Three friends are fed up with holiday preparations and the way their families are treating them, so they decide to take a holiday in the Scottish highlands the week before Christmas. ‘Tis the Damn Season by Fiona Gibson tells the stories of three best friends. Shelley’s husband and teenagers have taken her for granted for too long. One humorous event involving dinner finds her at the end of her patience. Lena’s fiance’s snobbish parents treat her as less than, yet invite themselves over to her flat for Christmas dinner. Pearl’s young adult son and his girlfriend disrespect her and her home one too many times, and in desperation, she decides what she needs is a getaway with her friends.
When they get to the bed and breakfast, where they were going to stay free as guests of Pearl’s cousin Michael, instead of the relaxing time away it evolves into them running the place! Hijinks ensue as the novel’s colorful characters provide many laugh-out-loud moments and over-the-top situations. Readers also occasionally get the viewpoint of some of the other characters in the novel, which makes for some dramatic irony.
This book would make a fabulous Christmas movie, a combination of Love Actually and The Holiday. More than a romance, it’s a story of three women who learn about themselves and what they truly want, at Christmas and the rest of the year. Great audiobook narration by Helen Phillips.
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