Book Review 59
A Special Kind Of Advent
by S J Crabb
Victoria Matthews has come a long way since she was known as Vicky Matthews, from flat 23 Roundshaw Towers.
The girl who against all the odds managed to claw her way through school and rise above the expectations of her peers.
She is ruthless, unrelenting and driven.
She works hard and has no room in her life for anything else.
She has no friends and even her own mother flinches when she visits.
Her staff fear her and she rips them apart as though they are candidates for the Apprentice.
The one focus in her life is making it to the top and today that dream is about to come true.
There is only one man standing in her way.
Charlie Monroe.
Born with a silver spoon in his mouth he had his future mapped out for him from an early age.
He was born to wealthy parents and lived the life others could only dream of.
He went to Eton and then Oxford and has never had to try for anything because where his brain fails, his looks win.
Loved by everyone and desired by many.
Popular with his staff and everyone’s friend.
Victoria hates him.
They are both in the running to take over the company where they work when Mr Rowanson retires.
However, to win the company they must complete a set of challenges.
One for every day of December and on Christmas Day the winner will be chosen.
There is one condition: They must work together and have no other help.
Every morning on the stroke of 8 they must open the Advent Calendar to discover their challenge.
These challenges will determine the winner and failure is not an option.
This is no ordinary Advent calendar and they are not children.
This time it's war and the winner takes it all.
After my disappointment with the previous book I read, I spent a fair bit of time deciding what I wanted to read next. It had to be a Christmas book and I decided I didn't want another crime book - which ruled out several novels and books of short stories. This book had popped up on a Kindle Daily Deal in November; the blurb was intriguing and it was free so I nabbed it. And as it was sitting there looking at me in my Kindle library, I thought 'why not'? I'm so glad I not only nabbed it, but read it as I thoroughly enjoyed it - actually more than I thought I would.
I have said before that I don't read a lot of romance books, as I'm not keen on 99% of the book being about the couple arguing and disliking one another and only a tiny bit of the book being about them actually realising they love one another. This book wasn't like that. They did bicker in the first few chapters and didn't actually like one another that much because they were in effect chalk and cheese. In fact when Mr. Rowanson gives them the challenge he makes a point of saying that their respective strengths are the other's weakness and that they balance one another out very well.
I struggled to like Victoria to begin with; I found her far too demanding and driven and I wouldn't have wanted to have worked for her. But as the book went on, the softer side of her came out and she realised herself she was too demanding and driven and should respect her staff more and she wasn't as self-assured and hard as she tried to believe she was. The change in her was well handled and very believable and I grew to like her and understand her.
Charlie I couldn't dislike, but he did irritate me somewhat with him being so laid back and almost too 'matey' with his staff. But again he mellowed and he knew his faults.
I guessed what the outcome of the challenge would be from the second Mr. Rowanson tells them about it. However, it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book at all.
The book was well written and the characters were very real; I believed in them. For me it was the perfect kind of romance. It made me smile.. It was a feel-good book, perfect for the run up to Christmas and just what I needed after the previous book. I shall definitely have a look out for more books by this author. If you like this kind of book, then I would definitely recommend it. And the Kindle version is still free in the UK.