After reading Edie Browne’ s Cottage by the Sea, I knew I was onto one of my fave authors and this book did nothing to sway me away-I mean how can you find someone who does heart stopping beautiful backdrops, mesmirising romance and solid, funny characters, peppered with great humour and notbe a huge fan?

I will start, as always, with the comedy. I made some comedy predictions in this-as in ‘I hope this will happen’ and (yessss!!!!) they did! Ivy was a great character, her unluckiness was extreme and very well done, in fact I loved how we were set up with plenty of scenarios to give not too disastrous consequences and so could make you properly laugh but most definitely did not detract from the more moving side to the story, her past, the descriptions of which made my heart tumble into my stomach.

The love/hate aspect to Ivy and Bill’s story especially has to be mentioned, because I enjoyed it so much!!! There are a lot of characters,  some quite unlikable but for the most part their redemption comes and not only that, arrives as a surprise that makes you smile.

All in all I loved this book and will again make an attempt to get back to Jane Linfoot’s epic back catalogue, which will be beyond a pleasure. Thanks so much to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the book in return for an honest review and allowing me to be part of this blog tour.

Rating: 4.5/5

A truly captivating and spellbinding romance this book has everything. There is the rugged cornish coastline which forms a backdrop for the castle on the beach. I don't know who I loved most, the flirty oversexed sixty somethings, a melee of opinionated yet cute kids, the half dozen retired surf bums or the hunky hero. Not forgetting of course, an adorable dog. I also loved the way the author threw in tempting little teasers of her other books such as the little wedding shop series. If you haven't yet read these you have a treat in store. This story has left me feeling really festive, now all I need is a hunk with a castle.
Review posted on Goodreads and Amazon

I absolutely adored this book and am sad to have finished it! The cosiest Christmas novel with such funny and likeable characters. I loved the Cornish setting and found it so relaxing to be immersed in this world. I am sometimes worried that books like this will be a little predictable and cliché but I didn’t find that with this book at all. Things happened that I didn’t see coming and the story was full of charm, humour and romance. Some slightly more serious topics were explored with great sensitivity and care which I appreciated and found gave more depth to the novel. I’m not normally one who enjoys ‘chick-lit’ but I love this book and I’d love to read my Jane Linfoot in the future. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy. This did not influence my review as I loved the escapism and Christmassy-ness of this book!

Very enjoyable read. When planning Christmas for a huge group, what can go wrong?? Everything!! Such a fun, holiday read with all the drama and feels of people finding themselves and discovering the best in others.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers Ltd for this advanced reader edition and hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partners

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What more can you want from a Christmas book? A castle in Cornwall that isn't quite as it was advertised. An adorable dog. The sound of the sea racing to the beach. A handsome hunk yet somewhat grumpy from your past.

Lots of laugh out loud moments, with fun misunderstandings. Lives up to everything I've heard about the book.

I really loved this fantastic Christmas read. It was the perfect mix of slow burn romance, fun slapstick comedy and a two very different deeper stories..

Ivy and Will met several years before, when they were both otherwise entangled, and Ivy could never get him out of her head - que her surprise, when Will, or as he now goes by, 'Bill' appears to be the caretaker of the castle that Ivy has been tasked with making Instagram worthy for a Christmas break for 20 odd people. I really enjoyed Ivy and Bill's interactions, there was alot of tension wrapped around them; and I loved to see them both come out of their sad shells over the course of the book.

Some of the books secondary characters were fantastic, I was a huge fan or Miranda and Keef especially! I laughed out loud on many occasions, from cake wars to the silver surfies taking charge and the 'Ghost' problem - this is a perfect, lighthearted Christmas read that I'd definitely recommend.

Cornwall is such a popular location for many books written recently with its rugged coastlines and pretty villages. Featuring Cockle Shell Castle, this book introduces us to Ivy who is all set to makeover the Castle ready for people arriving for the Christmas festivities. It’s not an easy task though, made more difficult by the current owner, Bill.

There is a lot of characters in this book and it initially took me a while to settle down with them all. It is, however, a very festive read which, if you weren’t in the Christmas spirit at the start you certainly will be by the end! There are many laugh out loud moments which left me with a smile on my face for the majority of the book! Once you get to grips with who’s who, you will definitely find the characters are all a pretty likable bunch!! They do though all have their own individual problems and issues, but this certainly adds to the storyline as they learn to work through their problems together.

This book has been written with a fabulous Christmas storyline, humour on every page and an abundance of characters that everyone will be able to relate to!! I’ve read many books by this author and I have to say she never fails to produce a book which makes you feel like you’re right there in amongst all the pages!! Filled with likeable characters, a stunning location and more Christmas that you can shake a stick at, this book is certainly one which you won’t be able to put down until you’ve finished it!! Highly recommended!!

