I was so lucky to receive this as Trisha Ashley is one of my all-time favourite romance writers and I've been a fan for a long time.
This book is reminiscent of her earlier books in that it captures rural recipes, stately home and family dramas in an entertaining and heartfelt way. The characters were a mix of loveable, charming, hilarious and scheming which made for a fun read.
I adored Pansy (the dachshund) , River and Teddy the most. The spirit of Christmas (as well as the tradition of wiccan celebrations) was perfectly captured in the events of the book and it leaves you uplifted and with a smile on your face!

Trisha Ashley writes a gloriously immersive festive read that is just perfect for getting into Christmas, full of humour, set in the fabulous snowy location of the Lancashire Moors. The romance elements are decidedly low key, although there is a comedy of errors when it comes to relationships between various characters in the novel. 36 year old Meg is a artist, a renowned portrait painter, living in London, whose best friend and flatmate, Fliss, has got married and moved out. She has suffered from a debilitating bout of pneumonia, left weakened and looking to convalesce. However, her plans are derailed when famous crime novelist and epigrapher, Clara Mayhem-Doome, commissions her to paint both her and her well known husband, poet Henry, insisting that Meg stay at their Victorian Gothic home, The Red House, where she will have the opportunity to take things easy.

Clara, a force of nature, invites Meg to experience a traditional family Christmas, something that Meg has never experienced before, having grown up in her beloved commune that served as her family in the Black Mountains of Wales where solstice and winter celebrations took precedence. Meg is surprised at how well she fits in with the vegetarian family, not to mention with the wonderful cook, Den, and Tottie, committed gardener and bee keeper. She is included in all the family Christmas traditions and rituals, and those of the local community. 8 year old Teddy provides the wonder and magic of Christmas seen through the eyes of children. Living close by are other family members, Sybil and her son, Mark, planning on turning his Underhill estate into a exclusive wedding venue, and the fly in the ointment, Lex, an unwelcome and unnerving reminder of a misunderstod past when he lost his young wife, Lisa, to cancer. He is not happy to see Meg, an unwanted presence, although he is mistaken about what he believes she did in his past, but is Meg going to be able to tell him the truth of what happened?

In a heartwarming Christmas story, Ashley gives us intrigue, brimful of family drama, whilst doing a splendid job of providing detailed rituals and pre-Christmas traditions, laced with paganism and local history. The highlights are the diverse range of characters, from Meg's adopted grandfather, River, to the likes of Den, Tottie, Clara, the self obsessed Rollo, an ex-boyfriend of Meg's and the hideous Piers. This is a wonderful read, of the spirit of Christmas, of family secrets, of the art of portrait painting, all set in a atmospheric location with the requisite snowy weather for the season. This is my first read of Trisha Ashley and I have to say that I really loved it. Many thanks to Random House Transworld for an ARC.

I want to just say that this is the very first Trisha Ashley book I've read on a kindle rather than a paper version, so I am attributing that to my slow start to the book. But once I got going, I couldn't get enough of this book and was completely hooked. Full of wonderful likeable, lovable and most definitely quirky characters. I adore Trishas style of writing and can highly recommend this feel good festive read. I particularly loved little Pansys appearances, one in particular had me "ahhing" out loud. A must read.

Overall, I like this book, with it's new age vibe, but it's way too long. It dragged in a lot of places and the editor should have taken out at least 100 pages. I like Trisha Ashley and the way she writes, you just want to read on so you'll know what happens. So, a great Christmas read if you don't mind it a little bit longer ;)

Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review
Having read all of this fabulous authors books it came as no surprise how good her new one is totally captivating from beginning to end this is Christmas can highly recommend.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐from me
Trisha Ashley has done it again, one of the queens of festive romance, she lets you escape the hustle as the bustle of your workday and curl up in the break room was a warm cuppa and a story which brings out the magic of the upcoming season.
The characters, as so often are the stars of the show with their quirky habits and eccentric personalities, help to bring the story to life. As much as I enjoyed unraveling the story of Meg and Lex complicated past, I was also enthralled by the novel way of telling Clara and Henry's.
Add in a funny looking pup and I'm putty in Trisha's hand.

As always my thanks to the author, #RandomHouseUK and #Netgalley for allowing me to read and review #TheChristmasInvitation

Purchase Links:
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Invitation-Trisha-Ashley-ebook/dp/B07P5WPBKZ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1571173913&sr=1-1
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Invitation-Trisha-Ashley-ebook/dp/B07P5WPBKZ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1571173913&sr=1-1

A great festive read, in an interesting setting with an eclectic mix of characters.

This was the story of Meg, a portrait artist who is painting Clara and Henry in the run up to Christmas. Their nephew Lex is the last person she wanted to see, but soon she is being drawn in to the family.

An enjoyable Christmas read, though for me I felt it dragged on quite a bit. Odd but mostly likeable quirky characters. I didn’t love this as much as many other reviewers did. Maybe it’s just the writing style I couldn’t appreciate?

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review.

A really enjoyable story. I loved the huge mix of characters and warmed to them immediately. Even the baddies were great! There were some really good twists in the story too, and it kept me turning the pages to the end. Also liked the cracker factory popping up briefly from a previous book. My favourite Trisha Ashley book to date.

I've read a few Trisha Ashley books before, so I was looking forward to this one - and it didn't disappoint.

It's set at Christmas and has a lovely mix of characters coming together, some of them more eccentric than others! I liked Meg, the heroine, who grew up in a commune that celebrated the Solstice rather than Christmas, so is experiencing her first traditional Christmas. The story moves on slowly, with some twists and outlandish turns, but Trisha's writing is such that I stayed interested all the way through - although I must admit, I actually found the romance element of it the weakest of all.

