Christmas at Lilac Cottage

June 5, 2017
Martin’s debut is a gentle greeting card of a contemporary Christmas love story, bringing together two people who don’t realize how lonely they are until they meet. Single dad Henry Travis shows up to move into the annex of Penny Meadows’s cottage in White Cliff Bay in rural Devon, England, and Penny is a bit flummoxed; this giant of a man seems to fill every space in the tiny home. He’s had a bad day, and she doesn’t make it any better by clumsily trying to help him unload his car. Irritated, he locks and blocks the connecting door between their living quarters. It gets worse, gets much better, and then gets worse again as they try to maintain a platonic facade for the sake of Daisy, Henry’s 16-year-old daughter. Warmth and charm rule the holiday, and every chapter begs to be accompanied by hot chocolate at the fireside.