Wish Upon A Star-Trisha Ashley *Review and Author guest post*

It's the final day of Advent-ures in Fiction 2013!  It's Chriiiiiiiiisssssstmmmaaaassssss! (In Noddy Holder style).

Today I am fortunate enough to have an exclusive piece by Trisha Ashley and a review of her most recent book Wish Upon a Star.

Blurb
The perfect gift isn’t always under the tree…

Single mum Cally’s life is all about her little girl Stella. She’s resigned to the fact that the only romance she’s going to get is from the rom-coms she watches, and with her busy job and her daughter, she doesn’t have time to even think about love.

But life gets very tough when Stella gets sick. Balancing her job as a recipe writer and looking after Stella is all consuming, so when Cally meets handsome baker Jago the last thing she wants to do is fall in love, especially when she’s been badly burned by a Prince Charming from her past.
Can laid-back, charming Jago unlock Cally’s frozen heart and help her find true love and magic under the mistletoe?

Come home for Christmas with this gorgeous festive treat, perfect for fans of Katie Fforde and Jill Mansell.

Review
Trisha Ashley writes cosy books which appeal to a slightly older chicklit audience.  This is another heart warming read about the village of Sticklepond, somewhere that community spirit still reigns and the same families have lived for generations.  I found it really uplifting how the village pulled together to raise money for Stella to have a much needed operation.  It is especially poignant at Christmas when so much pressure to consume and 'have' is all around- a reminder that all the fuss is unimportant and what really matters is family, hope and love.

I really like Cally as a character, she is easy to relate to and I expect all mothers will be able to see aspects of themselves in her.  The desire to help her daughter in whatever way possible and provide for her as well as possible shines out from the pages and I loved the romance between her and Jago.  Infact, I think Jago was just about perfect as a romantic hero and developed a bit of a book crush on him myself!

This isn't an out and out Christmas book, but it is a touching, emotive read that warms the heart.

Wish Upon a Star is out now, published by Avon.

8/10

With thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

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Trisha very kindly agreed to share some of the special gifts she has received in Christmases past... 

When I was young and just married and we were hard-up, my ex husband always seemed to buy me practical woolly hats, gloves and scarves, when what my heart craved was something pretty, sparkly or frivolous.  Much later he redeemed himself with the inspired gift of the unabridged audiobook of Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones read by the author, which I still have.

      My son chooses the most wonderful gifts – quirky, lovely, amusing – and, knowing my tastes so well, usually puts in some chocolate violet creams and Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans – in fact, I now associate the smell of freshly ground Blue Mountain coffee with Christmas!