A Casterglass Christmas

Kate Hewitt

Oct 2021 · Keeping Up with the Penryns Book 1 · Tule Publishing

About this eBook

To save Casterglass, all the Penryn children will need to return home, rebuild their lives among the ruins, and find love that has proved elusive...

The Penryn family have always been eccentric—living in a dilapidated castle in the wilds of Cumbria with an orchid-mad father and a classicist mother who likes to re-enact Greek myths, who wouldn’t be? Penniless and proud, patriarch Walter Penryn resists selling his birthright and family legacy until taxes, bills, and the need for a new roof force him to reconsider.

Well-heeled Londoner Althea Penryn doesn’t expect a divorce and job hunt over the Christmas holidays, but her husband claims he’s done and the prenup is solid. She packs up her reluctant teenage children and heads home to Casterglass Castle to confront the ghosts of her past—including the real one her mother claims lives in the old guard tower. And then there’s her unexpected romance with local sheep farmer, John Braithwaite, who is everything her adulterous, solicitor ex-husband isn’t.

This Christmas, amid the renovation and potential heartbreak of losing her family home, can Althea find a new purpose and the happiness that has so long eluded her?

Ratings and reviews

The first instalment in a new series. Althea Penryn moved away from the family's ramshackle castle in Cumbria when she went to college, she married young and went to live in Surrey with her solicitor husband and their three children. But now, after twenty-one years of marriage, her husband has announced that he is spending Christmas skiing in Switzerland with one of Althea's so-called friends, and not with his family. Althea has overlooked multiple infidelities during their marriage but this is a step too far, they have a screaming row and she takes the children to stay with her eccentric parents and youngest sister. When Althea arrives things are even worse than usual, the roof needs replacing at a cost of at least £200,000 and her seventy-two year old father is talking about selling the castle, where the Penryns have lived for over 800 years. Can Althea come up with a plan to save the castle, reconcile with her sister, placate her irate teenager, and decide about her marriage? This is classic Kate Hewitt, cosy, sweet, just like a warm mug of hot chocolate. My only gripe is that this is only the first book in the series, I need the second book STAT. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher Tule in return for an honest review.

A great start to a new series by Kate Hewitt. A Casterglass Christmas, book one in the Keeping Up with the Penryns series. A story of family, coming home and trying to move on. I look forward to reading more in this series.