4 out of 5 stars! Ever since a tragic accident took place when Anna was young, she has struggled with crippling anxiety and stuttering issues. So much so that she has tried her best, in various ways, to hide it from everyone, even though she hasn’t always been successful. She has stayed away from her close-knit hometown for the past three years because of her issues. However, at her parent’s request, she returns home for the Christmas holidays, and into a world of drama that begins the day she arrives home. That happens to also be the day that she meets Simon, a man who has just moved to her hometown, who she spills a majority of her secrets too. Yet, Simon doesn’t stay a stranger for long, which leads Anna into a future she had never dreamed for herself ... but is it the better path for her or will it come at another cost?

This novel was not what I was expecting. In truth, it was a whole lot more and a bag of chips!

I thoroughly enjoyed how Anna developed as a character and really flourished, especially with Simon helping her. Together they were a pair that immediately understood each other’s issues, even when the reasons behind them weren’t discussed, in a way that just worked. It was as if they found their best friend they didn’t know they were looking for while trying to process the intense attraction that they felt for one another. They made this novel for me, and though I liked how their story wrapped up I wouldn’t call their story over because of how the novel ends. I would love to read more about this intriguing pair.

I recommend this novel to anyone looking for a uniquely-written sweet contemporary romance!!

Review By: From Me to You ... Video, Photography, & Book Reviews
-- read more of this review and THREE TEASERS on my blog --

I really liked this book and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series based around the family

This delightful little book is to be featured again at Christmastime this year, in a "Christmas Reads" series to run in December 2018.

Cute Christmas story. Nice, quick read for the holidays.

I enjoyed this read and the setting and would like to find out more about the characters in further books. I thought it ended a little bit abruptly.

What a lovely Christmassy book. Really enjoyed reading about Anna and her family. I can't wait to read the second one, to find out more about Anna's sister.

This book was a lot more serious than I expected, but I ended up enjoying it. It was really more of a novella, so it was a quick read. It's the first in a series of four, and I think I'll keep reading them.

This was a very cute story. I really liked Anna and Simon. The romance was clean and sweet with a lot of emotion. The book is a quick read but it sets up for what will be a nice series. Totally recommend.

An inspirational new series about sisters.

After three years, Anna Holley has returned home to Thornthwaite and she is immediately put in the spotlight with her family and the parishioners from her father’s church. Anna never let her family know that she suffers from social anxieties. So when all of the people in the house become too much for her to handle, she makes a quick exit to the pub for a drink. While there, she meets Simon and finds him very easy to talk to. Anna ends up telling him all of her secrets.

The next day, Anna is shocked when she finds out Simon is her father’s new curate. But as Anna and Simon spend time together, he helps her face her fears. In return, Anna becomes the one to help Simon move on from what held him back too. Maybe Anna can finally find the happiness in a man like her sisters have.

This book was beautifully written with great details. You really get a feel for the characters and their situations. Both Anna and Simon were flawed and together they were able to move on from their pasts that held them back. They brought out the best in each other too. I look forward to reading the next books in this series.

.Thought this novel was a great introduction to the Holley sisters who grew up as daughters of a pastor in a small English village in the Lake District. This story mostly focused on Anna who has been away from home for three years as being the daughter of a small-town pastor was just a bit much for her introverted self. As an introvert myself, I could relate to some of her anxiety. Will look forward to reading the sequels to this novel and finding out more about the other three Holley sisters and how Anna's romance with the new curate, Simon, develops.

Miss Bates admits she is excited when she sees a new Kate Hewitt romance. Hewitt hits all of Miss B’s reading sweet-spots: a reverence for fidelity and commitment, a diffident sensibility about sexuality, and a portrayal of sympathetic vulnerability in her characters. The first in Hewitt’s latest series (with its cumbersome title, The Holley Sisters of Thornthwaite), A Vicarage Christmas has all that and Christmas! And a curate hero! The BESTEST heroes are Protestant clerical types: Miss B. has a real penchant for them. Also, Miss b. loves a northern England setting, and celibate, but not Puritanical, protagonists. Perfect, thought Miss B., and delved into the romance between third daughter/sister Anna Holley and Simon Truesdell, Anna’s vicar father’s curate. Anna travels home to the village of Thornthwaite (from Manchester, where she works as a legal librarian) to spend the holidays with her family: father Roger and mother Ruth, and two of four sisters, Esther and Rachel. The Holleys are a loving family. The girls obviously grew up in a home of care, comfort, and security. But Anna’s visits home are rare. She usually spends her holidays in Manchester and, while Anna’s mother, Ruth, has the cookies and trimmings and Christmas bows and whistles making up most of the vicarage’s spaces, there is something sad about the family, something off.

