The whole premise of a village preparing for a huge Christmas display, involving much of the houses, lends itself to the story so well. Centred on the community, you feel the coming together of the village as they look out for each other and work together to make everything perfect. Everyone is invested except for Sam, who has recently moved into the village. You have to wait to find out why he is so opposed to Christmas.

Blythe has been desperate to prove herself as a successful business woman and you realise that her father is at the root of her insecurity. In her step-father and father, you are presented with two different approaches to fatherhood and the value of a loving, accepting family. There is plenty of humour in the story. Turpin, the almost feral cat, provides plenty of laughs as does the various house hunters and house sellers who Blythe has to try to accommodate. There are also some touching moments, especially when you realise why the Christmas competition is so important to the village. This is a delightful festive read, in all, full of feelgood moments, humour and romance.

In short: Countdown to Christmas

This book was actually really good however I think the only thing that let it down was how rushed it felt. I actually wish this book had been longer to develop all the stories going on properly or cut the friends story which really didn't make a big impact on the overall story and her plot really happened off screen (as they say).

Good book, bit rushed but full of potential.

I have read a few Bella Osbourne Books and love her writing style, Who doesn't want a perfect Christmas village for crimbo? Great story with love and community spirit. A recommended read.

A quick festive read. This made for a great palate cleanser but didn’t knock my socks off. It marked all of the boxes for a festive read but lacked the magic to bring it to the next level.

A fun Christmas read. Blythe, a hard-working estate agent, is looking for recognition at work. Trying to boost her sales figures, she is economical with the truth when selling a picture-postcard cottage to Sam. The cottage, complete with resident cat, is in a village keen to win the national title of 'Perfect Christmas Village' with Sam's cottage on the green central to the villager's plans. Sam, who hates Christmas, refused to join in... and Blythe is left to sort out the mess! 'The Perfect Christmas Village' is a lovely holiday escapist read.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

A perfect festive read full of cozy charm and well rounded characters. Grab a. Hot chocolate and a blanket and snuggle in for this winter treat.

The Perfect Christmas Village by Bella Osborne is an absolutely feel-good festive treat to curl up with this Christmas. This book will transport you to a world where love and holiday cheer are all around.

Meet Sam. He hates Christmas and has just moved to Holly Cross. He thinks he's found the perfect home, until he discovers that Holly Cross transforms into the most Christmassy village in the whole country. Every year.

Meet Blythe. She is one sale away from being Real Estate Agent of the Month. She twists the truth to sell a home to city boy who is looking for the perfect house in the perfect location.

Holly Cross's chance to win the title of Britain's Most Perfect Christmas Village is now in jeopardy, and the villagers are soon up in arms. As the festive season looms, maybe there's more than just Christmas in Holly Cross for Sam to fall in love with… will this Christmas cynic have his frozen heart melted by festive magic?

Osborne weaves a heartwarming tale of love, community, and holiday magic. The charming setting, quirky characters, and delightful storyline make it a perfect read for the holiday season. If you're looking for a book that captures the spirit of Christmas, this one is a delightful choice.

Thank you to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for a temporary e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I didn't think it was possible to feel festive in October but The Perfect Christmas Village is so full of Christmas spirit that it was impossible to resist (virtually) joining in and I absolutely adored this wonderful book.

Blythe doesn't make the best first impression on me, although she has her reasons for being so competitive at work, and everyone knows that you take what an estate agent says with a pinch of salt. So Sam only has himself to blame when he finds himself living in the most Christmassy village in Britain, as he really should have done his due diligence before signing on the dotted line.

I know some people can't understand other people who don't like Christmas but it's usually for a very good, and very personal, reason. Blythe really annoyed me when she kept pushing Sam and making fun of him although she does redeem herself in the most heartwarming way that had me reaching for my tissues to dry my tears.

The community spirit of Holly Cross leaps out of the page and envelops the reader in a huge hug. I felt as if I was part of this wonderful community and I really cared about what happened to them. I also loved Turpin the cat and his ability to find new hiding positions - I think he is quite like Sam and just wants to hide away from the community Christmas spirit.

