Esme has the worst day ever when she is fired from her job, and dumped by her long-term boyfriend all in the same evening. Now back in the country town of her childhood, Esme doesn't know what to do next - until she finds a perfect rental in Mistletoe Cottage and is convinced to start a food blog by her friends. Can Esme carve a new career for herself, from her own kitchen and using her grandma's perfect recipe book? And maybe love is just around the corner in the form of former school crush Joe.

This was a lovely read that while set in November and December, isn't super Christmassy and can be read at any time of year. From the start, I really enjoyed Esme's character who is given a rough go at it but is really able to carry on and figure out how to enjoy the good things she still has. And she still had moments where she took time to grieve what she had lost which is important. I loved Esme's set of friends who are all lovely and supportive, as well as funny.

There were some chapters in and there from Leo - Esme's ex - which I found slightly unbelievable as he was honestly just such a chump.Some of the chapters from Juanita - Esme's ex-boss's house keeper were also interesting but again, I'm not sure exactly what it brought as Esme's ending would have happened with or without Felicity's expose.

Esme's love interest Joe is clearly suffering from depression in this book, and while counselling is mentioned here and there - mostly it being suggested to Joe and him not wanting to take it or thinking about the time he tried it and gave up - I would have liked more to have been done to actually tackle his depression. The book fell a bit into the trope of 'perfect love match cures all' which unfortunately is not the cure for depression.

This was cute and fun, and I definitely recommend it for a nice, quick read and I will read more from the author. Bonus points for lots of delicious references to food.