A wonderful Christmas read, I thoroughly enjoyed this new novel from Katie Ginger. Good feels, holiday cheer and the Christmas spirit, and of course love. A lovely read!

What a cute heartwarming Christmas story.

When Bella arrives home from work to find her boyfriend of 5 years Evan is leaving her she is understandably devastated. After a trip to London with her family and seeing all the people in need she decides to start a giving tree in her little village where people can nominate themselves or others to receive a gift for Christmas. With help from her handsome next door neighbour Nick, whose wife recently left him, and his son she begins to find happiness and love. But when Nick's estranged wife Paige arrives back in time for Christmas will it be the end of Bella and Nick?

This was a very heartwarming story with the community all coming together to give to those in need and showing what Christmas is really all about.

There was a bullying aspect in this which was handled very well. Also the grief about a relationship ending was handled well showing how some people can take time to get their lives back to normal.

The romance between Bella and Nick was cute very slow burn with them taking time to really fall in love with each other and include Nick's son in everything including the difficult conversations.

Overall I enjoyed this christmassy romance and will definitely read more by Katie Ginger.

A lightweight, predictable but enjoyable Christmas romance novel.

Bella is looking foward to Christmas, until she comes home early from work to find her boyfriend moving out - leaving her for another woman.

Next door, Nick is facing his first Christmas as a single dad.

To try and take her mind off of her broken heart, Bella starts a ‘Giving Tree’, where the community can come together to help those in need.

Now, Bella is a teacher and as such, I would expect her to be quite intelligent. However, her complete blindness towards what is happening between her and Nick frustrated me quite a lot, making this an averagely okay novel rather than a great one. I like a heroine to be a woman to look up to, to inspire, rather than one who you want to slap because she cannot seem to see what is obvious.

As I said, an enjoyable novel if you enjoy a very lightweight romance.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this novel in lieu of an honest review.

A really lovely Christmas read. Lovely characters with the story set in a really cosy village. I loved all the characters and got really invested in the story. Highly recommended.

Heartwarming Christmas story of friendship, heartbreak and of course love. The Christmas Gift is about finding friendships after a difficult breakup and love emerging slowly as the two neighbours are still grieving. To help Bella to grieve and to improve her emotional well-being she begins to think about ways to help the community members who are struggling financially during the Christmas holidays. As Bella and her neighbour Nick and his son grow closer somehow events soon turn around their happiness. At times the story does bring tears to the eyes and has some amusing times. Certainly a book for readers who love to read Christmas romance and please be aware that the book explores the emotions of grief from the loss of a relationship; on the in case it causes triggers of emotional memories please seek help or someone to talk to.

#ThePerfectChristmasGift #NetGalley
I received a complimentary copy of this book from HQ, HQ Digital via NetGalley for my honest review of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own thoughts, feelings and viewpoints of the book.

I have loved all of the books by this writer and this one is the perfect Christmas read. Full of lovely characters a great community all pulling together and plenty of humour, mishaps and fun along the way. The warm hearted storyline will definitely put you in the mood for Christmas

Such a wonderful book - I so enjoyed this! A festive, truly heart warming tale about such a lovely lady - Bella, a primary school teacher who lives in such a wonderful sounding village that I want to move in tomorrow! The story doesn't start well for her but she has the lovely idea to start something for all those in the village that are struggling in whatever way, be that financially, being on their own or anything else in between.

Not only that, but she volunteers at the local community park and helps her pupils with such a caring attitude. During all of this, she starts to get close to her neighbour, Nick, whose son is one of the pupils at her school having troubles. Things develop as the story continues but will it have the happy ending the reader is hoping for? You'll have to read it to find out! If you do, you will not be disappointed! A great big hug of a Christmas treat!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review, which is what I have given.

Wow what a read! I am an absolute sucker for a festive read and this one is right up on my favourites of the year so far. Ooozing with romance, Christmas traditions and of course hot chocolate it is the perfect story to get you in the Christmas spirit.
Warm and inviting, I completely fell in love with Bella and her family who demonstrate the true meaning of Christmas with their kindness and compassion. The giving tree is a beautiful idea and the story shows how vital these ideas are for so many people in so many communities.

As with all great stories, there are ups and downs, obstacles and mishaps, laughter and tears, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Bella mend her broken heart and throw herself into life again.

Not sure what to say about this one other than it is a cute and Christmassy book, a bit of fun and festive reading and it is a cosy, heartwarming story.

It is quirky, the town are quaint and cosy, places you feel you would want to spend Christmas. It is a story of life and love, friendships and humour. It is an easy to read book that is well written, one that you curl up with making sure you have a hot cuppa with you when you do.

A good read, fun, romantic, entertaining, Christmassy and with touches of humour to make it a bit more light-hearted.

I loved this book from start to finish

I really liked Bella, she had such a lovely connection with the kids in her class. Even when she has the shock of her life her teaching and general loveliness doesn't change.

