Christmas at the Comfort Food Café (The Comfort Food Cafe, #2)

by Debbie Johnson

‘Full of quirky characters, friendship and humour, you will devour this engaging and heartwarming novel in one sitting’ – Sunday Express ‘My new favourite author’ – Holly Martin

Becca Fletcher has always hated Christmas but she has her reasons for being Little Miss Grinch. Now, though, she can’t avoid her version of ho-ho-hell – because she’s travelling to the Comfort Food Cafe to spend the festive season with her sister Laura and her family. She’s expecting mulled wine, 24-hour Christmas movie marathons and all kinds of very merry torture.

Little does Becca know that the Comfort Food Cafe is like no other place on earth. Perched on a snow-covered hill, it’s a place full of friendship where broken hearts can heal, new love can blossom and where Becca’s Christmas miracle really could happen – if only she can let it…

Inviting readers new and old to pull up a cosy armchair, Christmas at the Comfort Food Cafe is the novella-length follow-up to the 2016 best-seller Summer at the Comfort Food Cafe.

• ISBN13: 9780008205898
• Publish Date: 20 October 2016 (first published 23 September 2016)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: One More Chapter
• Edition: Digital original
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 208
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

This book can be read as a stand alone, but reading the first book will help you figure out easier who everyone is.

Becca is our main character and who we see everything through. She is a self-described scrooge of sorts. But in all actuality, she can enjoy Christmas but has no associated it with bad memories from her youth. After having stopped using all of her vices to deal with what happened in some of those Christmas in her youth, she is now completely sober. So when her sister invites her down to the coast for a month-long Christmas break she agrees and spends that month seeing what her sister's new life is like. Along the way, she is attempted to be set up with someone which she doesn't want.

Overall this book just wasn't for me. It was a slow moving book, but it was also one that went by fast. I felt like I didn't really get anything out of it personally for me, no real enjoyment and I didn't learn anything either. I never really liked any of the characters, nor did I hate any. This whole book for me was just kind of meh.

"No matter how physically tired I am, my brain refuses to switch off, and I spend at least two hours every night lying awake telling myself I'm being stupid." pg 34

[Emma (SCR)]

This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.I love Debbie’s books so when this one arrived on Netgalley I knew I had to have it. Summer at the Comfort Food Cafe was such a great book. I loved the Cafe and what it does for the community that when you add in Christmas I was bound to love this book. Summer at the Comfort Food Cafe focused on Laura and her children, this one focuses on Laura’s sister Becca.

The first part of this book shows the Christmas’ of the past which I really enjoyed. It really helped to give some needed background.

Becca Fletcher has come to the Comfort Food Cafe for Christmas with her family, which is basically her worst nightmare. She is used to a solitary life. She has lived on her own for a long time and she’s not used to having people in her space all the time. Also Becca hates Christmas. She has a good reason but no one knows.

I don’t want to ruin too much of the story but Becca had a life changing thing happen to her and she never forgave herself for the way it turned out. She has carried this secret with her for her entire adult life. She hasn’t shared it with anyone and this has affected her a lot.

As the story progresses we see why Becca is the way she is and we see her change and heal. It was really nice to see Becca let go of the pain and stop hating herself.

This is a lovely story that shows no matter how bad things get it’s never too late to fix them.

[Leah]

I really enjoy Debbie Johnson’s books – she’s such a talented writer, but I’m struggling with how I felt for Christmas at the Comfort Food Cafe. Happy to be back at the Comfort Food Cafe, obviously, because Summer at the Comfort Food Cafe was amazing, but also really disappointed, because this book is not about Laura again, but about Becca, Laura’s sister. And Laura and Becca are complete opposites and, frankly, Laura’s not exactly a very nice person. When a book starts with three separate instances of Becca being a bit of a jerk over Christmas, it kind of has you worried. Because to really get into a book, I need to like the character, and it was really, really hard to warm to Becca. She’s obviously gone through some stuff, but I never quite understood why she a) felt like the black sheep of her family, when her family were lovely or b) why she never told anyone what happened to her when she was 17.

I genuinely struggled with Becca, because I didn’t understand her, I didn’t understand why she hated Christmas so much (because she hated Christmas long before the incident at 17, that much was clear when she was throwing Laura’s toys in the toilet), and there’s never a good reason (Ninja turtles are not a good reason and even THAT was after the toys/toilet incident).

However, it was so good to be back at the Comfort Food Cafe (hereby renamed to the greatest place on Earth – sorry Disney). To see Laura again, and all the regulars at the cafe, to see Cherie and Frank so happy, was delightful. Absolutely amazing. And it was nice to see Becca feel a part of it, at times, but then she would always kinda ruin it, and it’s as if the novel wanted to dive into Becca’s mental health, but it was never fully explained, there was obviously something there, but not important enough to really impact Becca? Or to explore? I don’t know. It just really felt like it all needed more explanation. If I suffered the way Becca did with my mental health, I would be quite disappointed in this portrayal, because all she seemed to need for a good night’s sleep was to be honest? Does insomnia go away like that?

I just don’t know what the book wanted to be. It was a cute romance, but I’m not even sure Becca was ready for a romance, ready for everything that brings, when she wasn’t even happy in herself, with herself. And did I believe for one second that everything would be fine when I closed the book? Heck no. I think Becca had a long way to go and a happy-ever-after wouldn’t solve that, in my opinion.