With just twenty five days to go until the big day, Clara finds herself dealing with more than just the usual festive stresses. She plans to host the perfect Christmas day for her American in laws and is ambushed by her BFF’s clichéd meltdown at turning thirty. With a best friend on the verge of a mid life crisis, putting Christmas dinner on the table isn’t the only thing Clara has got to worry about this year. Taking on the role of best friend, therapist, head chef and party planner is much harder than Clara had anticipated. With the clock ticking, can Clara pull things together or will Christmas day turn out to be the December disaster that she is so desperate to avoid?
Firstly, I would just like to comment on how great I thought Lacey laid out these chapters, each chapter was based on every day in December up to Christmas day and it’s such a genius idea!
Before Clara can even begin to think about buying and cooking, she has to deal with her best friend finding a place to live and getting her back on track after her wedding plans falling to little pieces and her holiday fling not working out as she was hoping. Lianna’s way of getting over Pablo is to get under every man she encounters, come on Lianna, you’re turning thirty, pick yourself up and slide out of the mid life crisis before you fall in too deep! As Clara puts it “You are going to be thirty, single and fabulous.”
There are so many incredible quotes throughout this book based on Lianna feeling lonely and not wanting to be without a man that are just so inspirational and as I am a single girl myself, it helps me see that sometimes having your own company is more than enough and there’s no rush to finding that perfect one!
“If you aren’t happy with yourself being single, chances are you won’t be happy with yourself in a relationship either.”
“You have to learn to fall in love with yourself before the rest of the world can fall in love with you too.”
Not only does Clara have to stress over her in laws coming to England in a few days time with absolutely no cooking skills and her best friend currently taking up her guest bedroom, she has to find Oliver the most perfect gift yet seems to find everything to her own liking and treating herself instead. Isn’t Clara just too damn relatable!?
Clara at Christmas was much more subtle compared to previous books in the series, holding minimal drama. Lianna finally found the perfect place to live, Marc and Gina announced they were moving to Australia, and lastly, all except Oliver handed in their resignations at Suave to build a new chapter in their lives. There was definitely one moment in the book which will change Oliver and Clara’s lives forever, and it involved a lot of throwing up…
Such a heart warming book and a perfect Christmas read! Lacey never fails to fill up my heart with her incredible ways of writing and really pulling me in to Clara’s lifestyle, like I’m experiencing everything with her. Christmas for Clara didn’t turn out all too bad, it turned out better than she could’ve ever expected and it was refreshing seeing how appreciative and lucky she was to have her family and friends around her at such a magical time in the year. This Christmas make sure to be thankful for your family and friends as well!
Purchase the book HERE.
Shelby xxx
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