This is such a heartwarming story. Freddy and Bella delivering gifts was so cute, despite the mishap half way through the deliveries. There friendship was adorable.

I am a total sucker for romance and I welled up at the end of this story. Absolutely loved it.

Despite having her heartbroken, Bella decides to concentrate on giving back to the people of her village Meadowbank this Christmas.
This is a lovely easy read full of festive spirit, a perfect escape for December.

This is the time of year when sometimes all you want to do is curl up with a good book and a hot drink, and just read. This is a book that you could easily do that with. It’s a gentle, if predictable, story but that’s no bad thing. I like the idea of the Giving Tree, really appropriate at this time of year, and particularly given the way things have been going in the world lately. The village sounds like somewhere many of us would love to live in. There were a few times that I thought that Bella was a bit too good, with barely any flaws, but that’s the point of a book like this ,to escape into it. And I did.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I have received a digital ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are exclusively my own.

It might be because I’m not used to reading through an eBook, but I felt like this book began slowly. Now, I did enjoy the benefits of reading on my phone wherever I went. I don’t have the habit of bringing books with me everywhere I go, so if my husband drove, I read. However, I will choose real books over eBooks any day.

Small-town settings easily rope me into reading the book, and the author does a good job of describing the village houses and grotto. However, I wish there was more of a small-town community backing up our protagonist, Bella, in her ideas for the village. Bella is respectable and charitable, while grieving her own loss, and I wish there was less doubt and drama involved. Her occupation as a teacher suits her well.

The author does a good job of showing different family dynamics and how it’s important to pay attention to your children at school. Bullying is sad and twisted, and I hate it more than almost anything. I’m glad this book is here to remind me that, in young children, they almost always mirror their parents’ behavior. The children’s families may be struggling in other ways too, and our protagonist does a great job at being sensitive to her students’ needs.

Overall, I thought it was a nice Christmas read with good lessons in charity, honesty, and kindness. It was slow in the beginning and I had trouble staying focused while reading it, but it got more interesting in the second half when the conflict intensified. It’s a little repetitive in some areas, and the side characters’ characterizations do not run very deep, so they all are basically the same character with the same story.

The book needs a little more revision to fix some holes in the text, but I enjoyed it otherwise. It is a good Christmas read to add to your TBR pile this holiday season!

A perfect Christmas book all about the true meaning of Christmas to me; full of community and being there for each other.
I loved all of the sub-plots back stories like Nina and Johnny, and the sense of family and how close Bella was with hers. I felt that all these extras really tied the story together nicely.

A beautifully written book. Set in a sleepy village, where the community come together at Christmas, I really enjoyed this book, I disappeared into this so easily, I was there as a bystander watching as the story unfolded.

5 stars from me

What an absolutely gorgeous and heart warming book.
Sometimes the worst things to happen to us, are the best, just ask Bella.
Bella works at Meadowbank Village Primary school, one day she suggests they have a giving tree for Christmas that demonstrates random acts of kindness extended to those who need it anonymously. She has a close bond with her mum Cynthia, father Mungo and sister Caro who is 7 months pregnant.
She lives at Lavender Cottage with her soon to be ex Boyfriend Evan. Next door lives the handsome Nick with his son Freddie who is going through a hard time at the hands of a fellow student and bully named Amaias.
This book is filled with love, care, friendships and inspiration.
Definitely a must read Christmas feel good book. ☆☆☆☆☆

I've been in a festive books mood recently and probably this makes me rate this book higher than I normally would.
It's a decent story, but... yes, of course there is a but. I think it would be a better book if Bella wasn't such a Goodie Two Shoes. Like honestly, she was so good and so kind and so selfless that it'd make Pollyanna jealous. Seriously, her goodness was just too much. People do have emotions, they feel jealous, sad, angry, they snap at people, they glare, they feel annoyed. But not our Bella.
Her relationship with Luke is lukewarm (ha ha, pun intended) at best.
The only thing that saves this book are the secondary characters.

It's not a bad book. It just could have been so much better.
There are a lot on missed opportunities here and it just made me more annoyed that it should have. The writing isn't bad it's just not compelling either.
I might give this author a second chance, but definitely not now.

This was the first time I have read a Katie Ginger book and I absolutely loved it! Really captured the spirit of Christmas and was such a cosy romantic read. I can’t wait to read more from Katie Ginger

Sadly this wasn't perfect at all. Cliché after cliché until it became rather painful.
And no, a child can not stick an object into their inner ear and not go to hospital for surgery. The auditory canal is NOT the inner ear!
Heavily stereotypical characters and well trodden plot.
Not for me

The Perfect Christmas Gift is the perfect Christmas read. See what I did there? ;) Charming, hopeful, funny and heartwarming. I highly recommend it!

I got this arc in exchange for an honest review.