Overwhelmed by village visitors and her family, Anna leaves the vicarage on her first night there to sit in a local pub. She meets a newcomer to Thornthwaite, a warm, sympathetic man. Aided by two ciders, Anna is more forthcoming than her usual shy self. She tells him about a family loss when she was a child that has caused her to suffer from social anxiety. Awkward and uncomfortable in social settings, Anna’s condition is accompanied by stammering. The stranger is sympathetic and understanding, with soft, friendly eyes and a lovely smile. He is a right and proper gentleman too, walking Anna home through the dark, snowy evening. Anna and the stranger share a gentle physical attraction, but neither acts on it. The next evening, as Anna’s vicar-father and mother prepare the house for parish celebrations, Anna is introduced to her father’s about-to-be-ordained curate – Simon, the man she spilled her deepest secrets to in the local pub!

While MissB enjoyed Hewitt’s romance, there should’ve been more of it. It’s a slight story about two likable, deserving protagonists. The pub scene is the best thing in it: the characters come alive and their conversation feels real and deep. Beyond that, the romance-which-felt-more-like-a-novella wanes in quality. The English caroling, candle-light, and Christmas tree decorating are lovely throughout. But Anna and Simon carry such burdens of brokenness from their past that their pain is louder than their love and attraction. It’s not easy to believe in their HEA, partly because Anna has doubts as to whether she and Simon can work at long distance and partly because the narrative’s development is truncated. Moreover, Miss Bates acknowledges the argument that “telling” and “not showing” is not always a narrative kiss of death; “telling” is sometimes necessary and sometimes stylistically efficacious. But when “telling” is used, as in Hewitt’s case here, as shorthand to what could’ve been scene-setting and dialogue, what the genre can do so well, and at both of which Hewitt can be master, MissB. couldn’t help but yearn for more.

MissB. liked Anna and Simon, despite their angst-o-rama, liked the setting, and the theme of love’s healing power, she wished, however, that the story had received the development it needed. Nevertheless, Hewitt’s themes remain sympathetic to Miss Bates and she’ll always return to her books and delight in new offerings. As for A Vicarage Christmas, she and Miss Austen say that it was “almost pretty,” Northanger Abbey.

Kate Hewitt’s A Vicarage Christmas is published by Tule Publishing. It was released on October 12th and may be procured from your preferred vendors. Tule Publishing provided Miss Bates with an e-ARC, via Netgalley.

This was such a sweet, lovely, romantic Christmas novel. I have already added it to my list to purchase for several of the libraries I buy for. I have recommended it to coworkers and patrons alike. I know this book will do very well. Thank you so much for letting me read this copy.

Anna Holley hasn't been home to the vicarage in Thornwaite for years, and just the thought of it brings back all of her anxieties and insecurities because a tragedy happened when she lived there and she still blames herself and is sure everyone else must blame her too!

Simon is the new curate in Thornwaite and when a lovely young woman sits next to him in the pub and starts unburdening herself to him he realises that she is his bosses daughter and so he ought to stop her and explain who he is but he doesn't as he really wants to help her..... will he be able to or will she be mortified and close up even more when she finds out who he is

A lovely story and great setting for the first book in the new series. I love all of the books by this author and am looking forward to the stories of the other three sisters

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. Christmas is always an unhappy time for me and this book bought home all of the good things that can happen. Thanks for restoring my faith.

Returning home at Christmas for the first time in years, is causing Anna Holley much anxiety. Escaping the Vicarage on the first night, Anna finds herself telling a stranger some of her secrets. Little does she know that the "stranger" will soon show up the next morning.

