Christmas Reading Challenge: Michelle Betham - Christmas without Icing

Jessie Collins has always wanted to visit Lapland. But this Christmas, more than any other, it’s also a place she feels she really needs to be as she tries to come to terms with a painful event in the past, and a future she really needs to start living. 

Can a strange young man called Mikku, lights in the sky, and a magical little town in the Arctic Circle really help her find the strength she needs to move on?

A story of love and hope at Christmas - 'Christmas Without Icing', a Lapland fairytale…

Amazon link for The First Christmas Without You: Kindle

I downloaded a copy of Christmas without Icing last year but for one reason or another I never got around to reading it so decided to squeeze it into this year's Christmas reading challenge.  This novella was originally self published by Michelle Betham but since then she's won a publishing deal with Harper Impulse and has recently re-published this story with a new title, The First Christmas Without You. 

Jessie's life took an unexpected turn when she lost the love of her life Jase the previous year so she's facing a future on her own, something she's not looking forward to.  When her brother invites her on a trip to Lapland, somewhere she'd always wanted to go to with Jase, she decides to go but doesn't expect things to turn out quite the way they did.

The author really brings to life the magic of Lapland and the Northern Lights, somewhere I've always fancied going myself.  This was a moving read about how life has to go on following the loss of someone special.  

The only thing for me, as I've found with most novellas, is that there is some predictability within the stories because they are so short and this one is no different but that aside it was still a feel-good festive read.