Afternoon Everyone,

Happy Saturday and happy weekend! I hope that all of your weekend dreams are being fulfilled whether that be doing something adventurous or using the time to relax and chill out. I’ll be doing a lot of the latter this weekend. I may potentially do a little garden centre trip tomorrow but that’s about as strenuous as it’s going to get.

Book 📖

Thank you to @Heidi_Swain and @simonschusterUK for this advanced copy of Underneath the Christmas Tree in return for an honest review. Underneath the Christmas Tree is due to be published on 28th October 2021 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

Wynter’s Trees in Wynmouth is for everyone that lives there; Christmas. Everyone get’s their tree from Wynter’s and they love the Christmas experience that comes with visiting. Liza Wynter doesn’t feel the same way. Wynter’s Trees was her Dad’s dream and even once he died, Liza wasn’t able to fall in love with the place. She’s always kept it at arm’s length and let their family friend take care of it.

Liza has no choice but to get better acquainted with the business when David (her Dad’s friend) decides it’s time for him to retire and will therefore be selling his shares in Wynter’s Trees to his son Ned. When Liza arrives back in Wynmouth she finds a flourishing business under Ned’s watch and is impressed with his ideas for the future. But she is adamant she doesn’t want any involvement. Will the magic of Christmas, friendship and potential romance be enough to change Liza’s mind?

General Thoughts 🤔

What a sweet and cosy Christmas story this was. It was a lovely book to cuddle up with and drift away to a fantasy land of Christmas trees and budding romance. The setting for this story is one of the things that I really liked. As I was reading I could just imagine myself walking amongst all of the trees, smelling the pine and feeling the cold.

There is nothing really controversial in this book, even the small confrontations between characters are tame. As long as you go into this book expecting smiles, cuddles and happy endings then I’m sure that you will enjoy it as I did.

Characters 👫👬👭

Liza was a likeable character but my word she was blind to everything around her. I spent a lot of time in my head shouting “open your eyes”. She seemed oblivious to life, business and romantic opportunities that were right in front of her face. However she may not have been oblivious to them and rather just chose to close her eyes to them. She had made a plan and I think that any deviation from that plan would have made her feel like she had failed.

All of the characters in this book were quite lovely. They were a bunch of people that I would like to live in a village with. They all cared about each other and I loved that they were all able to get involved with the Christmas festivities at Wynter’s Trees. It was so sweet.

Writing Style ✍️

My favourite thing about Heidi Swain’s writing was her descriptions of settings. As I mentioned, the descriptions of the plantation was fantastic and I felt like I was there. As well as that, I felt like I was sat in the lodge with Liza and Ned sipping on a hot chocolate. She was able to create a Christmas wonderland within the pages of the book that felt real.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖️

As the weather starts to get colder, this book would be great for curling up with some fluffy socks on and a hot chocolate to hand. It’s light hearted, fun and sweet as candy canes. The cover is also very beautiful, so if nothing else, get it just to admire those lovely colours.

😍😍😍😩😩