Synopsis:
Meet Britain’s Worst Innkeeper
Single mother and extremely undomestic goddess, Lottie, has five days to become the ultimate B&B hostess to save her beloved Aunt Kate’s livelihood.
When Aunt Kate ends up in the hospital, Lottie and her seven-year-old daughter are called to rural Wales to stand in at the B&B. Without the faintest idea how to run a hotel (she can barely run her own life), Lottie must impress the picky hotel reviewer and his dysfunctional family who are coming to stay over Christmas. Without the rating only he can bestow, Aunt Kate will lose her livelihood.
But will Danny, the local taxi driver who she hires to help her, really be Santa’s little helper, or the Grinch who stole Christmas?
My review:
The Reluctant Elf is the first work of author Michele Gorman’s that I’ve read and totally put me into the holiday spirit. Filled with more than a few chuckles, plenty of mishaps, and even a bit of romance, this novella was the perfect afternoon read.
Game software designer and single mother, Lottie, was gearing up for the holiday season when she got a phone call that would change all of her plans of how she and her daughter were going to celebrate the holiday season. Her aunt had ben in a car accident and needed her help. Not only with recuperating, but with running the bed and breakfast that was booked with very important guests for the holiday. No problem, right? Lottie would just pack up her daughter, and head to help. Easy. Until she sets her eyes upon the bed and breakfast which was in quite a state of disrepair and soon realizes she was in a heap of trouble. Luckily for her, she’s managed to wrangle the help of her unsuspecting cab driver when he drops her and her daughter off at the B&B and with a bit of imagination and determination, maybe she could pull it off and survive the weekend…
In a word, this story was adorable! Poor Lottie is stuck in a run down B&B, hosting some obnoxious and rude guests, praying she can just convince them that this was a B&B worth writing a beaming review for. But with hijinks at every turn, and things going wrong more often than they went right, Lottie sure has her hands full. Her daughter is a bright spot in all of the craziness and helps remind her what’s important and that if you put your mind to it, anything is possible. Lottie also has some great help from Danny and soon realizes how lucky she was to find him. Together, they really make things work and have a few laughs along the way. They also find an attraction starting to blossom between them and it was great to see. I really enjoyed every aspect of this story and felt as though I was reading a holiday version of the Money Pit…it was fantastic!
Michelle’s voice is witty and charming and I will certainly be looking forward to reading more of her work!
Four Loves
Book links:
About the author:
I write romantic comedy, including SINGLE IN THE CITY (the first in The Expat Diaries series) and BELLA SUMMER TAKES A CHANCE. Born and raised in the US, I lost my heart to London 16 years ago, where I’ve lived ever since. I’ve also turned my hand to upmarket commercial fiction under the pen name Jamie Scott.
I spend way too much time on twitter and facebook when I should be writing, so please come say hello there. I’m @expatdiaries on twitter, and we can connect on Facebook.