Thursday, October 28, 2021

Review: A Casterglass Christmas (Keeping Up with the Penryns #1) by Kate Hewitt


To save Casterglass, all the Penryn children will need to return home, rebuild their lives among the ruins, and find love that has proved elusive...

The Penryn family have always been eccentric—living in a dilapidated castle in the wilds of Cumbria with an orchid-mad father and a classicist mother who likes to re-enact Greek myths, who wouldn’t be? Penniless and proud, patriarch Walter Penryn resists selling his birthright and family legacy until taxes, bills, and the need for a new roof force him to reconsider.

Well-heeled Londoner Althea Penryn doesn’t expect a divorce and job hunt over the Christmas holidays, but her husband claims he’s done and the prenup is solid. She packs up her reluctant teenage children and heads home to Casterglass Castle to confront the ghosts of her past—including the real one her mother claims lives in the old guard tower. And then there’s her unexpected romance with local sheep farmer, John Braithwaite, who is everything her adulterous, solicitor ex-husband isn’t.

This Christmas, amid the renovation and potential heartbreak of losing her family home, can Althea find a new purpose and the happiness that has so long eluded her?

 

My Review:

A wonderful start to a new series.

I was instantly hooked on this book.  My heart went out to Althea who finally got the nerve to leave her cheating husband.  It was especially hard when it was Christmas time.  She takes her kids and moves back home to Casterglass Castle, where she grew up.  But the castle is anything but glamorous.  It’s decaying bit by bit.  But Althea comes up with the plan to fix it up and make it a tourist attraction.  I enjoyed seeing the plans come together, how Althea reconnected with her family and learned to move on with her life.  There is even a love interest, her farmer neighbor, John.   

I can’t wait to read the books that will follow this one and learn more about the Penryns.  They seem to be an interesting family. 

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