Fabulously festive and wonderfully uplifting, The Perfect Christmas Village is a delightful feelgood novel that completely warmed my heart. I simply can't recommend it highly enough and I am already planning to visit Holly Cross again next year.

I received a digital ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

Lovely read, heart warming and fun throughout. Perfect for the Christmas and any other season! The village setting is idyllic with lovely characters. Lots of mini stories within the main one and they dove tail together perfectly. Highly recommended.

Thank you Netgalley

The community spirit displayed in this book was good. I wasn’t too keen on the main character Blythe. She was annoying along with Leonora. They were a bit too fanatic about Christmas. Besides these little quirks, it was entertaining.

This was a fantastic holiday romance. I liked the plot and the characters were a lot of fun. Very much recommend this book.

Pay no attention to me, sitting here requesting a Christmas rom-com due to the adorable cover alone. What is a description anyway? Although, if the cover was not enough to hook me, the description definitely would have! A Christmas grumpus is tricked into moving to the most Christmassy village in England? Surely holiday cheer must ensue and our former grouch can learn to love his new village and embrace the spirit of Christmas! Did I just write the plot of Hallmark movie? Quite possibly.

While The Perfect Christmas Village should have been just the warm and fuzzy read I needed it to be, the villagers and the novel left me feeling cold. The village made our Christmas grumpus Sam out to be the villain and forced Christmas on him. Not everyone embraces Christmas and those people should be accepted for who they are, rather than being forced into celebrating a holiday that may be painful to them. Also, the dual pov typically works for me, but rather than having Sam’s pov, we got Blythe’s friend…which seems like it was not entirely thought through. While I do enjoy Bella Osborne’s novels, sadly this one will not being making it to my Christmas collection.

*Thank you to Aria and Netgalley for providing this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Great festive read, heart-warming and full of romance!

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

A perfect end to my Christmas reading. Bella filled this book with her usual humour and Christmas spirit.
A beautiful story of The Perfect Christmas Village. Blythe is a local estate agent who is desperate to sell one more property to win the highest sales, when she meets Christmas hating Sam she finds herself being liberal with the truth about the Village.
Christmas is a massive part of the Holly Cross Community and can that change the way Sam feels about Christmas.
A lovely festive book.
Thank you NetGalley for an ARC Of this book.

The Perfect Christmas Village by Bella Osborne has the most beautiful festive winter wonderland cover and between that cover you will find the most delightful Christmas read which was entertaining and heartwarming. This is a book to make you happy and feel all festive but alongside the humour (which there was plenty of) there were a few more serious issues to be dealt with as well but everything balanced itself out perfectly. The characters, the setting and all the little Christmas details are just brilliant and it’s not long before you are wishing that you to could visit the village of Holly Cross and enjoy everything that it has to offer. For you soon come to realise that Holly Cross is not only about Christmas but a community that gives people a purpose. It provides a chance to get together and to support one another and create something special that benefits others.

Holly Cross turns into a winter wonderland every year and the village raises money for charity. Everyone always pulls together to make the village the best that it can be and there are a whole host of special and unique characters that work diligently to achieve this. There is Norman, the local baker, two elderly sisters that live in Rock Cottage, Leonora who spearheads the Christmas committee, Sarvan and Jassi from the Highway Inn and the two main characters of the book Blythe and Vicky alongside many more. But this year there is an absence in the village as their dear friend Norman has passed away. They wonder who will buy his cottage and if they will be up for participating in the Perfect Christmas Village Competition which they are determined to win. Plans have been set in motion and in the months leading up to the festive season there is a flurry of activity to transform the village to make it the most Christmassy village in the country.

Blythe is an estate agent who is in a completion with fellow co-worker Amir to secure the most sales every month for a year. By doing so she hopes to gain a promotion from boss Ludo but Blythe is angry when Amir is given the job of office manager and wants to try and out do him. She tries to sell Norman’s cottage even though she doesn’t exactly know who now owns it. A deal is soon struck with a man named Sam who provides props for films and tv series but there is one major stumbling block. Sam detests Christmas with every fibre of his being and that is a huge problem considering the village is about to engage head on with preparations for the Christmas competition.

