Four Weddings and a Christmas by Phillipa Ashley

 

Do you have “go to” authors that you read when you are looking for a certain type of story?  Phillipa Ashley is one of my “go to” authors that I go to for Christmas and summer reads that I know will both be a good story and have great characters.

Freya has a history of being a runaway bride.  In grade school she ran away from a pretend wedding to young Travis, and as an eighteen-year-old, she also ran away from an engagement to the same Travis.  Now years later, Freya has a successful business preparing vacation homes for people in England’s Lake District.  She recently ended an engagement with a dependable boyfriend and has started to believe that she may never find love.  Travis returns to town this Christmas season.  He is now a famous wildlife photographer, and he has returned to start his own store and photography business in town.  He also wants to spend more time with his family.  The last thing he expects is to run back into Freya and immediately have the same old feelings for her again.  Freya does not want to get into a relationship again as she seems to have no luck with them.  Will Freya and Travis be able to figure out their future?

I loved Freya and Travis, but also all the other characters in this novel.  Phillipa Ashley writes wonderful characters.  I also liked how Freya and Travis both had troubling aspects of their childhood that have carried over into their adult relationships.  Being able to understand the past helps them both to move on into the future.  Their family situations were important and solving some of those problems added a greater depth to the story.  Freya and Travis also had great chemistry.  They had a friends-to-lovers and a second chance romance story, both tropes that I enjoy.

I also loved the Lake District.  It sounded beautiful and I loved the small-town feel.  Everyone knew each other and helped each other out.  The Christmas spirit was in the story.  I loved this story from start to finish and it was the perfect story to be reading at Christmas.  It was one of my favorite books this Christmas season.

Book Source:  Review copy from NetGalley. Thank-you!  Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.