I enjoyed this book. At first I thought it might be a little too religious to me, but it really didn't focus too much on religion. I found myself feeling for Anna and rooting for her. I'm looking forward to reading about the rest of the Holley Sisters.

I enjoyed this book and read it in a day.
This book focuses around Anna returning to her family home, the vicarage for Christmas. She has a secret she has kept to herself for several years but by the end she finally has the courage to share this with her family.
A great festive read that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.
It is book one of the Holley Sisters of Thornwaite and I can’t wait for the next in the series.

Anna Holley loves her family, but feels more comfortable away from her home village. She finally returns for Christmas, both happy to see her family and terrified to really let them see her. A chance meeting with a stranger has her spilling all her secrets and insecurities. After all, she will never see him, again, right? Once Simon figures out who Anna is, he knows he should stop her, but he thinks he can help her and genuinely likes her as a person.
When Anna realizes that Simon is not a stranger to her family she has to start coming to terms with the past and trusting her family, as well as taking a chance on seeing whether Simon can be a part of her future. Anna also realizes, that, despite everything, she isn't as alone or invisible as she thought she was.
This is a story about family, guilt, grief, and romance. Anna and Simon connect so well, and I love the way their relationship grows. The Holley family is a well-developed cast of supporting characters that pull you into the story.
This is the first in a new series, and I can't wait to see what happens with the other three sisters.

I knew I couldn’t go wrong when I saw Christmas, Vicarage, and Kate Hewitt all on the same cover. Then to find out there are four sisters in the family… I was delighted! So this first book in a series is Anna’s story. She reluctantly returns home for the holidays – home to the vicarage where her parents live. When things at home get too overwhelming, Anna’s introverted self traipses down to the local pub to get a moment of respite. She finds some kind of respite alright – on a barstool next to a handsome, witty, sensitive, take charge kinda guy – and from there on in her life has changed.

Obvi I love the superficial parts of this book, but I also enjoyed the sister dynamics, the push and pull of a long-standing marriage, and the self-discovery of a woman who spent quite a many years avoiding her feelings. And I’m pretty excited to read three more! I think this quadogy or whatever it’s called really works for me: enough of a series to motivate me to get invested, but not too long of a series where storylines seem to repeat after a while. So fun.

Anna is a lovely young woman who has burdened herself with blame for her brother’s death and believes that everyone else feels the same, including her family. It was after his death that she became withdrawn, shy and started stammering. Away from Thronthwaite she feels free as people don’t know her, or her past, so returning to her family home is a big deal for her.

Simon is a man with a big heart. He didn’t know who Anna was when she opened up to him, and when he finally made the connection it was too late. He felt awful for putting her in that situation and making her feel more anxious, but he also felt a pull towards her and wants to help her feel less alone.

A Vicarage Christmas is a sweet festive read. With it only being quite short the book jumps straight into the story and drags you into the Holley’s lives. The whole family are lovely, though they also all seem to be hiding their own problems from one another. As this book is the first in a series, you know that each secret is going to be revealed over the course of time.

I can’t wait to read book two, out in January, as I sat and read Anna’s story in one sitting and I look forward to meeting her other sisters in more depth, and see what the future has in store for Anna too.

I enjoyed Vicarage Christmas by Kate Hewitt, book one in The Holley Sisters of Thornthwaite series. Anna has not returned home for many years for a variety of reasons. She is shy, stutters in public events, and being home reminds her of the events when her brother died. She escapes the Vicarage, walking to a nearby Pub where she encounters Simon. Simon, a newcomer to Thornthwaite, is an excellent listener and gets Anna to open up to him. He understands how Anna is feeling, as he experienced a similar situation. Simon recently changed careers, attending ministry school after being a teacher, and is about to join Anna’s father at the church. The more time these two spend together the more they become attracted to each other. It felt like Anna and Simon knew each other before their recent meeting. Anna knows she couldn’t be a proper Vicar’s wife is unsure that she should pursue the relationship. Yet, neither of them desire to stop seeing the other. We are introduced to Anna’s sisters as a way to set the stage for future books in this series.

I loved reading this book and had trouble putting this book down, reading it in one day. Ms. Hewitt drew me in and did not let go until I read the last page. I definitely recommend this book to other readers.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book