The Perfect Fit
'A wonderful book with a great story and a sparky, unusual voice. I loved it!' KATIE FFORDE
Escape to the frost-sparkling Yorkshire Dales for some festive fun under the mistletoe! A saucy comedy-romance with more than a sprinkle of Christmas spice – this will lift your spirits and your excitement level!
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas for costume shop owner Becky Finn. Leaving London to move back home to the twinkly rural village of
Egglethwaite, she plans to build a new life for herself with fiancé, Cole.
Keen to raise funds for the struggling village hall she loved as a child, Becky finds herself at the head of a colourful group aiming to revive the Egglethwaite Christmas pantomime. But when that festive feeling sets in, she discovers there's more to panto than innuendo and slapped thighs.
Falling in love was not in the script! But as opening night grows closer, she starts to wonder if the panto will ever make it to the stage and, with handsome co-star Marcus on the scene, if she has chosen her right leading man...
The perfect stocking-filler gift!
My Review:
If you’ve ever been to a good old-fashioned British panto, you’re going to giggle your way through a lot of this book, because every groan-worthy pun, innuendo and bit of slapstick humour has found its way in here. If you have no idea what a panto is - well, you’re going to think everyone is quite, quite insane.
Becky Finn is back in Egglethwaite, running a costume shop with a photography business on the side and getting involved in the village’s efforts to save their heritage hall by reviving the tradition of the Christmas panto. There’s a hilarious cast of characters Becky needs to recruit in order to make things work, all while trying to maintain a long-distance relationship with Cole, her artist boyfriend.
There’s something of a love triangle set up in this book because although Becky genuinely loves Cole and wants to settle down with him and start having kids, Cole isn’t the endgame for her. Now, I’m really not a fan of love triangles, and though there was no actual cheating going on - Becky waits until after she and Cole have broken up before anything happens with Marcus - Cole exits the story way too late, in my opinion. It’s past the 80% mark and Becky’s still engaged to him, which just makes it hard to buy this as a romance between Becky and Marcus. I’d rather Becky and Cole had broken up at the START of the story, and she was then nursing a broken heart throughout as her relationship with Marcus slowly grew. It would have been just as believable and have a lot less of the love triangle about it.
This is very well-written, and has a truly genuine flavour of Yorkshire village life to it, with a wonderful cast of colourful side characters, but the love story part of it just felt a bit off, with Cole hanging around way too long. Four stars for an enjoyable read that didn’t quite click in the romance department.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book via Rachel’s Random Resources.
Author Bio –
Mary Jayne Baker grew up in rural West Yorkshire, right in the heart of Brontë country... and she's still there. After graduating from Durham University with a degree in English Literature, she dallied with living in cities including London, Nottingham and Cambridge, but eventually came back with her own romantic hero in tow to her beloved Dales, where she first started telling stories about heroines with flaws and the men who love them. More information can be found about Mary Jayne on her website at www.maryjaynebaker.co.uk
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