Review of Wrapped up in You by Carole Matthews

Wrapped up in You is Carole Matthews’ nineteenth novel and the first with her new publishers. I was instantly excited about reading this novel, as it revolves around two of my favourite things; Christmas and Africa.

The novel focuses on the life of Janie Johnson; a single hairdresser from Buckingham who lives with her cat in a quiet village. Having been dumped by her long term boyfriend, Janie is subject to blind dates arranged by her best friend Nina and dubious advice offered by many of her clients at the salon. After one disastrous date too many, Janie follows the advice of one of her older, wealthier clients and books a last minute holiday to Kenya. Here, her heart is stolen not only by the stunning landscape and animals, but also by Dominic, a maasai Warrior based at the camp. A holiday romance blossoms, but can love between two such different people really last long term and can Janie manage a cold, dreary English winter without Dominic?

This is a fantastic story that made me laugh out loud, particularly during Janie’s blind date escapade. The novel surprised me in that it is a Christmas novel, but not as you may imagine and instead is based partly in Africa. The setting in Kenya was one of my favourite parts of the book and made me want to go back to Africa! Matthews has described the sheer beauty of African landscape to absolute perfection.

I loved the idea of Dominic, the Maasai warrior, as hero of this book. Dominic is caring,
trustworthy and seems to really look after Janie; it is also a refreshing change to have a different style of hero to read about. I also cannot write a review without mentioning the lovely Mike who is Janie’s neighbour, I felt so sorry for him at various stages in the novel, but thought that he was definitely a heroic figure as well.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Wrapped up in You, it is like a modern day fairy tale and is a must read for this Christmas. The ending was not as I expected and is exciting and nerve wracking at the same time, it is the perfect book to snuggle up with on a cold winters evening.
I cannot finish this review without mentioning the gorgeous cover of this book, I loved it straight away and it made me feel very Christmassy!

Wrapped up in You is released in paperback on the 27th October 2011

Thank you to Sphere for sending me a proof copy to review.