Gwen Baker has to get rid of the Christmas pudding. Like, she has to. So she grabs it off the table, still on fire from the brandy, and runs with it to the end of the backyard. She chucks it over the fence, to make sure no one can find the sixpence hidden inside, to make sure no one can make the wish that has her trapped in a Christmas nightmare. But the pudding ends up hitting next-door neighbor (and teenage Gwen’s crush) Dev Jones, now a grown man and successful doctor with maybe a bump on the head from the flying pudding.
Gwen tries to explain to her family and to Dev why she had suddenly lost her mind and raced around with a pudding, but how can you explain that she is living Christmas day over and over, and all she can figure is that someone made their Christmas wish, and it caused her to get stuck in a time loop? Who would believe that?
Gwen doesn’t want to believe it, but no matter what happens at Christmas, she can’t deny how many times she ends up waking up in her childhood bedroom, with her dad waking her up to tell her Santa has been and there will be bacon butties if she gets downstairs before he eats them all.
She comes up with the idea that someone had made a wish that first Christmas on the sixpence hidden in the pudding, so to undo the wish (when chucking the pudding into the neighbor didn’t work) is to find out what everyone potentially wished for and try to make their wishes come true. When the first pudding had been served, she and her cousin Manny weren’t at the table, so it wasn’t either of them. Her sister’s kids and husband weren’t at the table either. So that left her parents, her Nan, and her sister Cerys.
Originally, Gwen had planned to come home for Christmas to feel sorry for herself and eat and drink too much. Her boyfriend of four years had left her for his receptionist. Then she had a meltdown at the law firm where she worked, getting sent home for a couple of weeks and putting her partnership track on hold. And she did that for her first Christmas, until everything fell apart. So then she starts spending her Christmases trying to make everyone’s wishes come true. But as she does that, she starts to remember what makes her happy too.
When Gwen finally figures out how to get out of her Christmas nightmare, will she be able to find her own Christmas wish too?
Master rom com writer Lindsey Kelk has crafted a lovely holiday romance that is filled with delightful surprises, alcohol, family, teenage crushes, bad choices, Christmas puddings, roasted and mashed potatoes, and chocolate. It has everything that makes a family get-together beautiful and cringe-inducing, with all the hope and heartache that holidays bring.
I loved The Christmas Wish. I thought it was clever how each Christmas that Gwen experiences brings another layer of holiday insanity, from fighting with family to embarrassing yourself in front of the neighbors to burning the appetizers. Each Christmas is different, and each is important to teach Gwen what she needs to learn, and each is filled with wonder, laughter, mistakes, and lessons. I couldn’t wait to see what each day would bring, and to try to guess at what would finally break Gwen out of her eternal Christmases. I am a fan of Lindsey Kelk, and this one did not disappoint. In fact, this one may be my favorite so far. If you are looking for a holiday gift for the rom com lover in your life (or, even better, for yourself), then this may be just the book you’ve been wishing for.
Egalleys for The Christmas Wish were provided by Harper 360 through NetGalley, with many thanks.
