Review: One Christmas Star

One Christmas Star by Mandy Baggot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Emily is a hard-working teacher, Ray is a singer-songwriter. Both are going through a difficult time. They meet when Ray comes across an injured hedgehog and ends up sleeping in a shed on school grounds.

Although not quite my usual fare, I did enjoy this book. It took me a little while to get into it, but once I did, it flowed very well.

The children that Emily teaches are very entertaining - several amusing scenes resulted from their enthusiasm.

Although the story does deal with some serious things (mostly domestic violence, which I prefer not to read about), it is leavened with many funny and heart-warming moments. It is good to see a domestic violence plot line with a male victim - I think all too often these are overlooked.

The love story is more of a slow burn than a whirlwind romance, but I felt it was both realistic and touching. Several cliches that often occur in romances where one person is famous were neatly avoided - there was no leakage to the press causing suspicion to fall on the non-famous person, for example.

I appreciated the fact that there was no lack of communication/misunderstanding plot device - I definitely feel like Emily and Ray could go the distance as they seem to communicate well.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a realistic, heart-warming Christmas tale with a good splash of romance.

I was lucky enough to receive this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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