#Festive Book Review: How to Stuff up Christmas, by Rosie Blake.
So a rather late festive book review, but I enjoyed reading my festive books right the way through the season, so better late than never.
Thank you to publishers Corvus and Author Rosie Blake for my lovely copy of ‘How to Stuff Up Christmas’ with its beautiful cover all complete with lovely Christmassy sparkles on it.
Description:
‘Tis the season to be jolly. Unless you’ve found an intimate picture of another woman on your fiance’s phone…
Eve is heartbroken after discovering her fiance is cheating on her. Being surrounded by the joys of Christmas is more than Eve can bear, so she chooses to avoid the festivities by spending Christmas alone on a houseboat in Pangbourne. Eve gets an unexpected seasonal surprise when handsome local vet Greg comes to her rescue one day, and continues to visit Eve’s boat on a mission to transform her from Kitchen Disaster Zone to Culinary Queen.
But where does Greg keep disappearing to? What does Eve’s best friend Daisy know that she isn’t telling? And why is there an angry goose stalking Eve’s boat?
A hilarious and heart-warming novel about Christmas, catastrophes and cooking, containing exclusive Christmas recipes, from the talented Rosie Blake.
Published November 5th 2015 by Corvus
My Thoughts:
This is just the kind of festive read that I love. It wasn’t filled with all “the perfect family set up blah blah”, but it was a Christmassy setting with great characters, some delicious and some not quite so successful recipes, plus a nice storyline with humour and fun.
The books starts off with a nice recipe made by Eve’s friend Daisy to attempt to cheer her up after her boyfriend was caught cheating on her. We follow Eve as she makes alternative arrangements for her festive season. The range of nice festive recipes along the way are lovely, and as Eve is not a great cook, some are amusing and some work out well and sound delicious. Eve’s sister makes an interesting dish called ‘Grandma’s Pink Cheese’. Something I hadn’t heard of but sounds lovely.
There is a nice range of characters in this book, the first that comes to my mind after finishing the book is Marmite the dog! He is a fun lovely character and keeps Eve company, though beware of those geese!!
Eve’s Dad made me chuckle with his wacky dress sense, but I wasn’t keen on her Mum, always criticising. There is a bit of intrigue as to what her best friend Daisy is hiding, and throughout I was a little dubious of her, you will need to read to see if I was right or not….
Overall this was a lovely festive read, with great recipes, interesting developed characters, laughs and a bit of adventure. Plus an amusing end. I definitely recommend it.
Links:
Tags: book with recipes, bookblogger, chocolatepages, festive book, how to stuff up christmas, marmite the dog, rosie blake
ChocolatePages 
irena_bookdustmagic
January 25, 2017 at 7:04 pm
Ohh, I know you love recipes in books, so I can imagine that was a big plus.
This sounds like a lovely read. And don’t worry if you think it’s too late, here in Croatia there’s a festive movie on television every single day. I guess producers or whoever works on television messed something because in December we almost didn’t have any festive movie to watch until Christmas Eve, and now when Christmas is over there’s so many to watch. o_0
chocolatepages
January 25, 2017 at 7:10 pm
Sounds like you should have an extended holiday according to Croatian tv producers. After I posted this review, I saw a few other festive reviews on twitter too, so I’m not the only one that posted them late. Better late than not at all though. 😉
irena_bookdustmagic
January 25, 2017 at 7:12 pm
Exactly. I might review one too, so I don’t think it’s too late! 😛
Donna
January 27, 2017 at 10:46 am
Books with recipes, you never disappoint 😀 This sounds like a very cute and fun story. I’m not a bit fan of Christmas so this book might help with that! Here is me creating a Christmas reading list with this book at the top!
chocolatepages
January 27, 2017 at 12:41 pm
If you want a festive book that doesn’t ram it down your throat, this is a good one. I’m not a fan of the sweet family Christmas either, it’s not real. This one is entertaining and different plus the recipes are great. xx