Escape for Christmas (Escape, #2)

by Ruth Saberton

[Leah]

Ruth Saberton is one of my favourite authors – Katy Carter Wants A Hero remains one of my favourite books, ever. I loved her first self-published escapade Escape For The Summer, and I’ve finally (finally!) gotten around to reading the sequel, Escape For Christmas. It was so good to be back with Cal, Gemma, Angel and everyone, and most especially to have a tiny bit of Cornwall back in my life – books set in Cornwall are my favourite.

Escape For Christmas picks up a little while after Escape for the Summer – two years, in fact, although I can’t 100% where we actually left off in Escape for the Summer, I’ve read a lot of books since then! Gemma and Cal are living in a cottage off Kenniston Manor, both busy with their baking lives and Cal is taking part in Bread and Butlers, a reality show, along with Angel and Laurence, and Gemma just can’t wait for the whole reality TV portion of their life to be over – even though she isn’t even taking part any more. She wants to start the next phase of their life – maybe a cottage in Cornwall, with a red aga. But things become tricky when Cal is spotted out with his gorgeous ex, and seems to be spending more time filming Bread and Butlers than spending time with Gemma and she’s worried the magic has finally worn off in her relationship…

I really enjoyed Escape for Christmas – it felt like catching up with old characters and while it was a tiny bit repetitive – Gemma mentions her lack of sex life with Cal like fifty times, I still enjoyed it. It was exactly what a novella should be – you know when you pay £2.99 for 10 pages? You don’t get that here. This is a 200-page plus book, a good two hours of reading, it’s incredible. Authors, take note: This is how you do a novella. It really felt like coming home – yes, I’d forgotten a lot of what had happened in the first book (the reality show aspect was brand new to me!) but as soon as I remembered the characters and who everyone was, it was like being with family.

I loved this read. I love Ruth Saberton’s writing and it sounds like she (eventually) wants to release more in this series – more Angel, more Andi (who was suspiciously absent in this book!) so I’m looking forward to that, and hoping that’s still something Ruth plans to do. I can’t wait to get into Ruth’s Polwenna Bay series – I thought this was the same series, so you can imagine my surprise when I realised they are two separate series. Yes, I am thick. This is a brilliant little duology and I highly recommend it!