Fa-La-Llama-La: Christmas at the Little French Llama Farm by Stephanie Dagg

Blurb

It’s very nearly Christmas and, temporarily jobless and homeless, Noelle is back at home with her parents. However, a phone call from her cousin Joe, who runs a house-and-pet-sitting service, saves her from a festive season of Whist, boredom and overindulging.

So Noelle is off to France to mind a dozen South American mammals. She arrives amidst a blizzard and quickly discovers that something is definitely wrong at the farm. The animals are there all right, but pretty much nothing else – no power, no furniture and, disastrously, no fee. Add to that a short-tempered intruder in the middle of the night, a premature delivery, long-lost relatives and participation in a living crèche, and this is shaping up to be a noel that Noelle will never forget.

Fa-La-Llama-La is a feel-good, festive and fun romcom with a resourceful heroine, a hero who's a bit of a handful and some right woolly charmers.

Review

I was going to leave this review until later in the year, when the second book is published, but it was just so darned good that I felt it needed a little love and attention now. And look at how cute that coevr is!!!

The book has been out a while, but I can't understand why it's not got more reviews than it has. It deserves more, it really does. While it's not a very long read, there is so much packed into it, it feels like it is.

Oh lordy, but the main character is so tongue-in-cheek and has such a witty turn of phrase that the author had me giggling at every other page. What a lovely, nontraditional Christmas chicklit this is! With llamas replacing donkeys, the holy birth being reflected in the arrival of a little lad called Sir William (all will become clear when you read it, I promise), no tree (if Noelle had had one, she'd probably have burnt it!), no presents, but plenty of snow, this is a festive story with a difference.

I loved it - and now I want a llama of my own.

Amazon UK

Amazon US