Emma's Review & Giveaway: The Cornish Cream Tea Christmas by Cressida McLaughlin

 Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Hannah Swan is looking forward to Christmas for the first time in years. Her new job as an eco-consultant is taking her – and her geeky colleague, Noah – to the beautiful Cornish village of Porthgolow for the first time.

They’re are helping the Crystal Waters Hotel to ramp up its green credentials, though after a bumpy journey, Hannah can’t shake off the feeling that Porthgolow is strangely familiar. Never able to resist a mystery, her interest is piqued when the hotel’s staff and customers report odd noises and sightings, believing the hotel to be haunted.

When bad weather cuts off Porthgolow, Hannah and Noah are looking at a Cornish Christmas. It gives them plenty of time to work out what is really going on, but will their yuletide escape send shivers up their spines? Or will it be as warm and toasty as a glass of mulled wine?

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Many thanks to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours and Harper Collins for my copy of The Cornish Cream Tea Christmas to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.

The Cornish Cream Tea Christmas is the third in the Cornish Cream Tea series from Cressida McLaughlin. The book has such a lovely festive cover as we pay a winter visit to the charming small town that is Porthgolow in Cornwall. The book is split into four parts with the title of each being a play on words - Rudolph the Red Velvet Cupcake being one of them. I love the way Cressida does this with her books that are published in parts before publication of the full length edition. The names always bring a smile to my face and I love trying to see does the title have any bearing on the content of whatever part I am reading.

This time around we follow Hannah Swan as her job takes her from Edinburgh to Porthmellow for a week in the run up to Christmas. She works as an eco consultant and is passionate about all things green and doing the best for our environment. She is determined to prove to her boss Gerald that she is a good and capable worker and that she truly deserves her spot on his team. No one else wanted to take on the project of assessing the green credentials of Daniel Harper’s Crystal Waters hotel so close to Christmas but Hannah stepped into the breech and went for it. Hannah loves Christmas and she is determined to get the job done and done well and to return home to prepare for her friends Christmas which she hosts every year. The object of her desire for many years, Seth, will be there and maybe this will be the year that she makes a move? But as the story develops, its clear that there are many obstacles in Hannah’s way that will prevent her from having the Christmas she planned. But will what’s in store for her prove more fruitful rather than if her usual Christmas had materialised?

Noah is the freelance consultant who is employed to help Hannah with her task. From the moment she steps off the train and Noah is there to collect her, he really tested her in so many ways. In a similar way as Hannah finds him, I just couldn’t make him out. He blew so hot and cold, he could be quite terse in his responses and initially there wasn’t much interaction from him at all. One minute friendly and helpful and the next it was as if he was giving the cold shoulder to Hannah and she was almost fearful of saying the wrong thing in case she would upset him and he would almost turn on her. That’s the way it came across to me but I thought there had to be a reason for the way he was behaving. 

I guessed fairly on what was going on with Noah but I enjoyed watching Hannah trying to work it all out and deciding whether to follow her heart or would she be too put off by the changing moods and personality of Noah. Was she willing to venture that little bit deeper to scratch beneath the exterior he put up around himself? Or was she more concerned with getting the job done and returning home? Or maybe in fact, without her knowing it, Porthgolow has been calling her all along but for what reason? On a professional level, Noah was brilliant and they both worked really well together. Thankfully there wasn’t too much technical information about all the initiatives they were going to recommend for the hotel. I have to be honest and say yes I do my bit for the environment when I can but I really didn’t want to read so much about it in a book and one in particular that features romance storylines. So I’m glad it wasn’t pushed too much in our faces.

Of course the cream tea bus of the title has to feature in this book and I really love that where this series started still is such a focus point for everything. The author outdoes herself with the descriptions of all that Charlie offers on the bus and it was brilliant to read of all the mouth watering Christmas foods on offer too. The food market that takes place on the beach, well every time I read about I just wish it was real as it always makes me so hungry. As the book is set in and around Christmas, I expected full on Christmas mode and to a fairly good extent there were descriptions of decorating, lights, food and activities but I wanted even more to really get me in the Christmas mode. The only storyline that really didn’t grip me at all was the strange goings on at the hotel. I hate having to say this but I just thought it didn’t really fit into the Christmas mode of the book and felt it would have been better left out. Yes it was a tragic love story but it just seemed a bit of place for the time of year I was reading about and you did really have to take it all with a pinch of salt regarding ghostly occurrences. I think you are either a fan of this kind of these kind of happenings or not.

Porthgolow is a town that has real community spirit and the more Hannah gets to knows its residents, the more she feels like she has a connection to it particularly when she discovers one of her most treasured family photos was taken right on Porthgolow beach. She becomes very fixated on her past and can’t shake the feeling that something significant happened there and even more so when her mother refuses to talk about it and gives her the run around. There were little clues dropped in every now and again as to what the outcome to this aspect of the storyline would be. I had my suspicions and I was keen to see would these be proven correct. This storyline was also a nice alternative to all the dramas Hannah was experiencing at the hotel and with Noah.

I loved that we got to meet new characters in the form of Hannah and Noah and I was really pleased that Charlie and Daniel feature an awful lot more than they did in the previous book. I had missed them and I love how their story develops and in particular what is in store for them in future books. Given the title of the next book it seems we have plenty of romance to come. But for now I did enjoy my Christmas visit to Porthmellow and the opportunity to follow Noah and Hannah. It’s always a pleasure to read a book by Cressida. They are light, nice reads that put you in good humour and give you a lift when you need it. This story is a lovely, pleasant read and another great addition to the series. 

As it's Christmastime and Emma was already reviewing this one and I still have the first couple of books in the series to read, The Cornish Cream Tea Bus and The Cornish Cream Tea Summer, I have decided to run an additional festive giveaway for this paperback copy that I bought forgetting that I'd already bought the eBook... I'm guessing I'm not alone in buying multiple versions of the same book then realising you already have a copy!

Terms and Conditions* – As with all giveaways on the blog the giveaway is open to existing followers, enter via Rafflecopter form below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by email and/or Twitter. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties and will be deleted once receipt of the prize has been confirmed.  NB. Please do not add details of this giveaway to other sites without my permission.

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