Christmas at the Edge of the World

Kate Hewitt

Nov 2019 · Tule Publishing

About this ebook

When Laurel West discovers her estranged sister Abby has checked herself into rehab and wants her to take care of her fourteen-year-old son, she doesn't hesitate to step in. Abby was there for Laurel a long time ago, and she longs to be able to offer the same. However, as a single woman who still dreams of the fairy tale, Laurel isn’t prepared for teenaged Zac’s sullen moods or silent rage. When he’s expelled from school, she decides to take drastic measures and temporarily relocate them to her great aunt's cottage on the windswept hills of the Orkney islands north of Scotland… about as far as she can run from their problems, but will it be far enough?

From the moment they step onto the island's shores, everything seems to go wrong... including a run-in with eccentric sheep farmer Archie MacDougall. When Zac gets in trouble at the village pub and is rescued by Archie, Laurel thinks things are only getting worse. But Archie’s suggestion of putting Zach to work on his farm might be the change he needs, and Laurel strikes up a surprising friendship with a man who is about as far from the fairy tale as she can imagine. Can such an unlikely and impractical love bloom in such a brief moment out of reality? And will two lost and lonely souls find each other at the edge of the world?

Ratings and reviews

Although I was not a fan of the title, Christmas at the Edge of the World proved itself more than capable of making up for that. Hewitt finds beauty in the hard moments. Laurel is used to life getting in her face, but when love finds it's way into her heart, she doesn't quite know how to react. From tough talking, rebellious teenagers to an oddly tempting sheep farmer, Hewitt turns the fantasy of love on it's ear and delivers her own brand of charm to capture our hearts.

Laurel is looking after her 14 year old nephew Zac after her sister Abby checks herself into rehab. Abby and Laurel have seen each other since Abby left home to go to university when she was 18 years old, now over 20 years later Laurel is stuck with an anti-social monosyllabic teenager who has just been expelled from his very expensive private school. Ever the optimist, Laurel decides to take Zac to Orkney, a place she remembers spending several idyllic summers before her mother died. She hopes that her great aunt's cottage will somehow get through to Zac where she has failed. But Orkney in Summer is very different to Orkney a week before Christmas. Her aunt's cottage isn't what she remembers, the stove won't work and there's an eccentric farmer waving a shotgun! This is a lovely feel-good holiday romance, not too sweet with plenty of whisky to warm the insides. Recommended for those who like Hallmark Christmas movies, grumpy farmers with a heart of gold and wrenching teenagers away from their digital devices! I received a free copy of this book from the publisher Tule in return for an honest review.

I really enjoy reading all books by Kate Hewitt. But this one is so different from what I usually read from her, and in a good way. This book has such depth to it about life, family and yes falling in love but in a different way. As readers we get to explore a new country (at least for me) and environment as never before. Living in the USA I love to see England thru the writing of this author. Watching the lives of Abby trying to raise her nephew Zach had me laughing at times but crying inside as I realized that her sister Tara must have really struggled all alone and for what? We as the readers don't know. Then we feel like we are right on the island with Abby, Zach and later Archie as life changed. This book came to me at the perfect time and I could not stop reading it. I even looked up places on the map.