Put Christmas, romance and a mysterious carousel together and, really, I never stood a chance.
Add a handsome florist who thinks hiding behind a poinsettia is a legitimate romantic strategy, a judgemental cat and some distinctly suspicious goings-on, and I was sold.
So, did The Midnight Carousel live up to expectations?
Oh yes.
Scroll down to read my five-star review...
Belle Stanhope had plans. Good plans. Practical plans.
None of them involved Hudson Carver.
The florist with the crooked smile had become a distraction she neither wanted nor could avoid. Which was inconvenient, considering the Pretty River Inn and the upcoming bachelor auction left little room for distractions.
For years, Hudson had been content with the life he'd built beneath Christmas Mountain. His flower shop, his workshop, and the friends who had become family were more than he'd ever expected. Then he met Belle Stanhope.
As Christmas approaches, the carousel's calliope sings off-key, and the old magic he'd left behind stirs once more. The life he'd built and the life he wants are no longer the same.
In Forest Falls, wishes have a way of finding the people who need them most.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Oh look, a nice cosy Christmas romance (in which the local florist is hiding something, carousel music is behaving suspiciously, an old house appears to have opinions, and one woman is about to discover that denying you fancy someone becomes considerably harder when the entire town has already noticed).
The Midnight Carousel is funny, romantic, wonderfully Christmassy and just strange enough to make you wonder what on earth is actually going on in Forest Falls.
Belle Stanhope manages the Pretty River Inn, which means she is extremely good at organising other people.
Guests? Fine.
Staff? Fine.
Christmas events involving half the town? Absolutely fine.
Her own love life?
Less fine.
Particularly when Hudson Carver is involved.
Hudson is the local florist. He is handsome, kind, quiet and annoyingly good at making himself useful. He also seems to have perfected the art of looking at Belle as though he would very much like to say something and then deciding, at the last possible moment, that perhaps he won't.
This happens a lot.
Belle isn't much better.
She spends an impressive amount of time insisting that there is absolutely nothing going on while simultaneously noticing Hudson's eyes, hands, sweaters, forearms and general proximity.
She also becomes significantly less coordinated whenever he is nearby.
Fortunately, Hudson is very good at catching her.
Which is convenient.
Their romance is one of those deliciously frustrating ones where everybody knows what is happening except the two people actually involved.
Although, to be fair, I think they know too.
They are simply committed to making things difficult.
Hudson's approach is particularly impressive. At one point, Belle reminds him that he hid behind a poinsettia for two weeks.
He insists this was strategic.
Reader, it was not strategic.
Meanwhile, Forest Falls is busy being the sort of Christmas town that makes you want to pack a suitcase immediately.
There are snowy streets, twinkling lights, skating, Christmas trees, an old-fashioned inn, a carousel and enough festive charm to make even the most determined Christmas cynic reconsider their position.
Except something isn't quite right.
There are odd sounds.
Strange moments.
People who clearly know more than they are saying.
And a carousel that perhaps deserves slightly closer supervision.
Belle notices.
Hudson definitely notices.
Hudson would rather not discuss it.
This becomes increasingly inconvenient.
Thankfully, there are plenty of people around to make sure neither Belle nor Hudson is allowed to brood in peace.
Nana Iris was an absolute joy. She has reached that glorious stage of life where subtlety is entirely optional, particularly when it comes to Belle's romantic prospects.
JoJo isn't much better.
Aredhel, meanwhile, has the wonderful ability to make even the most peculiar situation sound as though everyone else is being unreasonable for finding it peculiar.
Then there is Mistletoe the cat, who quite rightly judges everybody.
But it was Belle and Hudson who kept me turning the pages.
Their relationship is funny, tender and painfully slow in exactly the right way. There are lingering looks, accidental touches, deliberate touches pretending to be accidental, walks through the snow and enough almost-moments to make you want to climb into the book and give them both a firm talking-to.
And then there is the bachelor auction.
I shall say very little about this because it deserves to be experienced without warning.
I will merely say that Belle discovers some interesting things about herself.
Common sense is not among them.
Beneath all the comedy and Christmas sparkle, though, there is a lovely story about loneliness, belonging and what it really means to find somewhere that feels like home.
That was the part I wasn't expecting to affect me quite as much as it did.
The Midnight Carousel made me laugh, made me impatient with two fictional people who desperately needed to sort themselves out, and made me wish Forest Falls existed.
Warm, magical, romantic and gloriously festive.
Five stars.
And I am still not accepting that hiding behind a poinsettia counts as a strategy.
***
If you are looking for an xmas fix, or know someone who would love to find a copy of Hanna's book under the tree you can pursches your copy over on The 'Zon!
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Hanna Park
I began my writing career in the pre-dawn of a winter morning while my husband snored like a train. We could call my husband the catalyst. If it weren’t for him, I would never have gone to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee, feed the cat, and sit on the loveseat in front of the fire. It was there, in those moments of wondrous quiet, that I did something I had never thought possible. I opened my laptop, and while the coffee went cold, I wrote a story. My husband had no idea that these sojourns to the loveseat in front of the fire would become a daily occurrence, that writing would become an obsession, but the cat knew. She knows everything.
I write stories that make you laugh, make you cry, and make you love. Thank you, friends, for reading!
In the beginning, there was an empty page.
I am a writer who lives in Muskoka, Canada, with a husband who snores, a hungry cat, and an almost perfect canine––he’s an adorable little shit.
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