Christmas at the Borrow a Bookshop by @KileyDunbar #Romance #Drama @rararesources #TuesdayBookBlog

It’s my pleasure to join the blog tour for Christmas at the Borrow a Bookshop, organised by Rachel’s Random Resources.

My Thoughts

The second in the Borrow a Bookshop series sees Magnùs Sturluson booked in for two weeks over Christmas and New Year, courtesy of his brother. He’s hoping for a quiet time to get over a huge disappointment, but not sure now he wants to actually run a bookshop. Perhaps he would be able to use this opportunity to prove to himself that he’s capable of running a business successfully after all, despite not feeling at all festive. If it didn’t work out he’s not sure what he would do.

After an awful shock, Alex Robinson set sail in the Dagalien, the twenty seven foot river cruiser that had belonged to her father, with no destination in mind. She hadn’t stopped to think, she was angry and hurt and just wanted to get away. 

She wanted solitude and to be where nobody knew her, and she wanted to be alone on her dad’s boat, where she felt his presence the most. The feeling of going somewhere on the Dagalien was certainly better than going home and facing December’s brutal emptiness head on.

She’d have kept sailing too, if it hadn’t been for the great tower of cumulonimbus just offshore.

So after just a week at sea Alex finds herself at the mercy of the weather, and she washes up on the rocks in Clove Lore harbour. The storm was raging and the boat needed repairs. Alex wasn’t going anywhere in the near future.

I loved the first book in the series and enjoyed the slightly different approach in this one, that of the two main characters having an almost instant rapport instead of disliking each other and not getting on. Although having said that, their relationship isn’t without its obstacles. I also love Clove Lore, which is modelled on the pretty village of Clovelly in Devon. I enjoyed the Icelandic references, particularly that of jólabókaflóð (explanation in the blurb)

This would be the ultimate – holidaying in a bookshop with attached cafè (as long as someone else did the baking!) in a pretty seaside location with a fantastic community of individual and very likeable people. Although the story is set over the Christmas period, it’s not your regular Christmas story. This is more about a close community pulling together and overcoming adversity in the shape of a monumental disaster.

As with all the books I’ve read by Kiley Dunbar, the well crafted characters are brought to life from the off, and the sense of place is immediate. Christmas at the Borrow a Bookshop has a wonderful mix of emotion, romance, friendship and drama. If you’ve enjoyed previous books by this author, I’m sure this will be a hit too.

‘Tis the season for finding love… and the perfect book

With just two weeks until Christmas, everything in Clove Lore should be perfect. But the latest holidaymaker to the Borrow a Bookshop is feeling far from festive…

Icelandic ex-bookseller Magnús Sturluson might be surrounded by love stories in the Bookshop, but he’s nursing a sadness that not even fiction can fix.

When Alexandra Robinson finds herself stranded in Clove Lore, she finds a safe place to hide from heartbreak. After all, all that’s waiting for her at home is a cheater boyfriend and the memories of her parents. As Alex finds herself embraced by the quirky village community, she finds her tough exterior thawing – and as she grows closer to Magnús, she finds an equally soft heart under his gruff shell.

It seems that Clove Lore is working its magic once again – until a great flood on Christmas Eve brings devastation in its wake. It’s up to Magnús and Alex to batten down the hatches and help bring the village back together again, while also introducing the locals to the Icelandic tradition of the jólabókaflóð – Yule book flood – where families and friends gather on Christmas Eve to exchange books and read together.

But can Magnús and Alex truly rescue the ruins of the village, and salvage their Christmas spirit? Or is there another complication lurking even closer than they thought?

Purchase Links ~ Amazon | Kobo | Apple | Hive 

Kiley Dunbar writes heart-warming, escapist, romantic fiction set in beautiful places, with One Winter’s Night being shortlisted for the RNA Romantic Comedy Novel Award 2021. Kiley’s five novels include: The Borrow a Bookshop Holiday (May 2021), One Winter’s Night (September 2020), Summer at the Highland Coral Beach (2020), Christmas at Frozen Falls (2019) and One Summer’s Night (2019).

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