In Time for Christmas

In Time for Christmas by Katie Flynn Arrow, HK$100

Christmas comes but once a year, and when it comes, the book world cheers. Not only can they re-release everything with the word 'Christmas' in it, any book that so much as hints at mistletoe, reindeer and goodwill can be merrily flogged. English novelist Katie Flynn is made for the festive cash-in. A prodigious purveyor of big-hearted romances, she sets many of her novels in Liverpool, where art, sentiment and tragedy are daily occurrences: listen again to Eleanor Rigby if you don't believe me. In Time for Christmas is an old-fashioned tale: set about half a century ago on Merseyside, it centres on a love-hate triangle comprising a mother and her two daughters. Nell Fairweather lives in Liverpool with Addy and Prue. Blonde and blue-eyed, Prue is an angel; Addy, dark-haired and older, is an almost stereotypical trouble-maker. What makes matters all but unbearable is that Nell dotes on Prue to the exclusion of Addy. Enter Giles Frobisher, a handsome chap who first encountered Abby and Prue when they were all young(ish). Meeting again as adults, the sparks begin to fly. Well, not fly exactly, but they fizzle pleasantly away. Merry Christmas.