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One Winter’s Night by Kiley Dunbar

 


Synopsis: 'It's Autumn in beautiful Stratford-Upon-Avon and Kelsey Anderson is enjoying her new life in her adopted town. Her Shakespearean tour guide days behind her, she's now opened her own photography studio and loved up with boyfriend Jonathan - even if a long-distance relationship is sometimes lonely.

When best friend Mirren Imrie moves from Scotland, Kelsey is delighted to have her friend at her side - and as the nights turn colder, Mirren throws herself into dating, until she finds herself growing closer to sexy journalist, Adrian Armadale. But when Mirren uncovers a long-buried scandal while working at the local newspaper, her big scoop might throw Kelsey's - and Jonathan's - life upside down. Will she choose her career over her friends' happiness?

And when Jonathan returns from America and discovers the secrets Mirren has uncovered about his family, it throws his relationship with Kelsey onto shaky ground. Can they find their way back to love, before it becomes the winter of their discontent?'

There is truly nothing better than a book set in the months leading up to Christmas. It makes you feel warm and cosy for the upcoming festive traditions. However, for me, this book didn't necessarily feel very Christmassy at all. Rather set at Christmas time, with the plot set on something else.

The plot is mainly focused on two women, Kelsey and Mirren who are just having moments in their lives where things are changing. One, with how they have left their job - not completely out of their own volition and two, the other starting their own business venture in the homeplace of Shakespeare. But as things progress, new information becomes present and it is the dilemma whether to withhold it as a secret or to make it known to the world becomes the bulk of the plot.

However, one thing that I didn't realise before reading this book is how it is a part of a serial, this particular one being the second. Not like I did not mind that it was, but I felt like on this occasion I did not understand certain references until I did some research on the particular characters of what happened before. So just a note if you do want to read this book in the future, don't make the same mistake of reading this one before the previous instalment.

On the whole, I didn't exactly feel as though the plot was miraculous or bad, rather just mediocre. If you just want something to get away from the horrors of the world for a while then this is for you. However, if you want a bit more substance and a plot more festive this probably is not the one to look at. Thus, because of the plot, I have decided to rate this particular book, three stars.

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