Sam instantly came across as someone who preferred his own company just wanting peace and quiet and to avoid all things Christmas. He is angry with Blythe that he was apparently hoodwinked when buying the cottage, not being told how big the village goes in for Christmas. How can they win the competition if Sam refuses to decorate the outside of his house? It will be like a black hole amidst the village where every inch of it is adorned with lights, trees and decorations. Blythe has a huge challenge on her hands to make Sam change his mind and in one way I totally understood why she wanted to do this but on the other I thought she was putting unnecessary pressure on Sam as there must have been a very valid reason for the stance that he took and when this is revealed later on in the book you do fully understand but also wish that things could have been different for him.

Blythe in my mind had only her own interests at heart when selling the cottage to Sam, that being the competition in the estate agency office but soon she came to realise there is a more personal, human and emotional side to this deal. She devises a subtle plan to gradually introduce Sam to village life in the hopes that he will take part in the Christmas festival. We read about Halloween, pumpkins, trick or treating and Bonfire Night and admittedly I was wondering at this point when would a more Christmassy feeling develop. But when it did it was full on Christmas and I loved every minute of the madcap exploits and activities that occurred in the village.

There was a Christmas Fayre, Christmas tree auction and a Sexy Santa Auction which was just pure genius and provided plenty of laugh out loud moments and I was thinking god this should be an activity that is run somewhere every year. For despite its simplicity it was a highlight of the Christmas festivities. As the weeks pass by and things between Sam and Blythe thaw a little you could see the tiniest of sparks igniting between the pair but given how much of a polar opposite viewpoint they each have when it comes to Christmas I wondered whether anything could happen at all between them? I didn’t like Blythe at the start simply because of her actions regarding the house sale but as the chapters flew by I really warmed to her and in a way she was trying to right a wrong whilst still doing the best for the village which meant so much to her.

Vicky is the other female protagonist in the story and at times I thought she got too much of a focus as initially she was more like a sidekick to Blythe. But over time she grew on me. She is a single mum to daughter Eden and she works in a candle factory but has set up a dog walking business to try and earn more money as things are quite tight. Herself and Blythe are best friends and they confided an awful lot in each other. But in the lead up to Christmas an ex of hers Owen starts poking his head in her life again which stirs unwanted emotions and memories which she would rather keep buried and just keep moving on with her life. She had loved Owen but she had messed up their relationship and with his reappearance a whole can of worms is once again opened up and she has to battle on knowing that one way or another the truth will have to out at some stage. There is a connection there with him as she had deeply loved him but at the same time she finds him extremely irritating and he definitely was anytime that he featured. Will things resolve themselves for Vicky or has she erected too many barriers around herself for them to be broken down?

The Perfect Christmas Village was a great book that by the time I reached the end I was sad that it was over and I was left with that feeling of wanting more. I’d love to revisit these characters again perhaps to see how they are getting on in the summer but that’s just a wish of mine but in the meantime this is the ideal read to enjoy as you relax over the festive season and it’s definitely one of the Christmas books not to be missed out on this year.

This really didn't give me the christmas feeling, I found the characters really annoying and just didn't end up caring about them at all. It definitely did not bring the good holiday vibes.

Bella Osborne's books are always a bit of a hit or miss, for me. Luckily, though, this one fell in the former category.
While I wouldn't necessarily say that I approve of the tactics Holly, the main character, uses in order to win a competition with her coworker, it did make for a very entertaining start to this book. Follow that with a legit Grinch-character, who comes to live in a town which is basically Christmas personified (town-ified?), and you're left with a perfect, quick read for a holiday-food-coma afternoon!

A cute, cosy Christmas read! I'd definitely be queuing up to visit this village! Only 4* as I took a while to warm up to Vicky, but I loved Blythe from the beginning. It felt like Blythe's story with Vicky thrown in, so I didn't really gel with the dual POV aspect. Definitely one to get you in the festive mood though.
Thanks so much to Aria & Aries and NetGalley for this ARC.

This book was so cute and I loved the small town vibes. If I had one complaint it would be that it wasn't festive enough. Still 5 stars though!