"Mistletoe Mansion" by Samantha Tonge

Kimmy Jones dreams of two things - seeing her name in the headlines of the gossip pages she loves to read and owning her own cupcake company.  While she may only ever read the gossip magazines, she can definitely get her company up and running.  But when her boyfriend tells her that owning her own company isn’t sensible and that she should get a job sorting potatoes with him, she realizes that her relationship has come to an end.

Finding herself homeless just before Christmas, Kimmy pretends to be a professional house sitter along with her best friend Jess and her first job is at the incredible Mistletoe Mansion.  Before she knows it, she’s living the glamorous life she always dreamed of.  She becomes fast friends with Melissa, the golf WAG next door who has the paparazzi staking out her home.  And her cupcake business is off and running thanks to Melissa and her rich friends.  

But Mistletoe Mansion isn’t all it seems.  Some very strange things are happening. Mysterious music is being played, rooms are filling up with smoke, and someone - or something - is trashing the house right before buyers come to see it.   The house handyman Luke is there to protect Kimmy and Jess but he isn’t what they would call friendly.  And yet, Kimmy finds herself falling the handsome hero.  This Christmas may turn out to be more than she bargained for.

Mistletoe Mansion, by Samantha Tonge, is a cute Christmas story full of mystery, glamour, and sweet treats.

I picked up this book because every year I like to read a few Christmas chick lit novels at the holiday time.  I’ve seen Samantha Tonge’s books around and read some good reviews so I thought I would get a copy of this one to start with.

I really enjoyed the added twist of the “spooky and mysterious” things happening at the mansion.  It could have just been a novel about a celebrity obsessed woman all of a sudden living amongst them, but it had this added storyline to it, which I haven’t seen very often in chick lit.  That made the book a very enjoyable read for me and is probably why I found myself reading it pretty much straight through.

However, there were a few things about the book that kept it from being a stand-out for me.  I didn’t like the way Kimmy imagined magazine headlines or Facebook statuses for things she was doing in her life.  I don’t think that was at all necessary for the story and for me it actually broke up the flow.  I didn’t feel like there was enough given to us to understand what Kimmy’s attraction to Luke was.  And it was actually pretty easy to figure out what all was going on very early in the book.  


But, if you’re looking for some light holiday reading, I would include this in my recommendations.  It is a quick, fun read and a good choice for curling up with on a cold day.  

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