I've only recently discovered this author and now I can't enough of her books. This title is the perfect Christmassy read and the romance will warm you right up. The cornish castle setting is picturesque and the cast of characters are fantastic, the perfect escape from the miserable weather. I'm recommending this one to everyone to give them a bit of heartwarming Christmas cheer.

The book has all the pre-requisites for a light Christmas read: a (supposedly) magical castle in Cornwall, right on the beach, a professional window dresser to make Christmas (literally) picture perfect (or Instagram perfect), a hot guy in a bathtub greeting her at the castle and as a bonus, a cute dog as a sidekick.
Ivy Starforth travels from London to Cornwall to prepare the Cornish castle for a Christmas worthy to be plastered all over social media. She loves decorating, accessorising, and she loves Christmas – a perfect combination. Except the castle is not quite what she expected, the lord of the manor is a blast from the past (and not particularly #TeamChristmas) and the clock is ticking until the guests arrive, expecting the perfect Christmas scene.
Everything is there to make it a cute Christmas romance, but the story itself unfolds slowly. While it was an enjoyable read at first, when I was expecting the turn towards a happy ending to arrive, I was not even halfway through the book!
The underlying, hidden narrative of Ivy’s past, the accident which has affected and changed her, is buried too far in the Christmas preparation and is missing from most of the book, even though it is the element which made (or could have made) the story different from your average Christmas romance.
But if you want to curl up in front of the fire for a few days and want a feel-good book, then this is it.

This is Jane Linfoot at her best, this novel is full of humour and romance, just the thing for a cosy night in with a hot chocolate and a warm blanket. You may want to stay up all night to read this. When a novel is set in Cornwall you know it is going to be a fantastic story and this one certainly is. I recommend you get a copy and cuddle up to enjoy

This is a great Christmas rom-com that will keep you laughing and wondering what Ivy will get herself into next. Jane Linfoot has done a great job with this one for sure!

Ivy has been asked to help decorate the Cockle Shell Castle and make it Instagram ready for Christmas. When Ivy gets there and realizes that Bill, her old fling is the one in charge, she knows that this is going to be a challenge. Bill has rented the castle out to a group of 20 for 2 weeks and it needs to look like Christmas all over the castle. Ivy sure does have her work cut out for her on getting everything planned and organized.

Several scenes will have you laughing out loud for sure. This has some great comedy in it as well as romance. The number of characters had me sort of confused at the beginning but I quickly got them all sorted out and enjoyed the rest of the book.

A great rom-com that you will enjoy reading from beginning to end. If you get a little confused at first with all the characters, hang in there and it will all sort out and settle down quickly.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, all opinions are my own. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book!

Spending Christmas in a castle along the beautiful Cornish coast sounds idealistic doesn’t it? Well Ivy certainly thought so. Until she ran straight into the man who has been the star of her unfulfilled fantasies for the past 7 years! Awkward doesn’t even being to describe it - especially as the first time she sees him, is while he is naked in a hot tub. But if they want this Christmas to be a success then will have to work together and Ivy is going to have to keep her lust in check.

Who doesn’t love a book set in a castle, featuring a cute dog and a man who bakes? Sign me up!

A delightfully feel good Christmas romance. I waited to read this one until after Halloween because that’s when the weather starts to take a turn and the Christmas commercials kick into high gear. This was a thoroughly contemporary romance with a classic romance mixed together.

The heroine is sweet and joyful and the hero is grumpy pants with a soft interior. It’s just what you need when the weather starts to get crisp and the leaves fall from the tree. A cozy romance to get you into the holiday spirit!

Love Jane Linfoot novels and this one is no different. Love the setting, characters, cover and storyline. Very festive, humorous and enjoyable.

This was an absolutely gorgeous festive read.
Ivy has been hired to make her best friends sister's Christmas in a castle, provide the best instagram opportunities for her social media business.

When she arrives, she realises that she has her work cut out to make this look like the Christmas everyone dreams of, hiding the niggles that all family Christmas celebrations can be prone to. She has a wide range of ages to keep happy, a castle to make sparkle and horror of horrors, limited internet access.

I loved reading and sharing all her Christmas plans, looking forward to the deliveries, meeting the local surf crew and seeing all the magical insta moments happen. It made me want to spend Christmas with a huge group of friends and family in a castle by the sea.
A new Jane Linfoot book is always a treasure to savour and I loved every page.

