A delightful festival read.
Romance, music and lots of Christmas sparkle perfect for this time year.
Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read an ARC of this book in return for an honest review

Every piece of this story, I was completely sold on: a cozy romance set in a small, charming town in Scotland during the Christmas season. Meg also had her fair share of family drama, which is completely relatable, especially during the holidays. But I felt as though something was missing, and I wasn’t anchored to any specific character (and there were quite a few to keep track of). I had trouble believing the romantic aspect, and it definitely had its cheesy moments. Overall, this was a cute, Christmas story, but was not in love with it. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC for my honest review.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Bookouture for my copy of If Every Day Was Christmas by Donna Ashcroft. It published October 9, 2020.
This is your typical Christmas romance set in the UK! So if that's your jam, definitely pick this up! The setting is gorgeous, our main character has a dream job--a Christmas store, year round!! The love-interest is a hunk with a chip on his shoulder, what's not to love?
There's a lot of heart and depth in this, and there's a steamy scene (from what I could tell, I skipped over it--personal trigger).
Definitely would make a great gift for someone wanting to travel to Scotland this holiday season!

If Every Day Was Christmas by Donna Ashcroft was a lovely feel good Christmassy book. A great read with a few twists and turns. Set in the Scottish Highlands I think I’ve found my match on loving Christmas, Meg runs a Christmas shop and is mad on all things Christmas but along comes Tom who hates Christmas. I guess they do say opposites attract and loved reading all the highs and lows with them both.

This was a fine book-however, I didn't find many unique characteristics. I wish it was a bit more entertaining and unique.

I thoroughly enjoyed this festive and heartwarming story, the perfect read on a lazy afternoon.
I love Donna Ashcroft's books and I loved this one.
Excellent storytelling and character development, a tightly knitted plot and a great festive atmosphere.
It's strongly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for my gifted copy of this eARC, in exchange for my honest review!

Deck the halls with cute Christmas books! "If Every Day Was Christmas" is the perfect shelf addition for fans of Hallmark, Lifetime, and romance Christmas movies.

Our story begins with Christmas-obsessed (is there ever too much?) darling, Meg. Meg owns a Christmas shop (yep you read that right), and works all year long to ensure that Christmas in her town is absolutely magical. This year Christmas looks a little different, it will be her first year spending it without her family (by choice), and she will be helping plan and decorate the local Christmas fundraiser.

It's not all silver bells and sleigh sailing from here though, as her mother and sister show up on her front stoop to crash the holidays without her father in tow, and her assigned out of town fundraiser helper proves to be somewhat of a Scrooge (but albeit easy on the eyes, aka DISTRACTING).

This book flies by faster than Santa on Christmas Eve night, and is so heartwarming and adorable! So grab your peppermint hot chocolate, throw on that cozy sweater, and snuggle in by the tree for this festive read.

A great Christmas read detailing the potential relationship between a Christmas lover and a Christmas hater - what could go wrong?!

I enjoyed the development of this story and the build up of the relationship between the two main characters with a good range of supporting characters too who also had a lot going on. Nice to see some reindeer in there as well!

A wonderful Scottish festive rake full of charm and likeable characters. The perfect Christmas read x

Finally along comes a book that doesn’t pretend to be all Christmas themed and then has the briefest mention of the festive season leaving the reader disappointed and wanting more. This is so not the case with the fabulous new book from Donna Ashcroft, If Every Day was Christmas, this book just screams Christmas the whole way through. You only need to look at the cover which shows Meg’s Christmas shop and that will get you in the festive mood. Then when you delve into the story it’s non-stop holiday mode from beginning to end and I loved every minute of it.

Donna Ashcroft strikes the perfect balance between humour and the more serious issues being explored in the story and the writing and descriptions of Lockton in the run up to the most wonderful time of the year are just brilliant. I could easily picture myself there in the village with the snow on the ground eager to visit Meg’s all year round Christmas shop to buy some of the quirky decorations she is obsessed with. Well let’s face it Meg is engrossed with Christmas 365 days a year and there’s nothing wrong with that at all especially with the year we are after having. So whether you read this book in December or at the height of the summer it really doesn’t matter because it will be sure to bring a smile to your face.

