

Of course there is conflict in the book not only in love interests but in friendships to, and the last third or so of this book really stood out, you could see exactly what everyone was thinking and while you wanted to shout ‘just speak to one another’, it’s always easier to see what other people should do in situations, and nothing is ever clear when you’re the one hurting.

This book has a wonderful wintery feel, with each date having the Christmas magic that this book promises. If you’re looking for a book to get you in the Christmas spirit, this is the perfect place to start!

Published by: Sphere
Gratefully received from the Publisher for review.  

View Book on Goodreads
Order on: Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository

Check out the other posts that have been on the blog tour!