Dear bookish friends!
You all know how much I love festive reads (and everything that has to do with Christmas). For all those of you who find it too early for mistletoe and holly, for building snowmen and hanging tinsel, but still want to experience that magical, festive, cosy and warm feeling that only Christmassy books can give you, My Christmas Number One by Leonie Mack is the perfect choice for you!
Big thanks to Rachel from Rachel’s Randoms Resources for having me on this tour, and to Boldwood Books for my review ecopy!
Exciting news, the book is currently (as of the day I’m writing this review), FREE on Kindle Unlimited! So go ahead and grab your copy while you still can! (I mean you can later too, but this is such a great chance!)
What’s it about?
There’s nothing quite like a Christmas love story, to get you in the mood for celebrating…
Cara doesn’t do sexy and she only does ‘Happy Christmas’ under duress. She is, after all, a serious musician, and her stubborn streak is born from her struggle to recover from a serious injury.
Javi lives for escapist fun – in his music, and in his life – especially since he’s always failed at life’s more serious challenges, including marriage and fatherhood.
Javi and Cara are forced to record a Christmas single together, but neither of them have plans to spend any more time with each other than they absolutely have to. With Christmas traditions that couldn’t be more different, and outlooks on life that are worlds apart, the chemistry just shouldn’t work. But the magic of Christmas can bring even opposites together…
From the snowy beauty of London at Christmas, to the candle-lit magic of Javi’s traditional family celebrations, let Leonie Mack whisk you away on a memorable festive adventure. Perfect for fans of Trisha Ashley, Mandy Baggot and Holly Martin.
My Review
This absolute gem of a story felt a bit different from the usual Christmassy book you would pick up in December. It might not be as traditional, but it’s still absolutely what I am looking for in such a read. Cosy and festive and warm, there’s Christmassy music and fairy lights and trees and love (obviously), and the two main characters – though pretty much polar opposites, find their way to each other so beautifully that the saying “opposites attract” makes an awful lot of sense!
With Cara and Javi, we learn to celebrate opposites. One comes in their roots. Cara, English through and through, is quiet and introverted, sensible and more on the serious side. Javi, on the other hand, is proud of his Columbian heritage, loud, out there, an extrovert like the dictionary defines the word. And even though both characters come with a lot of emotional baggage and – just when you are beginning to think they overcome their differences, there are setbacks again. Well, for a while at least…
However, there’s more to the story than just that. Cara has lost her family a few years ago to a car accident, an accident that left Cara with more than just grief and the terrible feeling of loss. Music is her rock, her hiding place, her salvation, and she takes it very seriously. When she is asked to record a Christmas song with Latin pop star Javi, she is hesitant, but she does it. I loved the filming of the music video in the middle of Trafalgar Square in August that, despite the heat, has all the Christmassy feels to it.
I loved these two main characters, but the secondary characters were great, too! Cara gets to meet Javi’s twelve-year-old daughter Bea that I absolutely loved, too. I also really enjoyed getting to know Cara’s father, Gordon. And then she gets to embark on a journey to Javi’s home in Colombia, and after a while she finds that there is much more to him that the latin lover pop star that he usually shows in public. I loved getting to see behind that mask, and I loved the little sparks of chemistry that flutter between them.
Now, it’s not only the time and place that makes this book different from other Christmassy reads. Yes, we have the slowburn lovestory and traumatic past that many others feature, but what stood out the most to me here was the musical performances and the characters love for music in gerneral. I can only compare it to my love for books, but given that they have to actively do something, like perform on stage and so on, I think it is very different still. I haven’t read many books about musical artists yet, and the author does an amazing job of giving us an insight into the musician’s brain. I feel like a lot of research went into these scenes. I also absolutely loved reading about the places in Colombia Cara traveled to, something I wouldn’t have expected to experience in a Christmassy book either.
If you are looking for something to escape reality for a bit, want a beautiful cover on your shelf and read a story that is very special and yet somehow feels cosily familiar, you really should pick up My Christmas Number One. I guarantee you, you won’t be disappointed!
Since I think that without the secondary characters I feel like the heartache in some of the scenes would have been too intense, and because even though I loved that it was refreshingly different, I wouldn’t necessarily have expected the Colombian setting and the music video filming in August when I looked at the cover, I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. The flowing writing, the unique characters, setting and plot absolutely make this a worthwhile read for sure.
If you want to grab your copy now, here is the Purchase Link.
Author Bio
Leonie Mack is a debut romantic novelist. Having lived in London for many years her home is now in Germany with her husband and three children. Leonie loves train travel, medieval towns, hiking and happy endings!
You can find her on Instagram – Twitter – Facebook and sign up to Leonie’s mailing list here.
Thank you all so much for reading and I hope you pick this lovely book up soon!
xoxo
Noly
