Review: Christmas with Hamish

Title: Christmas with Hamish
Author: Sophie Penhaligon
Genre: Romance, Novella
Publisher: BooksGoSocial
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: November 1, 2021
Rating: ★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Christmas has never been the most wonderful time of the year for Verity Robinson. When her younger sister sends her an invite to her Christmas wedding on the other side of the country in Vancouver, she decides to kill two birds with one stone and plans a ski trip to Whistler with some old friends. However, her dreams of a snowy Christmas on skis are thwarted by her sister’s dog sitting crisis.

Instead of spending Christmas enjoying the après ski alcohol, she is instead stuck minding Hamish McDuff for the next week. They say that every cloud has a silver lining and for Verity, the silver lining comes in the guise of her sexy new neighbour, Nikau Taylor. Nikau seems determined to help Verity eradicate her ghosts of Christmas past, but what will happen when her time is up and it’s time to go home to Toronto?

Review:

Verity Robinson travels from Toronto to Vancouver for her sister’s wedding before Christmas. Verity has never gotten along with her sister or the rest of her family, but she goes for the trip home and to visit friends for the holidays. However, when her sister’s dog sitter backs out at the last minute, she insists that Verity must look after her dog, Hamish. The good thing is that Verity gets to stay in her sister’s penthouse apartment, with Nikau Taylor for a neighbour. Nikau does his best to help Verity move past the trauma in her past and finally have a happy Christmas.

This story had some cute moments, but I found a lot of it exaggerated and extreme. Verity had a horrible childhood, with physical and emotional abuse. Her relationship with her family was purely negative and they had very exaggerated reactions to each other. Their interactions were extreme and didn’t have any hint of hope for reconciliation over the holidays.

There were some plot holes that I just couldn’t look past. Verity’s sister hated her, yet she insisted that Verity was the only person who could look after her dog while she went on her honeymoon. Their neighbour and friend Nikau (who also had a dog, unlike Verity who had never spent time with a dog) was there constantly and spending all of his time with Verity. He would have been a much more likely choice as a dog sitter, so I don’t know why Verity would have been chosen in this situation, other than to create a story.

Christmas with Hamish was an awkward and contradictory holiday read.

Thank you BooksGoSocial for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Have you read Christmas with Hamish? What did you think of it?