I have to start by saying that I love picking up a book by Jane Linfoot as they always manage to cheer me up! I also love getting to know the warm and loveable characters that she creates. In A Cosy Christmas in Cornwall we meet Ivy who has been hired to turn a holiday rental in Cornwall into an Instagram photo worthy festive creation. This suits Ivy perfectly and she prepares to use her skills to make this a wonderful Christmas for her friends. Well, that is until she meets Bill! Let’s just say sparks fly making their interactions all the more entertaining!

The story moves pretty quickly and easily wrapped me up in the whole experience as we see themes of friendship, love and family. I loved the setting of Cornwall, Jane Linfoot always makes me want to get on a train and head straight there. Then add in a few other surprises which all combined to make me fully invested in the story especially seeing how things didn’t exactly work out the way Ivy was initially expecting. I really enjoyed how the story unfolded seeing Ivy and Bill work together to try to create the perfect Christmas. They did dance around each other quite a bit, not really knowing what the other was thinking or feeling but this I guess added a more natural element to the story. Then add in some entertaining and quirky characters and I found myself smiling away. Let’s just say every time I picked this book up I got wonderful cosy feeling!

A Cosy Christmas in Cornwall is a festive treat that will warm your heart and make you smile throughout!

A Christmas atmosphere, a castle in Cornwall, and fun and engaging characters. What more would you want? A Cosy Christmas in Cornwall is my first novel by Jane Linfoot and I really enjoyed it. The plot is fantastic, the engaging storyline that you would find in an entertaining romcom to enjoy during the Christmas period. The protagonist, Ivy Starforth, has been hired by her best friend’s sister to create a Christmas atmosphere worthy to be shared to her millions of followers on Instagram. However, when she arrives to the Cornish castle they rented, she finds out that she has more work to do than expected. And Bill, the owner of the castle, seems keen to make it even more harder… Ivy not only has to come to terms with a past that keeps haunting her, but also with her feelings for Bill who is not a total stranger.

Jane Linfoot described a Christmas that is enjoyable and perfect not only for Instagram. The festive atmosphere really got me in the Christmas spirit and the setting is simply beautiful. I liked the characters, they feel authentic and entertaining and they made me often laugh.

In A Cosy Christmas in Cornwall, Jane Linfoot puts together family, romance, and friendship surrounded by a festive atmosphere that will make you wish it was already Christmas.

My Rating:

4.5

Favorite Quotes:

… buying your own present might mean you forfeit those two seconds of amazement when it arrives. But the plus side is you get exactly what you want and you’re never disappointed.

And then there was a clatter of the phone being dropped, Fliss was telling Oscar not to lick his mango yogurt off the TV screen, and we got cut off. I must admit, conversations like this make me view the super-cute baby clothes in Daniels in a whole different light – the kind that has me whooshing off to Pet’s Corner. Five seconds listening to life on Fliss’s sofa is enough to remind me crooning over the tartan velvet coats and diamanté dog collars is a whole lot safer. Even if they cost ten times more than the human versions they’re cheap at the price when you consider what they’re saving you from.

It’s what my dad would call a FISH moment – frig it, shit happens.

Let’s face it, given the choice between teensy trousers or buttercream, in theory it’s great to say you’d go without and be skinny. But get a hundred percent real and squishy cupcake in your hand and it’s a whole other story. You’re mostly left with an empty bun case and a bad case of guilty regret before you even get around to thinking about your choice. I mean, who wants to be strong willed and skinny anyway, it’s hideous and boring and everyone despises you for it.

Tansy has a go at our eyebrows, and we all end up looking like we had an accident in the dark with a Sharpie and have to go and scrub them off.

I’m going to take a second to relive the last ten minutes, wrap them very carefully in tissue paper, and tuck them away in my safest memory box.


My Review:

This is my third time reading this clever and insightful author and have just realized what a witty and cunning minx she truly is. Her characters tend to be complicated and multi-faceted and not always likable, yet there are always numerous reasons behind that and quite a few layers to go through to get there, so patience and forbearance were required but trust me, the HEA reward was well worth the effort. The busy, lively, and highly amusing storylines were well-balanced in tone, cast with an unusually peculiar yet intriguing and quirky slate of characters, and hit all the feels with agile levity as well as vividly described and shrewdly detailed observations.

The eventful story occurred over a two-week span in preparations for a wealthy and extremely driven and exacting client’s family Christmas holiday and was written from the first-person POV of Ivy, whose name should have been Rose or Thorn, as she was rather prickly. She was stridently bossy, rude, snappish, judgmental, and demanding towards the yummy Bill, the unfortunate man providing the venue which happened to be a castle. Ivy seemed to have a rather large yardstick wedged in an uncomfortable place, and there were several regrettable reasons for that, but until those causalities were fully enumerated, I had a difficult time appreciating Ivy, but I got there, as did she.

