Just Another Winter's Tale
[d-w13360]

5 of 5 Stars A boo k I'll read again and again. An “almost bald black bloke” and a lovey green-eyed redhead criss-cross each other’s hearts as well as the charming paths of a storybook village named Wychwood Cross on their way to healing, forgiveness, and love. Clare Revell has composed a tale filled with my favorite things… Christmas, a wayward pup, the classic movie White Christmas, fairy lights, an almost magical village, as well as a handsome soon-to-be couple facing their own challenges and keeping their own secrets. All the while, the story moves smoothly, filled with the English terms and spellings I so love—trolley, cosy, cottages and village squares, memories of sledding with tea trays, and our couple Vere and Robyn enjoying a frosty Christmas fayre. Are they merely friends, neighbors, and choral rehearsal mates at church? Or it is more? Even much more? Neither can quite admit or relax, considering the loads they bear. Vere of Jamaican descent has returned from frenzied London to take over his family’s generational greengrocer business in Wychwood Cross. He keeps up the long-time tradition of delivering wicker “hampers” of fruits and veg and a welcome note to newcomers. Including his brand new neighbor, Robyn and her wicked little terrier. Much humor results. An author and copy editor, Robyn has determined for important reasons to start somewhere new. Perhaps the change will release the stodgy writers block stagnating her current manuscript. I especially enjoyed her process—-writing her words in longhand before typing, and fervently hoping her main characters “cooperate” with her. For a while, we don’t quite know her reasons, serious ones, for vacating rushy-rushy London. To explain would destroy the ending. But her secrets almost cost her newfound love with Vere. Vere himself is mourning his beloved sister. She had been fulfilling her final “bucket List” with him in London after learning of a medical concern. He can hardly forgive himself for allowing his part in keeping her so close he put her life in danger. He keeps his secret close inside as well. Until his and Robyn’s hearts collide. The plot twist is both unexpected and elegant. And the faith message—don’t squander the gifts God’s given you, makes this book a perfect read.