Pine Hollow has everything Ally Gilmore could wish for in a holiday break: gently falling snow in a charming small town and time with her family. Then she learns some Grinch has pulled the funding for her family’s rescue shelter, and now she has only four weeks to find new homes for a dozen dogs! But when she confronts her Scroogey councilman nemesis, Ally finds he’s far more reasonable – and handsome – than she ever expected. As the guardian of his dog-obsessed ten-year-old niece, Ben West doesn’t have time to build a cuddly reputation. But he does feel guilty about the shelter closing. So he proposes a truce with Ally, agreeing to help her adopt out the pups. As the two spend more time together, the town’s gossip is spreading faster than Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve. And soon Ben is hoping he can convince Ally that Pine Hollow is her home for the holidays…and the whole year through.
Rating 5/5
When Ally grandmother injuries herself she returns to the small tower of Pine Hallow to spend Christmas. There she plans to take care of her grandma and help her grandparents run their dog shelter. However, she is distraught to learn the local council are withdrawing funding for the shelter which will result in its closure. Tasked with finding homes for the twelve dogs before Christmas she confronts notoriously grumpy councilman Ben. However, she’s surprised to learn Ben is not only guardian to his delightful 10-year-old niece Astrid but is actually quite nice. He offers to help her find homes for the remaining dogs. As they spend more time together, they are undeniably drawn to each other, but Ben is determined that he doesn’t have room in his life for romance. Whilst Ally knows her time in Pine Hollow will soon come to an end. A dog isn’t just for the holidays but will Ally and Ben find the same could be said for romance.
I don’t think this book could have been anymore perfect for me if I had given the author a list of my perfect Christmas book tropes and she had written a book based on it. It has so many elements that I just love in Christmas books. Small town, dogs, snow with people being snowed in, Christmas shows and festive events, a community coming together, lots of romance and friendship. It just hit the mark in so many ways.
One of my favourite parts of this book and probably the thing that drew me to it most was the dogs! I, like many people love dogs, I have two of my own, so this was such a draw. We met a whole host of dogs; they have all been given over to the shelter so many of them have quirks that meant finding their human may be a little harder. My particular favourites were Harry, an escape artist and faithful friends Fred and Ginger who needed to be adopted together. My two dogs had to be adopted as a pair, so the little companions really tugged at my heart.
This book also had an amazing cast of Characters. Ally, our main character was lovely. Unfortunately, her parents had passed away so her only relatives were her grandparents. Books where characters have strong relationships with their grandparents always connect with me as I was raised by my grandparents. I also loved how Ally found her place in Pine Hollow. Until coming there she’d always been a little lost and i thought it was great how this small town worked its magic on her. We also had Ben, who had a bit of reputation as the council’s scrooge as it was often down to him to make the tough decisions no one else wanted to. However, Ally quickly discovers he isn’t as bad as he appears when he offered to help her find homes for all of the dogs. He uses his council connections to get the dogs featured in the towns Christmas shows and newsletter. Ally grew to get to know him and see the side that others rarely did. Astrid and her friend Kimber were adorable and their dedication to volunteering at the shelter was so sweet. When Bens parents are introduced, they were also nice characters and were especially friendly towards Ally. Essentially every character in this book was so adorable. It had the perfect cast!
The atmosphere created in this story was incredible. I feel this book was crying out to be made into a Hallmark movie, it would just be the perfect fit. The town of Pine Hollow emitted such a cosy Christmas atmosphere. It was a small town where everyone knew everyone which I always find quite entertaining. Its jam packed with Christmas events, there were parades, school shows and Christmas fairs. I love books that feature Christmas events that make you feel festive and involve the whole town coming together. In this book these particular events came with the added ingredient of dogs making them all the better. Despite the small town being a hive of gossip the people who lived there come together when needed. When Ally and her grandparents became snowed in (another extremely cosy event in itself) the town came together to help. The scenes at Ally’s grandparents’ house were some of my favourites. I could feel the warmth of the house coming through the pages! It was one of the cosiest Christmas books I have read in a long time.
Now, lets discuss the romance because we know that’s at the heart of this story. Ally and Ben got off to a shaky start when she quite literally bumped into him in town. She then discovered he was part of the reason the funding for the dog shelter was withdrawn. However, he surprised her with his offer to help rehome the dogs. This led to them inevitably spending time together and the eventual development of feelings. We saw them doing the cutest and most festive things like photographing the dogs for the newsletter and baking brownies. Ally just seemed to bring out the best in Ben and they made a great team. Of course, the path to love never does run smoothly and they faced some problems along the way. This was my only slight critique of this book, because at times it felt the reiteration as to why they couldn’t be together was a little repetitive. I could have merrily bumped their heads together to make them realise their reservations were unfounded. Bens reluctance stemmed from his desire to do the best by Astrid and he didn’t believe he could do that whilst having a girlfriend. Luckily there are lots of people around to steer them in the right direction. I feel Ben grew a lot in this story as a whole and learns a lot about himself whilst Ally finds her new home and they really help each other with this.
I really cannot recommend this book enough. It needs to be made into a Hallmark movie and every lover of romance and dogs need to read it. Its so cosy, so Christmassy, so filled with love and togetherness that i defy anyone to read it and not melt. It’s a definite favourite of the year and the Christmas books I still have to read will have to amazing to beat this one.
Thank you to the publisher Headline Eternal and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book for review.