The setting of Lockton in the Scottish Highlands is the same as Donna’s previous book, The Little Village of New Starts, which I absolutely loved and I had been hoping we would get to learn about Meg in future books and thankfully she was the sole focus of this new story. Her best friend Evie, whose story we followed previously, is away until the very end of this book and yes I did miss her but what was going on with Meg more than made up for her absence. Not to mention the cast of quirky characters I had already encountered in the first book all make a reappearance here along with a few new people. Morag from the post office, Fergus and Agnes from Buttermead Farm, Davy from the Apple Cross Inn all came instantly back to my mind as soon as they were mentioned. But there is one in particular, a newcomer to the village who turns Meg’s carefully ordered Christmas world and heart very much upside down.

On the outside Meg is all glitter and sparkles and her outfits are always Christmas themed or if not a Christmas colour or decoration has to feature in some way shape or form. She is bubbly and set up her all year round shop in homage to her most favourite day of the year so she could experience it over and over again. Her shop is her security blanket and it makes her feel safe. The random acts of kindness she performs and the buzz of giving gifts and finding the perfect decorations or a gift for people to give never wears off for her but deep down she is hiding something. She does her utmost best to avoid her family members and contact is strictly limited unless something serious crops up. For someone who loves a time of year that is all about family and being together and spreading kindness, love, warmth and good cheer this seems utterly ridiculous. But there had to be a solid reason behind Meg’s stance when it came to her family. She has made a promise to herself that her first proper Christmas in Lockton will be a happy one and that she will not return home to her family only to experience another row and have the day ruined for her seen as her mother and father can never get on.

Meg was a fabulous character and really you can’t help but fail to like a character whose favourite movie is The Holiday. As soon as this was mentioned I wanted to leave the book down, despite how much I was enjoying it and go and watch said movie. I loved her joyful spirit and that even though her shop might have been a little bit out of the ordinary and you wondered how could she sustain herself all year on something that perhaps has the potential for two months profit. I loved how she never gave up and just wanted to spread as much happiness and positivity as possible. I suppose she did this because she knew past Christmas experiences and the connections she has with her family just weren’t there or fully happy ones. She was channelling the lack of something in her own personal life into the shop and making others happy. I felt sad for her when she said she doesn’t do relationships because there was too much that could potentially go wrong. Has seeing what has happened to her mum and dad made her like this?

Meg has her perfect plan for Christmas in her flat above the shop which not surprisingly is rammed with as many Christmas decorations and lights as she can fit. But all these plans are up scuttled when her sister and mother arrive to stay and subsequently her father follows them. As she has ran away from them the fact they have come to her perhaps that means the time is now that things must come out into the open. What is eventually is revealed was very surprising and I refer back to the more serious issues I mentioned up above.

This is where I think Donna Ashcroft struck the perfect balance between all the fun and frolics surrounding Christmas, I’m thinking the case of the destroyed messages on the Christmas tree and the residents decorations being messed about with - not the conclusion I had anticipated with regard to this that’s for sure, and the deeper hidden messages behind it. That Christmas is not always perfect for everyone and there is so much pressure on people to buy and do the right thing, that for those whom this time of year brings heartbreak and lots of memories they or their reasons cannot be forgotten.

Meg has her family to deal with and the shop and she has always had the best of intentions to help people. But when newcomer Tom Riley Clark arrives in the village to help Davey run the pub over the festive season, well he sets the cat amongst the pigeons. Isn’t she meant to be closed off to love and fearful in engaging in a relationship? Yet there is something about him that she just can’t pull away from even if they are the polar opposite of each other. Tom for example hates Christmas with a passion, I don’t think he was best pleased when Meg more or less vomited Christmas all over his cottage, but I think he probably had good reason to and I knew if I was patient enough the answer would be revealed to me in time. There were plenty of little clues regarding Tom dropped in but I was enjoying reading the story and the antics of the residents far too much to want to rush ahead and try and slot these pieces together. The wait for the reveal and the ultimate conclusion was more than worth it though.

