When to save a place you love so much, the help of a real Grinch is needed…

Synopsis

The perfect cosy and uplifting romance to curl up with this winter!

In Mistletoe Gardens a legend exists: anyone who kisses underneath the mistletoe will be guaranteed another year of love…

When local baker Essie Browne discovers that Mistletoe Gardens is to be demolished in January, she’s determined to save the place she loves so much. So Essie proposes building a life size gingerbread house to bring in the crowds…just how hard can it be?

Well, quite hard actually. Essie can bake gingerbread blindfolded, but she hasn’t got a clue how to build an actual house with it! She needs help – and fast!

Enter local builder, Joss Hallissey. Essie is convinced that with Joss’s help they can pull this off. There’s just one tiny problem: Joss hates Christmas, gingerbread, and… well, just about everything else too.

Joss the Grinch makes it clear that her idea is ludicrous and pointless, but he reluctantly agrees to help with her plan.

Will the gingerbread house be enough to save Mistletoe Gardens? Or will Essie’s chance for a magical kiss under the mistletoe be lost forever?

Perfect for fans of Holly Martin, Kat French and Caroline Roberts!

My review

After a disappointment, Essie Browne has returned to Folkhornton, to work at the baker together with her mother.
When at a council meeting, Essie hears that Mistletoe Gardens will be demolished in January, she is determined to come up a plan to save the place she loves.
Being a baker, the plan is to build a life size gingerbread house, to bring in more people.
Only problem is, Essie has no idea how to put her plan into work even if gingerbread is something she can bake with her eyes closed.
So she goes to local builder Joss Hallissey for help. Problem is, Joss hates not only Christmas, but also gingerbread. Yet even if he refuses initially to help blatantly, Joss finds himself helping Essie out, no matter how crazy he may think her idea is.
Will Essie succeed in building a life size gingerbread house and save the Mistletoe Gardens? And will spending time together, make Joss less Grinch – like?
Or is it a hopeless case and will Essie never receive a magical kiss under the mistletoe? 

Since I have discovered this author, I am always very eager to start a new book she has written. Somehow Jaimie manages to write a wonderful story with a sprinkle of magic, but without letting that magical moment take over the whole story.
And once again she managed to make me fall in love with the story, its characters and its warm and cosy feeling. 

Essie was the kind of person I both pitied and liked at the same time. I liked her because she is full of good intentions, and when she cares, she cares deeply.
But I pitied her because after a disappointment, she had to return with her tail between the legs, and felt that her mother didn’t support her.
She has one amazing idea after the other for the bakery, but each time her mother shuts her down. And it saddened me to see how a wonderful character like Essie couldn’t find her voice to stand up (always respectfully!) against her own mother. 

I also admired her, as we can see how determined she is to save the Mistletoe Gardens, even if somehow she should know better. And no matter what her mother tells her, or tries to “sabotage” Essie’s work, Essie just doesn’t give up. 

Essie’s mother is for the bigger part of the book not a character to easily like. She always manages to make Essie feel so small, and Essie always has to stand by for whatever her mother needs.
But I have to admit, towards the end of the book, I changed my opinion. So when you are at your breaking point, just hang in there! 

Before I started, I thought that Joss would be a hard nut to crack. But even with his Grinchy behaviour, it was easy to see that there was a deep hurt that caused him to behave the way he did. Quickly we see his true colours, with him helping Essie out. Yes, it starts with just giving advice, but we also see a man that in fact, no matter how difficult he plays to be, is just a sweetheart!
Even with him being suspicious with the presence of MMM, he never loses his cool. And the way he looks after Rob, made my heart truly melt! 

I found this a real heart – warming story, about two people working together on something impossible. Yet the impossible pulls them together, and together they find a way to heal each other but also themselves.
It’s also about a wonderful community, that when it truly matters, comes together to make even the most impossible of impossibles possible. 

This book is filled with so much warmth and love, in expected ways but also unexpected ones. And you will find yourself falling in love with not only the main characters, but even the strangest ones, characters in a dinosaur costume 24/7.
What more can I say that now I have the immense desire to visit Mistletoe Gardens and experience the magic myself???