It's Christmas-time in the little Yorkshire village of Welford, and the first snowflakes are just starting to fall.
As far as Susan Collins is concerned, this Christmas is all about quality time with her family, especially her son Jack. After a string of terrible dates she's given up on love, and Susan's certainly got plenty to keep her busy.
That is, until she meets handsome children's author Douglas Macleod. Dishevelled in appearance with bright red hair he is the opposite of Susan's usual type, but an undeniable spark soon lights up between them. But then Michael Chalk, Jack's father, turns up on the scene wanting to be a family again - and Susan finds herself torn.
With snow settling on the ground and the big day fast approaching, who will Susan and Jack be choosing to spend Christmas at Moon Cottage with this year?
Many thanks to Hodder and Stoughton via NetGalley for the copy of Snowflakes Over Moon Cottage to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Snowflakes over Moon Cottage is book four in the Hope Meadows series by Lucy Daniels. This series is a more grown up version of the Animal Ark series written for children many years ago. It follows the main character from those books Mandy Hope and so far the first three books have been very enjoyable. But I did feel coming towards the end of the last book that the series needed a little change of direction to freshen it up to prevent it from becoming very routine and predictable. A shift to focus on new characters was definitely needed whilst at the same time hopefully it would not lose the essence, sentiment and lovely heart-warming feeling already established so far.
From fairly early on, it was clear to see that this new book brought about these welcome changes as the story centres around a different character Susan Collins and her young son Jack. They had featured more on the periphery in some previous storylines but now a role reversal was occurring as Mandy slips into the background but steps in in a supportive role when needed. We see how Susan is navigating the run up to Christmas whilst balancing rearing Jack and also she has a desire to hopefully find that someone special. If anyone suitable is out there at all?
We have an uncomfortable introduction to Susan who lives in Moon Cottage as we see her out on a date with someone she has met on a dating app. She is left high and dry in the local pub as her date makes an exit. As soon as men hear that she has a son they are gone as fast as possible. Susan is true to herself and she knows her first duty and her loyalties are to Jack. She can't be with someone who won't accept him, they come as a package. She loves Jack with all her heart yet on occasion she thinks back to the time when she was just plain old Susan Collins the young woman with everything in front of her instead of Susan the mother. At times she wishes she could shirk her responsibilities but she knows that cannot happen. I felt at times Susan was very down on herself and her wants and needs sometimes took over the realities of her day to day life. She needed to be a little more realistic when it came to her aspirations and concentrate on the here and now.
After several blows she summons the courage to use the dating app again and meets Douglas McLeod who is the children's illustrator who spoke to her class at the nursery she works in. She instantly judges Douglas on appearances and how he interacted with the children believing this persona he has transpires to all aspects of his life. Douglas is clumsy, quirky and ungainly yet at the same beneath this exterior he is kind and caring and has a heart of gold. But can Susan see through this persona to the real Douglas? I thought Susan was almost embarrassed to be seen with Douglas as he is not the type of man she would usually go for. I think she thought he would make her a laughing stock and people would be talking about them. She seemed very judgemental almost like the men who judged her when she revealed she had a son. She should have been more understanding and not taken Douglas at face value nor should she have formed instant opinions. Instead she should have gotten to know him better, not brushing him off or making excuses not to meet. She backed herself into quite some corners and they were all of her own making. I felt she was being hurtful and mean and Jack even was attempting to develop a nice friendship with Douglas through their love of illustrations and children's books. Couldn't Susan have been a bit more willing to see what path could be taken.
What throws a spanner in the works even more is when a stranger arrives in Welford asking for Susan. As she discovers who it is, her entire world and thought process is thrown into disarray. Jack's father Michael is back on the scene. Susan had built a wonderful life without him and now her security and contentment and her relationship with Jack is called into question. Will she be swayed by promises and hopes for the future or will she dig a little deeper and follow what her heart is trying to tell her? I could tell immediately that Michael was someone who was privileged and led a life so very different from that of Susan and Jack. That he was oblivious to the day to day rearing of a child and as for a family unit he had no idea of how to establish a solid foundation let alone maintain one. I felt a real impending sense of doom once Michael reappeared on the scene where one false move could upset everything. Susan becomes embroiled in a complicated situation and the reader can see her mind going back and forth. She is caught up in a dream of what could have been instead of focusing on the realities and the practicalities of the here and now.
I really enjoyed how the story developed overall as there were lots of twists and turns and I genuinely never knew how things were going to turn out. Susan needed to make some firm decisions. Was she going to let someone into the unit and bond she had established with Jack? Was she willing to become more assertive in her own needs and become happy in her heart knowing she id doing the right thing for the right reason? Will she pick the one this reader certainly wanted her to be with? She needed to find some courage and conviction to follow the right path taking all people into consideration. She desperately needed to start going for what she wants instead of hoping and waiting. Things had come to a head and as Christmas approached this was the time to turn lots of negatives into positives.
Of course being a Hope Meadows book there had to be some mention of animals and the scene with the cows was intense and scary. This was nicely balanced with some of the animals rescued by Mandy and being cared for her in her new centre before hopefully being adopted. The storyline with the kittens was sentimental and heart warming. Mandy didn't feature too heavily and I was glad because I felt we needed a break from her character. She was beginning to irritate me slightly in that she never fully happy and always finding something that was upsetting her or that she wasn't always fully contented in her relationship. I'm sure we'll return again to her in future books but for now I am more than happy to see what other new characters will be given the opportunity to tell their story.
All in all, Snowflakes over Moon Cottage was a really good read which breathed new life into the series and it has made me excited about it once again. The storyline felt that little bit more meatier but yet the warmth and feel good factor was still there in abundance. I still have to catch up with Summer Days at Sunrise Farm before the new Christmas book Christmas at Silverdale is published but I am looking forward to doing so.
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