Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for this ARC.

Imogen is a workabolic as she has no one in her life and her mother only calls when she wants money. I'm not exactly sure what she does - marketing, events planning? In any case, she has clients and accounts and is important. She has lovely colleagues but she invents a home life for herself that she does not have, complete with a Golden Retriever called Midas. The blurb is wrong, she doesn't "make a catastrophic mistake at work", she simply drops the ball shortly due to exhaustion and grief, and her very understanding boss gives her a month off for recuperation. Her favourite client Dorothy offers her a cottage on her estate in the Cotswolds for the duration, which is middle of December to middle of January.

This is a multi POV story divided equally between Imogen, Dorothy and her daughter Sara, which works well.

I usually love a Sarah Morgan book but this one was disappointing. I find the story oddly uneven. Imogen only arrives at the titular Christmas cottage at 43%. The time spent before that drags with overlong descriptions of what a workaholic she is, the lies she tells her colleagues and streams of consciousness of how exhausting and hostile her mother is towards her.

Then she finally arrives at the beautiful cottage and suddenly there is a whiplash twist which forces people to confront their painful pasts and explains why Sara was initially so hostile to the idea of Imogen staying. But even afterwards nothing much happens. Yes, she meets Miles the vet and Ralph the dog and spends time with Dorothy's family but there is still way too much talk and inner monologue about her mother and her past. This just isn't fun or heartwarming.

Suddenly there is a realisation that the book is nearly over so the romance gets a move on and the ending is more rushed than any Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve.

Some of the chapters are overlong and there is simply too much drama for me. I need my Christmas romances to be more lighthearted than that, and after all the trauma, Imogen doesn't even get closure with her mother.

Miles is a great character and I liked all the animals although the alpacas etc aren't a huge part of the story really, they are just there to show Dorothy's good heart. I simply wish it really was as feel-good as the blurb and the cutesy cover promise. I'm sure I'll like the next one again.