My 56th read of the year was The Christmas Tree Farm by Laurie Gilmore, this is book three in the Dream Harbour series, and yes, if you have paid attention, I did review book 4 last week because I read them out of order by accident…
Find my review for book 1: The Pumpkin Spice cafe
Book 2: The Cinnamon Bun bookstore
Book 4: The Strawberry patch pancake house
An attempt at summarising
Kira is shocked to discover that the crunchy homesteading life is harder than it looks and despite her hatred of all things Christmassy, it looks like she’ll have to re-open the Christmas tree farm she bought sight un-seen because she’s run out of money for renovations.
Cold, stressed and wrapped in a duvet to cope with the cold is how she bumps into Bennet Ellis, the brother to the main character from book 1. Mr Fix everything, especially for pretty girls in distress, is instantly drawn in by Kira’s appearance, despite her being cold as ice to him but super nice to the dogs he was walking on what he thought was abandoned land. Luckily, when the crazy town of nosey people find out he’d spoken to Kira, they give him an excuse to keep going back because of the old rumour that the previous owner buried his wife somewhere on the farm, along with some ‘treasure’. They want him to continue going up to the farm and ‘walking the dogs’ as an excuse to poke around, so that if he finds ‘the body’ first he can make sure Kira doesn’t get scared off by it (they are very excited for the tree farm to re-open).
Even when he eventually convinces Kira to let him take a look at her boiler, and she starts to warm up to him, he’s shocked to discover that Kira does not want to be rescued. Spoiled all her life by rich parents, Kira is done relying on others to do the hard parts. If she’s going to set up a business then she’ll do it with enthusiasm and without anyone swooping in to save her.
What neither of them expected was to catch feelings so quickly but can it even work when they are both trying to break old patterns? Kira’s trying to stand on her own and Bennett is trying not to give up everything for someone else’s dream (again).
My review
I liked Kira’s pov in this book, because she’s so against all these hallmark movie moments that are happening to her and it was very much like ‘what if dropped a chronically online, instagram loving, spoiled rich girl into the town from Gilmore Girls and the plot of a cheesy movie’ vibes. These books are cosy and low stakes so the characters journeys aren’t extensive but I felt like in this one the ‘barriers’ were at least believable. Because Bennet likes being needed but Kira didn’t need him, despite thinking she couldn’t do this alone, she actually ends up doing a really good job with the business at the farm by herself. But in trying to break her pattern of relying on others, she can’t ask Bennet to stay and help her and because Ben uprooted his life once for a girl before, he’s really trying not to do it again, despite falling hard and fast for Kira. So our third act miscommunication is like, a genuinely believable conflict.
This book is cute, has some funny bits, has dogs in it and cooky townsfolk, it was definitely the one that felt the most Stars Hollow-esq. This series does have ‘open door’ spicy scenes but they are the kind that stays a bit vague about what is happening whilst still describing the event – if that makes sense?
I think overall book two is my favourite but this series is definitely perfect as a holiday read or cosy, easy reading.
Antonia Bernardin 