Review: Christmas with the Lords by Hannah Langdon

Christmas with the Lords by Hannah Langdon

Blurb from Goodreads:

URGENTLY WANTED: a nanny for Christmas. Seeking an adventurous nanny to work for the aristocratic Lord family at their country estate. Must love naughty dogs, mischievous children and have a high tolerance for Christmas chaos. Room and board provided.

Penny Windlesham is stunned when her long-term boyfriend suddenly dumps her, leaving her with a broken heart just in time for Christmas. At a loose end, she accepts a job as a short-term nanny to a family she’s never met. Climbing aboard a train bound for the Dorset countryside, a tear rolls down her cheek. Alone, working and amongst strangers… could her Christmas be any less magical?

As she crunches up the family’s frost-covered drive, Penny’s spirits lift when she glimpses her home for the next month: an enormous manor house, its windows glowing with firelight and festooned with twinkling holly. And, as she settles into her role caring for the adorable Lord children, she finds herself surrounded by a quirky cast of characters, including loveably frazzled Spanish chef Pilar and the children’s grouchy uncle, Lando Lord.

Despite Penny’s attempts to avoid him, the darkly handsome Lando seems to be everywhere – hanging around like Scrooge amidst the happy present-wrapping and gingerbread baking. Apparently he wasn’t always this way… is there some secret reason he’s so cranky at Christmas?

When Lando is commissioned to carve a beautiful new Nativity scene for the local church, Penny blushingly agrees to be his model, and a sudden spark flickers between them. But it’s not long before the past comes knocking, and Penny discovers exactly why Lando left his old life behind…

My Review:

Definitely adding this to my list of annual holiday reads -- it was so heartwarming.  Definitely closed door but I loved the Christmas descriptions and the authentic UK Christmas activities.  The characters were well written and the story just fell into place.  I can't wait for more from this author!  Definitely add to your TBR!!

Christmas with the Lords comes out next week on November 9, 2023, and you can purchase HERE!  

I thought back to dinners I had had with Timothy's parents and felt very glad that Christmas would be spent at the Lords' table and not theirs. Timothy could be ponderous and had a tendency to lecture rather than converse; his father was the same.  His mother, who looked permanently panicked, and I had all but given up trying to join in and would sit in near silence as they mansplained politics, economics, social theory and even education without ever asking for our input or opinion. As William chattered away, asking me all about myself, checking up with Pilar about her infirm sister and wondering what we thought was the best way to teach children classic literature, I wondered why I had put up with Timothy all those years. I suppose I had thought that was 'the way it was', that you got together with a man and then spent the next fifty years slightly dissatisfied, which was the path that many of my friends had embarked on.