Monday, January 8, 2018

"Sleepless in Staffordshire" by Celeste Bradley

Today’s book is a holiday romance novel. The main characters are a young woman and her 8-year old brother who were orphaned after their parents died in an accident a number of years earlier. They now live with their aunt and uncle who run a small town’s Vicarage. Their new home is not as well off as they had been born to, and it is a much harder and more difficult life that they have been living for these past 6 years.

Every winter at around Christmastime, Bernadette and her brother Simon start finding bottles with a note in them floating down the river. Being curious, they have been rescuing these bottle and reading the letters contained within. The letters are from a man named Matthias and are his means of dealing with the death of his wife and young son. Reading these letters, Bernadette feels she has come to know and understand Matthias. She has even begun developing feelings for the desperately sad and lonely man that she has never met.

Then the Vicar, his wife, Bernadette, and Simon are invited to come and visit during Christmas to Staffordshire by John, the young, new Vicar there who had once studied with the them before accepting the position in that town. There is to be a Christmas Ball this year that they will also be allowed to attend at the local Lord’s manor. For Bernadette and Simon it is their chance to meet the man behind the letters. But what she hasn’t realized us that the young Vicar is still infatuated with her and is now in need of a wife himself.

I enjoyed reading this book. It was at times heartbreaking and hopeful with a number of interesting twists. My only regret with this book was not having had the chance to read it before Christmas, as it is an excellent holiday story. But even though it is now after the holidays, I would still recommend reading this one. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

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