The Night Before Christmas

by Scarlett Bailey

[Leah]

I’m not a huge fan of Christmas books. It’s probably sacrilegious to say that, but there’s only so many Christmas themed books that can be released before they end up repetitive. Not that the Chick Lit natives care – every time October rolls around there’s another batch of willing authors ready to set a book during that good ol’ festive time. However, I do like to read one or two Christmas books and Scarlett Bailey’s is one I’ve been waiting a while for. It arrived in a lovely pink box (and a LOT of Styrofoam!) with some chocolates and its cover, black with purple/pink highlights appealed immediately. It’s such a beautiful cover – black is so underused and it pops nicely and will look so unique against other Xmas-themed books. I dived in right away, because I couldn’t wait to read it.

The Night Before Christmas is your typical festive affair, with Lydia finding herself stranded in the Lake District with her best friends Joanna, Katy and Alex and their significant others along with her partner, Stephen. What lifts it from the pack of what will be a massive bunch of Christmas novels is the writing. It’s incredibly well written and I liked that the book encompassed just four days in total. I’ve never known four days to whizz by so fast and have so much happen! Having so many people in one house is always going to be frantic and chuck in one of Lydia’s exes (a rather significant one), Alex’s pregnancy and Katy’s crappy kitchen and it’s like one big melting pot waiting to explode. The book moves quite quickly despite the fact it only manages to be four days long.

A big part of the book is Lydia’s love triangle. No, wait, it’s four parts. I have no idea what that is. A square? Lydia’s love square, that’s it. She’s with her boyfriend Stephen – who’s about to propose – but when one of her exes walks back into her life and she also finds herself attracted to Will a handyman and I had no idea where it was going to end. It is a bit farfetched that Lydia would be so blindingly attractive to all three men and that her moral compass would be decidedly dodgy but I felt Bailey handled it well enough for it not to be a mega issue. Lydia does make some questionable judgement calls, some bad, but for the most part, she makes the right decisions so I was happy and I didn’t have to get on my soapbox or feel as though the book was annoying me.

I really enjoyed getting to know the characters. Lydia’s the main character and she’s great, she carries the book nicely but all of her friends are equally as great and I loved meeting them all. Lydia, Joanna, Alex and Katy are very diverse as people but as friends they’re always there for each other and I felt Bailey portrayed their friendship brilliantly. As for the males in the novel, I was very taken in with handyman Will. I liked that he had no airs and graces and that he was totally comfortable in his own skin. Stephen never really lit my fire, the way he was portrayed it was if he was always too busy to spend any time with Lydia and whenever he and Lydia did spend time together, it seemed very platonic from my point of view. I didn’t think much of Jackson either, he could have swung either way – but he swung the wrong way for me (and I mean that entirely as it’s written). They were a great cast of characters that I’d quite happily be snowed-in with.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Night Before Christmas. It kept me reading all day with ease and Bailey’s an excellent storyteller. There were a few minor editing errors (some “peaks” instead of “peeks” and some words in the wrong place) but not too many as to get my all wound up (as I am wont to do). It’s an excellent book to be curling up if/when it snows (or even if it’s not snowing, you can always close the curtains, turn on the fire and pretend. I did, ‘cos I live in sunny Tenerife). I can’t wait for Scarlett Bailey’s next novel, this one was just hugely enjoyable and the cover is divine. I’d definitely recommend the book, it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, a sure fire hit for any book I’ll have you know.