I really enjoyed reading Mistletoe and Mayhem by Catherine Ferguson. It’s a great Christmassy story mixing humour, friendship, family issues and romance. Lola is looking forward to Christmas this year with her gorgeous, sexy personal trainer boyfriend Nathan and a promotion at work on the horizon. She’s offered to host her family for Christmas though is a bit concerned about it as it’s always a particularly stressful time for her agoraphobic mother. Usually her high-achieving bother and sister-in-law entertain at Christmas and if they’re not entertaining, her sister-in-law in particular has everyone else on edge! But just a few weeks before Christmas, everything falls apart when Lola is made redundant, breaks up with Nathan and her sister and young nephew also announce they are coming to stay – and Lola’s flat is tiny!
I thought Lola was a great character, so likeable and such a caring person. She doesn’t want to let her Dad down by cancelling the Christmas arrangements and I thought the relationship between those two in particular was lovely. Christmas is obviously a difficult time for her mother and it is a particularly poignant part of the story when we find out why. Lola’s friendship with her flatmate Barb was really strong and they provided a lot of the funny moments in the book. Barb helps Lola realise that she doesn’t need to spend a lot of money on expensive decorations and food to have a great Christmas. Throughout the book there are recipes and instructions for lovely food, drinks and decorations that Lola makes and there are quite a few I fancy trying.
Mistletoe and Mayhem is a great book to get you in the festive spirit. It’s funny and it’s moving. It will, I’m sure, have you smiling along as you recognise the pressure to have a perfect family Christmas but realising that being together is all that matters, even if everything doesn’t go to plan. And it might just tempt you to try making some Rocky Road, whipping up some festive hot chocolate, drying some oranges to make tree decorations or, like me, making bottle top snowmen – see my efforts below!
Thanks to publishers Maze (a digital imprint of Avon) for the review copy via Netgalley. Mistletoe and Mayhem was published as an ebook on 15th October and you can order a copy here: Mistletoe and Mayhem.
And now to the Avon vs the Bloggers challenge! Helena from Avon sent out the challenge – any bloggers want to take on Avon and have a go at some of the recipes and crafts mentioned in the book? I was allocated the bottle top snowman and let me say the first challenge was finding bottle tops that were actually white inside! Here are the instructions if you fancy making some yourself.
Let’s begin – I promise they’re not all beer bottle tops!
Trying to make them a bit whiter with Tippex
Adding the faces
One completed
My little snowman family
Too early for a proper Christmas tree so I hung one on a tree in the garden just to see the effect.
I think they look pretty good!
Over to you Avon – let’s see your snowmen!
Mistletoe and Mayhem
Lola Plumpton can’t believe her luck. Christmas is coming and her gorgeous boyfriend, Nathan has offered up his swanky apartment to host the Plumpton family’s festive celebrations. It looks set to be a Christmas to remember. And it is – but for all the wrong reasons. As the 25th December draws closer, Lola unexpectedly finds herself missing some key components:
1. A job (but who needs one of those anyway, when you’ve got the ultimate family Christmas to prepare for?)
2. Money (no job equals no money, it turns out.)
3. A boyfriend (yup, Nathan the hunk has said adios to Lola – and in the *most* embarrassing way possible…)
4. Somewhere to host her fabulous family Christmas (because of course, no Nathan means no des res apartment.)
Lola’s at a loss about what to do. But one way or another, she’s going to make this the happiest Christmas her family’s ever had…
Portobello Book Blog 