When a Christmas challenge becomes a matter of the heart…

Synopsis

A picture-perfect town, a place where dreams come true. Welcome to Ever After Street…

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but Franca Andrews has never felt more miserable. With business far from bustling, she needs a Christmas miracle to keep her beloved nutcracker shop open… But there’s one man standing in her way – expert snow globe maker Raff Dardenne.

Dardenne Snow Globes have a magical reputation for bringing lovers together, a myth that Raff continues to exploit, much to Franca’s annoyance! But this Christmas their shops are pitted against each other and only one gets to stay on Ever After Street. Franca doesn’t know how her handmade nutcrackers are ever going to compete with Raff’s magical snow globes, especially at the most magical time of the year!

Franca’s determined to prove Raff’s business is built on lies. But when disaster strikes, and she’s left unable to make anything, she needs help. It’s just very frustrating that the only person offering is her gorgeous, annoying, nemesis himself!

As these two enemies get to know each other, Franca discovers another side to Raff – kind, caring and funny. . But unless she can prove that his magical snow globes can’t really match true lovers together, she’s going to lose everything…

But maybe it’s not too late for them to put aside their differences and find some Christmas magic of their own?

My review

Franca Andrews knows what it feels to have your dreams falling apart. Luckily, she found a new passion, which brought her to Ever After Street and her nutcracker shop. But lately Franca has been feelings miserable and her shop isn’t having the success it used to have. And of course it doesn’t help that this year she is crossing swords with Raff Dardenne, the owner of the snow globe business, also situated on her street. Because after Christmas, there is only one shop that can remain open, and Franca is determined to win, and also expose the lies Raff is telling. Because of course it’s a pile of bollocks that his globes have a magical reputation of matching lovers. But what Franca didn’t count on, was the mistletoe accident making it nearly impossible to win the battle of the shops… And then the most unexpected thing happens, and Franca and Raff actually get to know each other better and understand each other. However, once Christmas is over, and only one shop will survive, where will it leave them?

Since I started reading this wonderful series, I have slowly started to believe in fairytales again. Of course a revised and updated version of fairytales 😊

But I have to admit that the story of the nutcracker is a blank spot as I have never read the original story. I only know the wooden nutcrackers, like the ones that Franca creates.

I also have to admit that I don’t truly understand how a business so much focused on one holiday can survive throughout the rest of the year. But that is just to blame on my lack of knowledge on how to run a business and not knowing how to make business profitable a whole year.

When first meeting Franca, I just had to admire her spirit. In the past, she was so close in turning her dream and passion into reality, to only have it broken literally into pieces. And not only did it end her career, but also learning the ugly truth about it, also meant that her heart hot broken in the process…

Yet I admired her how she was able to start a brand-new chapter in her own book and just started her own business.

And is there a more perfect place than having your business than in Ever After Street? Of course not!

Taking her background in account, and seeing how the marriage of her parents ended, I couldn’t blame her for completely mistrusting Raff. I won’t explain here why exactly she has these thoughts about Raff, his family and his business, but in her mindset, it makes sense.

Of course as a reader, it was a bit funny to see how much Franca despises Raff, but I also had a feeling that her acting that way was a bit over the top. I can understand you disliking someone, but taking it that far, that it may even cost your business?

And obviously, even if Raff is the cause of the situation France finds herself in, I was very eager to get to know the real Raff, and not just base my thoughts on the Raff that Franca has envisioned.

I loved Raff from the moment he shows up at Franca’s, to make things right. His background is perhaps not as dramatic as Franca, but he also is carrying around a burden. A burden he does not know how to carry without losing himself in that process. We see that he wants to do everything he can for his family and the legacy his family has, but we also see that it’s a his own cost. Because running the business like his grandfather did, means that Raff cannot be his real self, the Raff full of good ideas and more real.

It was just so heartwarming to see Franca and Raff growing closer, how their rivalry starts to change into something that more important, a real friendship and perhaps even something even deeper than that. Seeing trust being built, understanding and such a deep connection, that was exactly what I was expecting from a story in Ever After Street.

But I also have to admit that there were a few moments that made me fearful. Because in those moments, I could see how everything that the main characters have been building, could be falling apart.

Ever After Street is such a wonderful place, where people learn that their mistrust based on something of the past was uncalled for, that the perception they have of someone, isn’t always putting the other person in the right light, because what we think of someone isn’t always what that person truly is.

Ever After Street is a wonderful place, where the real character of a person shines through, where rivalries can take a complete 360° turn, and where we see the true heart of a community…

Once again Jaimie Admans swept me of my feet, making me believe in the power of fairytales, love, Christmas and mistletoes! And making me fall in love with nutcrackers and snow globes! 😊