I've just finished Twelve Days of Christmas by Trisha Ashley and am still dreamy about the hero, Jude Martland.  It's especially apt at the moment as the story in set in winter in a location that's snowbound.  So it didn't need that much imagination to put myself into the story.

 

Trisha is a great storyteller and I suspect a fantastic cook because of the amount of detail about food in the story. For me that was very telling, quite often an author can blind you with science and go into great detail to make it quite clear that they know their stuff.  It can be boring but that's the joy of this book, Trisha drops in just enough detail about food, menu's and recipe ideas to reinforce the character's clear expertise without hammering you over the head with her own. 

 

Its also a great lesson in characterisation, although told in the first person, all the secondary (not that secondary really) hummed throughout the story, never intruding but constantly throwing up enough flaws and foibles to keep you hooked.  As for the two main characters, the dialogue between them sizzled from the first phone conversation.

 

 

Widow Holly gets more than she bargains for when she goes to house sit for Jude Martland and ends up snowed in with a complete house party.