Tom and his basset hound Cooper are only really in the village as a helping hand to Davey. He doesn’t plan on getting involved with the day to day lives of anybody there nor does he want to help out with the Christmas concert being organised to raise funds for the restoration of the village hall. Tom has lots of feelings of emptiness that he can’t shake and he never makes promises to anyone because he knows he won’t keep them. He never seemed to let his guard down and was in a permanent state of misery more or less. He seemed angry at the world and clearly couldn’t move on from what had deeply affected him in the past. What could have happened to make him detest Christmas so much? He is all about retreat and stays away from relationships as he is not in the market for one. But when he first meets Meg when he is stranded in the hills above the village, well she does something to him and if she keeps going the way she does maybe his barriers might began to fall down? Or would it be that simple? After all can he continue to shut everyone and everything out especially the thing that was once very much his passion and his livelihood?

If Every Day was Christmas was a brilliant read and I really hope that this is not the last we have heard from the residents of Lockton. Please Donna Ashcroft keep writing about this special village and all who live there. There was so much going on in this wonderful story that I never noticed the pages flying by. The will they, won’t they of Meg and Tom and getting to the root of their issues? The question of whether Meg’s family will resolve all their long harboured secrets and just the wonderful images of a village cut off by snow and all coming together to make Christmas even more special, well it was just all brilliant and such a pleasure to read and I know many other readers will feel exactly the same way.

Really enjoyed this! I got the impression throughout the story that perhaps there was a book before this one but it didn’t ruin anything. This was a proper little Christmas story that felt Christmassy all the way through. Most Christmas books have a reference to it here and there but this was full of snow, reindeer, baubles... the whole lot! Thoroughly enjoyed it and I highly recommend.

I wanted to love this book, I mean who wouldn't want it to be Christmas everyday? Instead, I just liked it.
The fictional village of Lockton, up in the Scottish highlands is the cosiest place you could wish for to hunker down for the Winter. With a variety of characters from all different cultures, a little spark of romance and families finally coming together. I was hooked right from the beginning, and then something happened.....

Romance.

Don't get me wrong, I love a bit of romance, particularly in a Christmas story, but there seemed to be no proper build up to this one. I thought Ashcroft could have left out the young couple altogether and concentrated on Meg, the protagonist, and her family, as there is a sweeter romance there too. Ultimately, I'm frustrated. There were so many wonderful angles for Ashcroft to go down, and still keep this a sweet and heart-warming Christmas tale. Instead, she stuck to tradition and dolloped on the romance. She creates characters that you want to invest in, but then doesn't give them a full story.
It was ok, but I wanted more.

My thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for a copy of “ If Every Day Was Like Christmas “ fo4 an honest review.

This was a perfect book to read on the countdown to Christmas. Quite often books that have Christmas in the title “ shoe horn” the festive event into the story or are too twee and sugary. This book is neither.Set in a beautiful Scottish setting with believable characters , with just the right amount of realism. My first book by Donna Ashcroft but an author I will be looking out for in the future..

A lovely magical christmas read. Meg loves Christmas and runs an all year round Christmas shop, her troubled family descend on her disrupting her Christmas peace and the Christmas hating stranger also turns up. The characters are all wonderful and there are several lovely scenes to lose yourself in. A great book.

Meg Scott loves Christmas.

She loves Christmas so much that she has a Christmas themed shop selling Christmas related items all year round in a small town of Lockton, Scotland, a wardrobe that consists of a variety of elf costumes/dresses and a cosmetic preference of face glitter.

I completely get her! I mean who wouldn't want to have a baubles hanging, tinsel twinkling, reindeer discovering, living in a wonderland kind of vibes all year round. Bring in the entry of a handsome hero Tom Riley-Clark, a famous singer who happens to hate Christmas and her broken family who arrive unannounced and Meg finds herself with the task of bringing back the love of the season in their lives and wishing for her own Christmas miracle.

This was a delightful book that would make a good Hallmark movie 😉.

My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Bookouture and the author Donna Ashcroft for the e-Arc of the book. The book was published on 9th October 2020.

Rating:🌟🌟🌟🌟 twinkling stars!
            🎅🎄❄️✨🎇

Oh I wish it could be Christmas, every day….!!!!