A lovely, relaxing, heart warming Christmas read.

Oh I do love a Trisha Ashley book, especially her Christmas ones, and this one was just as wonderful as her previous books.

Meg is a portrait artist who is sort of hijacked into doing a couple of portraits for a client over the Christmas period. She's recovering from an illness though and the commission sounded a really nice, easy one in a friendly, family Christmas setting, so she accepts and ends up in a large house in a small village in Lancashire. She's hoping for a traditional Christmas as she's never had one, having grown up in a commune where they don't really celebrate Christmas.

Once there though she runs into Lex, an old friend/colleague/crush from university who she had a bit of an awkward issue with that ended badly. Initially they avoid each other, but end up sorting things out eventually when Meg confronts the issue and clears up the confusion. It was hard for them to avoid one another as Lex was the nephew of Clara who was one half of the couple Meg was doing the portraits of - Clara (an epigrapher/novelist) and Henry (her poet husband), and spending Christmas in the same house.

There are a few little mysteries running along in the background of the story about Meg's family and also a mystery involving the nasty character in the book, Piers, a sort of family 'friend'.

Really lovely, quite quirky but very warm-hearted characters, in a snowy, Christmassy village setting, with a happy ending, what's not to like?! Perfect Christmas read.

One of my favourite authors so I was delighted to be able to receive an advance copy from Netgallery of The Christmas Invitation.

As always it was a treat to read, the excitement of christmas to come building up, a family saga to get to grips with, snow, a love story and of course there are recipes at the end. What more could we need for a wonderful Christmas read?

It would not be Christmas without a story by Trisha Ashley... and this one was did not disappoint.
A terrific festive story.

Although it took me a while to get into the story I warmed to the character of Meg quickly and the others grow on you without a doubt despite being the most eclectic mix of humans you could imagine! The story is fantastical, far fetched with a hint of farce but full of heart and humour and very in keeping with Trisha Ashley’s style. There’s a mix of everything in here from persistent exes to blasts from the pasts but all tied together well with a great dollop of extended family Christmas festivities, this is a great relaxing escape.

this is the first Trisha Ashley book I’ve read and also the first Christmas book of the year.

I adored this story once it got started, although I do feel it was a little slow to begin with.

I didn’t like Clara to begin with, I felt she was pushy and horrible, but she soon became my favourite character which shows the skill that Trisha has with her writing.

I loved Meg, I saw myself in her a lot, especially at the beginning where she just went with Clara’s plan because she didn’t like the idea of confrontation.

If you love a romance that isn’t straight forward, with lots of twists and turns, but still gets you to the “happy ever after ” in the end then this is the story for you.

There were lots of different characters with their own stories to tell that added different elements to the story, I wish l could read if for the first time again, just so I could have all those feelings again.

Thank you Trisha for allowing me to read this beautiful story early.

I love books and I love Christmas and this combined the two, perfect for me. It took me a few chapters before I got fully into it, then there was no stopping me. The story focuses on Meg, a portrait artist, who goes to stay in a small village with a family whose portraits she is about to paint. She has never celebrated Christmas having been brought up on a commune like farm who don’t celebrate such traditions. She is fascinated by the idea of Christmas and gets caught up in the families festivities. Throw in a past boyfriend, an old college acquaintance, a family mystery and an excited child and you have the recipe for a brilliant book. The characters have you either loving or loathing them and some your just not sure about. A great book to curl up with now the days are getting colder.

A good festive book by a great author.
I liked the storyline and the characters. I do enjoy the writing style of this author and have read many books by her.

Another winner from Trisha Ashley, I couldn't put this Christmas delight down. She is a beautiful writer and really creates a great sense of setting. My mouth was positively drooling with the wonderful descriptions of food and drink through out. She also brought alive lots of Christmas traditions and the trappings of the festive season. Her characterisation is second to none and I loved Clara, Henry, River and Meg. They were such well drawn original characters.
I do however have one quibble, it did feel very familiar as I read the book and there perhaps a few too many similarities with Trisha Ashley's Twelve Days of Christmas several times down to the long lost family member plot, the widowed hero, the unexpected guests and the local traditional revels.
But I'm still going to rate it five stars because perhaps not everyone has read Twelve Days four times!

A fun festive book which I absolutely loved. I’d highly recommend this to anyone. Love this author!

This is my first Christmas book this year and although it is only September it very quickly got me into the festive spirit. Not long into it and I found a story that had brilliant quirky characters bulging from its chapters. This was going to be such a treat!
Meg is the central character with the story mostly taking place high in the hills of a small Lancashire village. The Red House is set on its own grounds, and easily cut off by the seasonal weather from the village below. Meg brought up as a bit of a free spirit in a commune, doesn't celebrate Christmas. She has been artist commissioned to paint the portraits of Clara, a historian, and fictional crime writer and her famous recluse poet husband Henry Doome. Their extended family are lively characters that constantly come and go every hour of the day.
I won't go into the heart of the story that is something to be unwrapped from each chapter like an unknown gift. Some of what is inside will make you laugh while others venture into the past because sometimes we have to go back before we can move forward after been stuck in a rut for so long.
There are mysteries to be solved, romance to be kindled and the past to be reconciled. One character made me laugh for his persistence, though he could be given the most annoying cringeworthy character award too. Rollo, self-centred and very entertaining to read about. I just kept getting an image of Dick Dastardly in my mind every time he appeared in the story, especially in his little sports car.
A lovely cozy, curl-up book that made me feel part of it all!
I wish to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book which I have honestly reviewed.