Book Synopsis:
Snowed in for the holidays, old truths rise to the surface. Christmas by Candlelight is a cosy Christmas story from Karen Swan, bestselling author of The Stolen Hours.
It’s three days before Christmas and starting to snow when high-flier Libby and her new boyfriend reluctantly attend her university reunion.
Hosted by Archie Templeton – the heartbreaker of their group – at his grand family estate in Yorkshire, the night is a great success until they go to leave: the road is now blocked with snow.
At first, being snowed in together is fun. But as hours pass everyone grows restless.
Then the power goes out . . .
Hunkered down together by candlelight, they reminisce about old times – and tensions soon start to rise. Secrets from the past begin to unravel and Libby is confronted with a truth she has long tried to deny.
My Review:
Christmas By Candlelight is another gripping and emotional read that is perfect for cosying up with this festive period.
The story is told in two timelines one set in 2004 follows Libby and her friends during their last year at university, the other in 2023 follows the friends as they meet up for a reunion. I must admit I didn’t warm to the friendship group at first as I found most of the group a bit annoying. However they soon grew on me as I got to know them better and realised how different they all are but how much they compliment each other. They all have different strengths to bring to the group and it was great to see how they supported each other through difficult times.
I went into this book thinking it would be a cosy, romantic read and while there is elements of that there are also some emotional moments as well as a fairly scary moment which helped keep me on my toes. The isolated setting almost created a locked room scenario and helped add to some of the tension in the story as there is nowhere for the friends to go.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from her in the future. The story was surprisingly twisty and I liked how real some of the storylines were. The tension slowly increases as secrets get revealed and I found the book very gripping at times as I wanted to keep reading to see how things would work out for everyone.
Huge thanks to Chloe from Pan Macmillan for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.
About The Author:
Karen Swan is the Sunday Times Top Three and international best-selling author. Her novels sell all over the world and she writes two books each year – one for the summer period and one for the Christmas season. Her books are known for their evocative locations and Karen sees travel as vital research for each story. She loves to set deep, complicated love stories within twisting plots.
The Last Summer is the first book in her five-book historical series called The Wild Isle Girls, set around the dramatic evacuation of the Scottish island St Kilda in the summer of 1930. It was partly inspired by Karen’s Scottish roots: her father’s family came from Skye, moving to Fort William where Karen was christened and where many of her family still live. Her childhood memories are full of Christmases, Hogmanay and summer holidays spent in the Highlands and she was married there in 2001.
She lives in Sussex with her husband, three children and two dogs.
Over The Rainbow Blog 
My next read! So looking forward to it.
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