Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for this ARC.

After her fiancé cheats on her on Christmas Eve, Sophie sells her year round Christmas shop in Stratford-upon-Avon and buys a guest house in the Lake District instead. As she now hates Christmas she advertises an alternative  "Escape for Christmas" break. That title never made sense to me. Shouldn't it be Escape from Christmas or just Escape Christmas?

All the best laid plans and all that... The guest house gets snowed in, the power goes off, the flamenco dancers never make it, the sausages end up in the dog, a pregnant mother who got room at the inn uses it to give birth and two half-sisters have a fraught reunion. In the meantime local vet Brody sniffs around Sophie even though he's apparently engaged. The miscommunication and misunderstandings trope gets a full workout here.

I had such a deja vu reading the plot - I could have sworn I had read that exact plot before somewhere. The fake engagement, the estranged half-sisters, the birth, the sick cats... It all felt familiar which is very strange, as I'm not a time traveller.

This is a pleasant read from a reliable Phillipa Ashley. There are plenty of pets and the supporting characters are all likeable. All of them have different reasons for wanting to escape Christmas this year, which makes for an interesting, well-rounded read. The wintry setting is cosy and there was a surprising amount of festive content for a book with a lot of Christmas misers in it. Recommended as a fun, feel-good read for Christmas.