Hannah and Nico are meant to be together. They run into each other at her shop after not seeing each other in years.

Hannah is in a relationship with an inattentive partner. Nick is divorced and single dad to Josie.

Hannah and Nico have to navigate work, exes, and family events - can they find their way to each other?

This book was beautiful, festive escapism. The characters had substance and was relatable and engaging.
I loved it.

I loved this book. Nico was my favourite character. He was a wonderful father. Even under a lot of strain those girls were always loved and well-cared for. Both young girls were lovely, but little Maria stood out for me. As for the female protagonist, I didn't totally warm to her. She was okay, but I feel this was Nico's story and she was a supporting character. I do wish also that Nico and Hannah had spent a little more time together than they do. Other supporting characters like Nan Heather were great. Some serious issues are looked at in this story, so it's not a light read at times. The Christmas elements are all there. It was good to learn a little about Swedish customs. With thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Do you like books on love, love triangles, women empowerment and Christmas? Then, this book is for you. This book has it all. Get a feel of Christmas in Europe. A lovely shop owner in Europe is trying to succeed and expand. Will the holiday season be a blessing in disguise or a time of turmoil. Will she leave one guy to get with her brother’s best friend. Take the time to pick up this wonderful book. Happy reading!

-Rebeca

What a lovely book this was!! I love this author’s books, but this one has to be my favourite! Set in both Stockholm and the little English village of Middledip, I was treated to an abundance of loveliness featuring the characters of Hannah Anna Goodbody and Nico Petterssen. Hannah bumps into Nico, an old family friend, whilst she is living in Stockholm with her boyfriend, Albin. Her relationship with Albin isn’t going very well and when she sees Nico, she realises why she used to have a crush on him when she was younger. Their paths cross again at a family wedding, and she finds herself becoming attracted to him. Nico, on the other hand has family problems of his own when he finds himself looking after an extra child.

This was such a wonderful book. I loved Hannah’s character and could really connect with her character and storyline! I hated to see her struggling with her business and relationship, and really didn’t like her boyfriend Albin one little bit! When the opportunity to return home to the village of Middledip arose, I really hoped she jumped at it! Whilst Stockholm sounded fabulous, it was obvious Hannah needed to return home! I also loved Nico’s character! An old friend of Hannah’s brother, Nico is carrying a lot of baggage around with him. He lives with his daughter, Josie but is finding that his ex-wife is having trouble coping when Josie is staying with her. He’s comes across as such a caring man, but as the story moved on, I began to wonder if he has bitten off more than he can chew. The one thing that was blatantly obvious was that there was a spark between Nico and Hannah, and I loved their journey to find out if that spark could be reignited!

The other characters all fitted into the storyline perfectly! I loved Nan Heather, and the two young girls Josie and Maria were just so sweet! The locations were also delightful with Stockholm definitely being my favourite!! I’ve never been, but it sounds like somewhere I should go, particularly around Christmas time! Middledip is also quaint little English village, and again with the festivities around Christmas it definitely gave me images of a snowy picture postcard! There were many topics covered within the book, which made the story the perfect all-rounder. Whilst there were some more serious topics of eating disorders, relationship breakdowns and mental health problems, there was also lots of love, laughs and fun. It was a warm-hearted, emotional and joyful storyline which brought tears to my eyes at times and made me laugh out loud at others! I felt like I knew all the characters personally by the end of the book and was genuinely sad to finish it! If you are looking for a beautiful Christmas romance, then look no further! A fabulous read and I would heartily recommend it!

What a fabulous story!
Sue Moorcroft is such a fantastic author, she always manages to capture those really heart-breaking moments in life.
I was totally captivated by this story and went through all the emotions that I am sure other readers experienced too.
Absolutely brilliant, up there with one of the best Christmas books I have read.

I received this book via netgalley and give it my honest opinion.

This book is like a warm snuggle in front of a log fire! I loved it! It was a dream to read, the characters were true to life and I could visualise the scenes. I recommend this read and I personally think it is one of Sue Moorcrofts best books yet!

I wanted to like this book. I really did. But between the British terms and the Scandinavian terms and language, I felt a tiny bit lost. Add in the eating disorder and I just couldn't. It felt too close to home. Clearly a very necessary topic and I know that this touches men and women. I couldn't get past the first few chapters even though I tried.

This was the perfect read to start for the upcoming holiday months! I hadn't heard of Sue Moorcroft before, and now I know I will be looking for her titles for the future!

Christmas Wishes was just a nice feel good love story. Of course, there are some sad moments along the way, and moments when you're just rooting for the characters NOT to mess up, but in the end, everyone got together in a way that I as the reader wanted them to be :)

Hannah is currently living with Albin in Sweden, in his expensive apartment. She runs her own boutique, and one day meets one of her brother's childhood friends, Nico, and they share a meal together. Hannah, judging by his demeanor, thinks he looks unkept and homeless. Turns out, Nico suffered from an eating disorder after his failed marriage with Loren. Both Hannah and Nico agree that their lunch left them with wanting more.

Luckily, Hannah's older brother, Rob, who is also friends with Nico from their ice hockey days, is getting married in a few weeks. Hannah and Nico are in attendance.

However, a wrench is thrown into the plan, when Nico goes to visit his ex-wife Loren, since he has sole custody of their daughter, Josie. Part of the reason why their marriage failed was because Loren cheated on him with another man, and got pregnant with Maria--WHAT?! Crazy! We discover that Loren has a drug and alcohol problem, and Nico ends up taking care of the two girls, and bringing them to the wedding.

Some other exciting things happen in this novel, but I won't spoil the rest of it. In a year that has been so uncertain for everyone, this was a wonderful and light read for me. I cannot wait to see what else Moorcroft has in store for the future!