I gained a fun new entry for my Brit Word List with wodge, which is British informal for a large or bulky amount. Bill must have had a wodge of money to splash out for Dior Fahrenheit cologne as after Ivy’s obsessive mentions of his delicious scent I looked it up thinking of a possible gift for my husband. Regrettably, my wallet seized and my credit card melted at the cost. ;)

A Cosy Christmas in Cornwall by Jane Linfoot.
What an absolute ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ hoot!

I’m sold on any character who, when you first meet them is talking to their dog. Merwyn is the perfect companion who empathises with Ivy at the same time prepared to offer an eyeroll when needed.

Some of the subplots of infidelity, redundancy, a horde of children *shivers* and the demands of social media would normally be hard hitters in a romance book, but the humour of Jane Linfoot’s storytelling makes them a lighter read.

Bill/Will or Will/Bill is a perfect grouch with a hidden past that Ivy uncovers, but from the start it’s easy to see he has a soft centre, Merwyn can vouch for that.

With the arrival of various family and friends, the quirks of an old castle bring them together and enjoy the holidays without their phones in front of their faces, take time to look out for each other and discover that they aren’t as superficial as they might seem.

As always, my thanks to #Netgalley and publisher #OneMoreChapter for giving me the opportunity to read #ACosyChristmasInCornwall.

Purchase Links:

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cosy-Christmas-Cornwall-heartwarming-Cornish-ebook/dp/B07TVZ8VYV/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=A+Cosy+Christmas+in+Cornwall&qid=1572699595&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Cosy-Christmas-Cornwall-heartwarming-Cornish-ebook/dp/B07TVZ8VYV/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=A+Cosy+Christmas+in+Cornwall&qid=1572699595&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

Also available on iBooks

When I saw A Cosy Christmas in Cornwall by Jane Linfoot, I was immediately interested since I had spent a happy vacation in Cornwall, albeit in May. I hoped to see in the book places I had personally visited, or at the very least, mentions of places I had been.
The narrator of A Cosy Christmas in Cornwall is Ivy Starforth. She describes herself as flawed. She lists a number of plans that have not quite gone according to her hopes including losing her steady boyfriend, George.
Now, though, Ivy is on her way to an exceptional Christmas in a Cornish castle. Ivy works with Fliss, her friend, at Daniels, a family-owned department store in London. They keep the windows looking attractive and inviting with merchandise. Ivy and Fliss build the displays; Ivy has done much of the work on her own the last two years because Fliss has had two pregnancies quite close together.
Fliss’s older sister is Libby, a woman who “is seriously driven.” Ivy describes Libby with these words: “Libby is one of the amazing multi-tasking entrepreneur super mums who started a decade ago with a new-born, a toddler, and a idea for a baby carrier, and went on to take over the world.”
Now, Libby has hired Ivy to stage the scene for her Christmas pictures, primarily social media posts, from the Cornish castle. Ivy must make sure the pictures are, well, picture-perfect. Ivy’s job, no pressure, of course, is to make Libby’s posts amazing. And that means all of them, not just some of them.
Ivy and her dog Merwyn arrive ahead of Libby and her children. Ivy believes she will have time to get the lay of the land and be ready for staging Libby’s fantastic pictures for posting to Instagram.
Given what little readers already know about Ivy—from her own descriptions—that her life is less than perfect and that she often makes the wrong decision, readers must be thinking what could possibly go wrong on this Christmas adventure.
Readers quickly learn than much can go wrong or at least not be quite right. Ivy meets Bill at the castle and realizes he is someone she knows and has not expected to encounter again. Another problem is that the wi-fi signal comes and goes; it is completely unreliable. Ivy’s sole reason for being is to stage the pictures Libby can send immediately then on Instagram. If that’s going to be a problem, then Libby will definitely be unhappy.
Ivy discovers the castle is not decorated for Christmas. Even more alarming, she finds that Bill will be on the premises the whole time to. He explains, “[the castle] is more of an Airnb model than a proper let.” As a result, he likes to be on hand “so when there are problems, I’m on the spot to sort them out.”
The word problems alarms Ivy. When she asks about the problems, Bill casually says there may be no problems, but the potential exists.
Thus far, Ivy sees only problems and wonders how she will cope with Libby’s demands. Readers find themselves on a merry ride as Ivy tries to stay ahead of any difficulties. Will the tension that has already developed between Bill and Ivy turn into something else? Read the full story to discover all the answers.
A Cosy Christmas in Cornwall provides readers with a charming story and an unconventional narrator. The characters are well-drawn and engaging. Jane Linfoot lives in Derbyshire. Discover more about Linfoot’s books at this site: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/l/jane-linfoot/. She has published ten novels including one called Plotting for Beginners: A Novel for New Beginnings which she co-wrote with Sue Hepworth.