𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝑾𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝑵𝒐𝒘! 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑱𝒐𝒏 𝑻𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒆.
Home to Christmas Island, by Emma Davie. $3.99 on Kobo or Indigo.
Perhaps it’s the constant streaming of Chris Rea’s Driving Home For Christmas that has me in the mood to read romance and Christmas stories. If you, too, are reaching for a tranquil state of the heart, buy yourself a copy of Emma Davie’s charming new novel, Home to Christmas Island.
Up until downloading this bracing romance, I knew Emma primarily as one of the best reporters at CBC Nova Scotia. (For example, her recent awesome feature on a Nova Scotia woman going to England for a 75th class anniversary) When I worked there, she seemed able to do any job in the newsroom with skill and passion. Out on the streets reporting, or behind a desk producing the news, she always brought a high standard with her.
No surprise she brings the same talent and tenacity to the page. Home to Christmas Island is set in the real place on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. As our heroine Florence MacLeod speeds back into her hometown for a winter wedding and glum remembrances, she gets pulled over by a cheeky Scottish cop. She’s never heard of him, but he seems well-informed about her.
He gives her a ticket and tells her to slow down.
She speeds off.
Florence tries to keep a bright smile as she helps her childhood friend Alba prepare a dream wedding with her wife-to-be Rose, but that dang cop keeps turning up. And she discovers he knows a lot more about her childhood than he’s let on.
Emma writes with a fine touch, creating unique people in familiar places. The people in this book are struggling with real problems, and reading them will help you handle your own as you feel the push and pull of holiday cheer/fear.
This is her first novel, so you should spend $3.99 now and buy it on your phone. Put your the app on your home screen and every time you pick up your phone, read for five minutes instead of checking your socials. It will fill your belly like a warm Christmas feast.