The story starts in Sweden in mid October. Hannah is living her dream – she lives with her rich boyfriend in a swanky apartment, she has her dream business and she loves living in Sweden. One cold day, an old friend of her brother’s (Nico) breezes into her shop and they rekindle their friendship over lunch. A few weeks later and Hannah is back in the UK for her brother’s wedding, her boyfriend has stayed behind in Sweden and she is questioning the future of her relationship. Upon her return to Sweden, the rug is pulled from under her and she finds herself back in England sooner than she had anticipated. Meanwhile, Nico finds himself trying to juggle being a single dad, working full-time, his expensive mortgage and a difficult situation with his ex-wife and her illegitimate child – he decides to take drastic action!

I really loved watching the story unfold – especially the warm relationship between Hannah and her family and between Nico, his daughter Josie and her sister Maria. The jumps between Sweden and England (sometimes in dialogue and traditions, other times a physical move between the two countries) are fantastic and are really well researched. I found myself putting Stockholm on my list of places to visit once ‘this’ is finally over!! The scenes with Nico’s family are really heartwarming and their acceptance of his unusual circumstances was really well written.

Interestingly, one of my most used pieces of advice appeared in this book: “Put your own oxygen mask on first”. Very sound advice!

This book is a really lovely, Christmassy story – it ticks all the boxes: Snow, family, community, high drama, romance, travel (drug addiction, child neglect, eating disorders….). Definitely a book I will come back to again next year to get me in the mood for Christmas. Now, who’s for a hot chocolate?

I absolutely love Sue Moorcroft's Christmas books, they make me feel so festive and Christmas Wishes was no different. It was a sweet festive read that had me engrossed throughout. This was another wonderful read.

This is only my second visit to Middledip but has made me want to read the other books set there also.

Hannah Anna has everything she has ever dreamt of she owns a gift shop in Stockholm And it is coming to the busiest time of year when everything starts to go wrong and this brings her back to Middledip. At the same time Hannah’s brothers best friend from school Nico is having a hard time with work and his ex wife so when he meets Hannah again at her brothers wedding they reconnect and find an instant attraction but nothing is ever straightforward and there are many hurdles to get over.

With a lovely Christmassy feel and also made me want to visit Sweden at Christmas. Such a lovely festive read

A lovely book featuring Hannah and Nico. It was good to read a book equally written about both characters (male and female).

Hannah and Nico knew each other in childhood and Hannah meets him again when running a shop in Sweden. Nico often travelled to Sweden for work and his relatives live there so Sweden and the traditions if the country etc feature in this book.

Their lives are turned upside down and they both return to the village of Middledip. What will the future bring?

One of the best Christmas books I’ve ever read! Loved the story, the editing, the way the characters had flaws and imperfections and yet found a way out. Just gave me so much hope. Must read!

Sue Moorcroft does Christmas reads so well. This story of Hannah and Nico had me rooting for their happy ending, and the wintry Christmas setting was so lovely. I can heartily recommend Sue Moorcroft's books.

This was a really cozy Christmas romance. I loved the small village feeling and the characters. Being Swedish I really appreciated the way the Swedish culture was written, although there were some Swedish sentences that I feel is old fashion as I don’t hear anyone actually say it anymore.

Even though I loved the cozy feelings of the book I wasn’t to keen on the whole instalove. It felt like they went from just meeting each other again to suddenly loving each other.

But overall I really did enjoy it. I might pick up some of Sue Moorcrofts other Christmas novels in the future.

Thank you netgalley for allowing me early access to this. This was the perfect book to snuggle up with and read on a cold day. I loved the story, the characters & everything about this! Definitely a must read! I look forward to reading more from this author as well.

A really lovely heartwarming feelgood festive story. This book will definitely help you get into the festive mood,

This was a very cute story about two people who, amid life's crazy circumstances, manage to reunite after a wedding.

I thought this story was cute. The setting was very charming and quaint. I really enjoyed the village feel. I also enjoyed the characters. Nan Heather was wonderful, and I reminded me of my own grandmother. Nico was so kind and loving and Hannah was so hard working. I adored Maria and Josie! Their enthusiasm was infectious. The only negative for me was, I felt like the beginning was a bit slow, and it didn't start to pick up in pace until about halfway through.

All in all, this was a charming and heartwarming story that will get you in the Christmas spirit.

A lovely, charming book for those longer, wintry nights.
See full blurb and review below.
Thanks to Ellie Pilcher at Avon Books for accepting my request to review.

Review

This is a charming story that takes readers into the brother and sister relationship of Rob and Hannah. Hannah runs a shop and within it one day, is reunited with Nico, originally from Sweden, whom she had met in their teenage years in Cambridge, nearly 20 years ago with quite the high achieving family, yet time has perhaps not been so kind to him. Rob is getting married and so Nico found Hannah on Rob's request as Hannah is having boyfriend troubles with her partner - Albin. There's an interesting tension and romance that emerges between Hannah, Albin and Nico in this book that is set between Scandanavian countries and the UK, including to Middledip.

There are health issues that Loren is medicated for and life seems complicated between her, Josie and Maria and life isn't always easy and there are decisions to be made. This, however is still a book that readers can still easily relax into and while away the time and forget the outside world for a bit. There's the happy, excitement to the build-up to Christmas and secreting presents away from potential prying eyes. There's the humour of Hannah's 90 year old nan thinking other people are the old folk. I find it particularly humorous anyway, as an old relative of mine used to think like this. There's the lightness, warmth, traditions and buzz around getting prepared for Christmas as well as that bit of bite about the complexities of life and its emotions and it  all sits rather well together in this rather delightful Christmas story.