Nothing beats curling up with a Christmassy romance at this time of year and The Christmas Sisters has no less than four romances going on, so you get a lot for your money. It tells the story of the McBride sisters who were orphaned in a mountaineering accident over twenty years earlier. The accident has left it's mark on all of them, but each has adapted and copes in a different way.
Hannah is the strong capable career woman, working in New York City. Beth is the middle sister and the first one to marry and give up her career to be a full time mother, also in New York. Then the youngest is Posy, an adventuress who is feeling trapped as she helps to run the family business in the Scottish Highlands. In a way, these sisters reminded me of the three Halliwell sisters from the original Charmed TV show. (I haven't even watched the tragedy that is the reboot and I don't intend to!) They have similar characteristics to Prue, Piper and Pheobe.
The three women have grown apart as life has taken them in different directions, but once a year at Christmas time they all gather together at the Highland lodge where they grew up. It's usually a time fraught with tensions. Jealousy is a running theme throughout the novel, as each sister assumes her siblings have a better and easier life, but over the course of the holidays they come to see that they have all been left traumatized by the accident and that it is time to start dealing with that trauma.
On the surface trauma is not a particularly festive theme, but as anyone who has ever experienced trauma will tell you, the pressure to be perfect is never more apparent than at Christmas, so if you are dealing with additional trauma too, it can make for a melting pot of emotional outbursts. This novel deals with the long term effects of childhood trauma in a very sensitive way, using humour as a buffer so that the book doesn't become too heavy.
It is a festive mash-up of secrets, surprises, romance and snowy adventures. The sisters must learn to overcome their past and move forward into a new understanding of themselves and each other.The Christmas Sisters is a lovely easy read to pick up and put down again as you work your way through your own festive to-do list and it is an entertaining chick-lit novel. And as we can't get to enjoy Scotland in the snow for a festive break this year due to the Covid 19 pandemic, reading this book is the next best thing to a winter holiday in the Highlands. Happy reading!
Marie x
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