Mishaps and Mistletoe by Tilly Tennant

What They Say:

Treat yourself this Christmas with a meltingly romantic short story from Tilly Tennant. 

Phoebe has had a terrible year, starting with the death of her boyfriend and ending, three weeks before Christmas, when she’s sacked from her job. The bills are piling up and she’s desperate enough to find herself working as a Christmas elf in the grotto of Hendrick’s Toy Store. As if the job description isn't bad enough, Phoebe doesn't like children. There’s nothing wrong with them, they’re just not for her. Neither is there any escape from a boss whose only language is sarcasm, and an alcoholic Santa. 

Then one morning Maria comes into the grotto – a little girl unlike any she has met before. Phoebe doesn't know it yet, but Maria and her dad are about to shake her life up in ways she could never have imagined… 

'Tilly Tennant has an amazing gift for story-telling and I'm sure we’re going to see great things from her in the future.' Holly Martin (author of The Guestbook and The Sentinel) 

What I Say:

This book has been on my TBR pile since Christmas and in an effort to clear my back log, I decided to fit this in as it is a nice quick read.

We meet Phoebe who as the blurb says has had a terrible year, not only losing her boyfriend in a tragic accident but also losing her job after punching her boss in the face.  Phoebe is working as an elf in Hendricks Toy store, not the most sexy or interesting of jobs especially as she doesn’t really like children.

Phoebe’s life takes a turn when she meets a lovely little girl in Maria.  Maria turns everything in Phoebe’s life on its head and she is drawn to her.  Buying Maria an expensive present and pretending it is from the store, causes Phoebe no end of problems, especially when it is recalled.

Phoebe is an easily likeable character and the story is so sweet set around Christmas.  I love how Tilly grabs you into a story, her story telling keeping me reading until I came to the last page of this short but sweet story.

I know it’s not Christmas any more but I have loads of books to read but I would recommend anyone fancying a nice quick Christmas read to pick this book up.

5 out of 5 stars

About The Author

Tilly Tennant was born in Dorset, the oldest of four children, but now lives in Staffordshire with a family of her own. After years of dismal and disastrous jobs, including paper plate stacking, shop girl, newspaper promotions and waitressing (she never could carry a bowl of soup without spilling a bit), she decided to indulge her passion for the written word by embarking on a degree in English and creative writing, graduating in 2009 with first class honours. She wrote her first novel for young adults in 2007 during a summer break at university and has not stopped writing since. She also works as a freelance fiction editor, and considers herself very lucky that this enables her to read many wonderful books before the rest of the world gets them.