Can you imagine it? Would you want it to be Christmas every single day? I wouldn’t, I think it would lose its sparkle! How about if you had a shop that was Christmas themed, so even in the height of summer when people are wandering around with money tucked into their sweaty bikini bottoms/swimming trunks, a shop would be selling snow themed ornaments. Every day would feel like Christmas then, wouldn’t it?

If you’ve ever struggled with ways to describe the festive season, then I suggest you study this book. If, after reading this, people STILL don’t quite get Christmas, then I will eat my hat!

Meg reminded me of Meg Ryan’s character in ‘Youve Got Mail’ – did anyone else think the same? Shes such a warm hearted, free spirited character who definitely has some oomph about her!

I’ve really been struggling with books of late, however I really was in my element with this as Donna Ashcroft never disappoints with her from the heart story telling. I’ve said this once before (or maybe more times than that), however I will happily say it again; Donna Ashcroft really is the Mrs Claus of fiction.

As always, the balance between romance, humour, and the ‘hook’, was absolutely spot on, giving me a little bit of everything whilst also leaving out nothing.

I, hand on heart, cannot fault this novel! Instead of wishing it could be Christmas every day, I cant help but wonder what it would be like If I Read Donna Ashcroft’s Novels Every Day!

A timeless, warm and homely read.

Christmas in Scotland? Yes please! So long as the world can promise to make it a bit like the 'scenery' in this story. My first Donna Ashcroft novel and hopefully, not my last. I keep finding authors to follow and here is another! In may be October, but it's winter outside!
My thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for the reading copy.

Sometimes these books can be a tad too sweet for me, but not this one.
The magic ingredients were present because I instantly liked the setting, Lockton, a tiny village in the Scottish Highlands and covered very generously in snow (thst is important for a Christmas book if you live anywhere where snow is a rare sight), the characters and the idea that one half of the romance-to-be loves the Christmas festivities and the other half definitely doesn't.
Meet Meg, owner of the all year round Christmas Shop and Cafe, who dabbles with glitter daily and tends to wear elf costumes. She is looking for perfection as Christmas Day has tended to be the only happy day in her family life with sister Emily and forever warring parents Kitty and Oliver, but is this wish realistic?
Meg has escaped her family and vern in Lockton for 3 years and her Christmas wish this year is to spend Christmas alone. The tree standing in the village square becomes adorned in baubles filled with people's promises, a tradition that spans 200 years. There is always a promise made to the community by the villagers too and this year they want to raise funds to mend the village hall roof.
This is the sort of book where even the problems melt quickly like snow in the glare of the sun and you just know that come what may Christmas WILL be magical and the happy ending will exist.
Full of mistletoe, decorations, great characters including Lilith the Italian woman running the local hotel and twins Danny and Johnny at The Anchor Inn, plus a cute dog called Cooper and a temporary home called Christmas Cottage for Tom Riley-Clark to spend time bah-humbugging in, and you have a recipe for a charming, easy festive read where love does flourish.
How will Meg thaw Tom's heart? Read the book to discover the secrets Tom is running from and how being different can bring people together.
A big seasonal thanks to Donna Ashcroft, whose books I haven't ever read before (but will definitely be looking out for in future), the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review this Christmas romance.

Highly recommend! The characters are very well thought out, and very interesting! You are pulled in as soon as you start reading. Donna Ashcroft, brings you into the pages, like you are a fly on the wall, experiencing the emotions feelings , and life as the characters.

Escape to the Scottish Highlands with this little gem. The Christmas festivities begin immediately in a small town that needs to be immersed in the Christmas spirit. When Meg’s family arrives and is bound and determined to ruin her favorite time of the year, Meg is steadfast in not allowing them to succeed. As Meg transforms her town into Christmas, Tom arrives and isn’t a fan of Christmas. Tom has secrets from his past, that he is trying to hide, but as small towns go, secrets are hard to keep. As the story progresses, Meg sprinkles Christmas magic not only on her family but also on Tom. As the spirit of Christmas begins to soften hearts, relationships old and new start to flourish. Meg and her family are very relatable, which makes this story a joy to read.

This sweet Christmas story is a must read for anyone that enjoys Christmas stories. I really enjoyed this book and I do recommend this story and this author. I will definitely read more books from this author.