The Magic of Christmas by Trisha Ashley

*****                                                                                                                 
Lizzy, founder member of the Christmas Pudding Circle lives in Middlemoss, a Lancashire village with the usual cast of odd-bods, soap stars, broodingly handsome Nick and the new Vicar. She manages to get by through self sufficiency and writing homely books about her cooking and gardening, with her son Jasper and her love rat husband. Saved from leaving her marriage by his sudden demise she continues to throw herself into village life, including the Boxing Day Mystery Play, but who will play Adam to her Eve?

Well, it's no secret that I love Trisha Ashley, she does "older" chit-lit with a light touch and a quirky sense of fun.  This is in her usual vein, based "Sweet Nothings" an oldie of hers that is terribly difficult to get hold of.  Lizzy is another engaging heroine and although the exaggerated and cosy village vibe is a bit "Vicar of Dibley" it's a cheerful, fluffy Christmas read, which is just what I needed and it's got me in the festive mood.

Now all I need is a glass of mulled wine, but I'm not sure about the mashed potato fudge!

Chocolate Wishes by Trisha Ashley

****
Chloe lives fairly quietly with her teenage brother, eccentric grandfather and aunt in a pretty Lancashire village. She makes gorgeous chocolate wishes in the shape of angels, acts a PA to her grandfather, goes to the pub with her two best friends and according to the book she does very little else! She’s been unlucky in love – jilted by her fiancé just before the wedding and in the dim distant past she was badly let down by Raffy, the love of her life, when she had to leave university to look after her baby brother. Chloe is getting on with things when Raffy unexpectedly reappears as the new vicar!
It’s been of a Trisha Ashley fest this year! Here’s her latest and, sadly, it didn’t live up to my expectations…I think she’s brilliant and I was sooo looking forward to reading this, but it just didn’t quite make it. However, despite my slight disappointment, there’s a lot of good, Chloe is an interesting heroine and although it seems a weak reason for her to be so hung on Raffy after all this time, it eventually becomes apparent that she has some justification for doing so. Felix and Poppy make stereotypically good friends and create a romantic subplot with a bit of help through love potions and magical chocolate. Jake the stroppy teenage brother who she has raised is interesting enough and prevents Chloe becoming a total sad no-life! I felt Raffy was actually a bit underwritten and could have been more interesting, he’s been a rock star, is obviously gorgeous (what else?) but then settles for a quiet rural life? I would have liked much more back story to make him fully developed. David, the jilting fiancé was suitably nasty and disagreeable and deserving of the rubbish dumped on him. The descriptions of making chocolate were great and gave me cravings to get down to Thornton’s asap!
The less likeable aspect was the whole pagan/ magic stuff didn’t really work for me – I know Ashley has used magical themes in her previous work, and I liked the links to A Winter’s Tale, which I loved! But the magical aspect just felt a bit contrived (it smacked of Christina Jones stuff and I was a bit disappointed by her last one too). Okay, I accept it created a contrast/tension with Raffy’s Christianity, but is it such a big deal, haven’t “alternative belief systems” become more widespread?
Anyway, it is snappily written, has good "realistic" characterisation overall, due to having more mature, less moneyed and glamourous charcters than a lot of chick-lit (which I think is a good thing!) , but was just lacking something for me.

The Urge to Jump by Trisha Ashley

***

Sappho is almost 40 and feels life is slipping away…she’s managed most things in life except motherhood and is looking for potential fathers and Nye, a local potter has the most potential.
As I said in an earlier post I’m chasing “older” books by this author and again managed to get a RiSi swap again. I feel slightly guilty rating a favourite author only three stars but unfortunately I found the whole plot difficult to get into and most importantly I didn’t warm to Sappho. Like in Singled Out, our heroine is an author, this time of fantasy fiction and likewise she’s older than the usual chick-lit type and has a tendency to wander off alone in the middle of the night. Nye is predictably grouchy but devastatingly handsome but the whole thing just didn’t work for me. Sorry.

Singled Out by Trisha Ashley

****
Cass Leigh writes sensationalist gothic horror books, she's slightly odd with a penchant for velvet cloaks and walking in graveyards during the night. She finally realises that her long term married boyfriend, who she's been holding out for, is a rat and there's very few romantic options now available. Unfortunately, Jason, one of her oldest friends develops an unreciprocated crush on her and the mysterious Dante appears in the village after buying the ghost-ridden manor house that fascinates Cass. Along with a slave auction organised by the local vicar, which becomes a bit of a fight between all the men in Cass's life when love rat Max reappears, becoming a ghost in Dante's house, the need to write her sinister books and the ongoing worries of wanting a baby, Cass's life resolves itself and she finds her happy ending.
I have read a couple of Trisha Ashley's books and really enjoyed them, she generally writes interesting and not naff heroines under slightly strange circumstances and with a bent towards older chick lit readers (doubt her stuff appeals to the twentysomethings) - as you may have gathered from other posts, I've been trying to track down her earlier stuff and this is one of them (published 2003 - I managed to get a RiSi swap for an old library copy!) It clearly is an early one - it's shorter with fewer sub plots than her later books, but demonstrates her humour and quirkiness. However, in some respects I did feel it was trying a bit too hard to be different... Cassandra differs from the generic "chick-lit" heroine in several ways, she's 44, has a bizarre back story of religious freak father. This explains her horror obsession but became a bit extreme at times. She can also "mind-read", although the mind reading seemed to me to be only a short cut way of getting into Dante's character. As te book develops she also shows her desperation for a baby, which could have come across as sad, but Ashley just about pulls it off.
Dante of course is gorgeous, stern (back to my Darcy ideal!) with serious guilt issues and a back story, I wouldn't expect anything else! He's interesting and well written enough to maintain interest and the characterisation works with Cass.
At times some of the literary references and "authorisms" seemed to me to be a bit self-indulgent but overall it was self-depreciating enough to keep it light.  I still love Trisha Ashley, and although I think her later stuff is better, it's great to read her earlier work to see how it's all developed. Well worth a look if you're a fan and can get hold of a copy!