Book Review: A Christmas Cracker by Trisha Ashley

Title: A Christmas Cracker
Author: Trisha Ashley
Published: 22nd October 2015
Publisher: Avon Books

As I am sure I say with every Trisha Ashley book I read, Trisha is one of my all time favourite authors ever since I read her book The Twelve Days of Christmas, all the way back in 2010. And it is still my most favourite of all her stories. But that isn't to say that I don't love all her other books and I quite honestly adored A Christmas Cracker. I feel like I've been waiting ages for this book to come out as I just could not wait to read it. You just have to look at the iconic Trisha book cover to want to pick it up and this one was even more stunning than the last with sparkly bits included.
Trisha's books always genuinely make me feel all warm and cosy. Every time I dip into one of her stories I have this longing to move to Lancashire. She just makes it sound so idyllic and peaceful. Each chapter is headed with a brilliantly cheesy/bad Christmas joke, which I loved and thought was a brilliant start to each chapter and kept me in the festive mood.
A Christmas Cracker has another instantly likeable and level headed character called Tabby. Tabby gets framed for a crime she didn't commit and finds herself in prison, jobless and without a fiancée. Tabby's outlook doesn't look good, that is until a guardian angel in the form of Mercy appears asking her to help out with her failing cracker business. Together they hope to save Marwood's Magical Christmas Crackers, but Mercy's nephew Randal doesn't trust Tabby as far as he could throw her. Stubborn and hard to work with, Tabby's future unfortunately rests on winning him round. They do however say that miracles happen at Christmas.
Once again with Trisha's books I was very quickly swept up in Tabby's story and quite an unusual story at that, which made it all the more enjoyable. All the characters very quickly felt like old friends (apart from the mean ones!) and every evening after work, I couldn't wait to get all cosy and settle down with Trisha's book.
I always have this idyllic vision of moving up to Lancashire when I read Trisha's stories. A lot of her stories are set here and I love how she refers back to characters and shops from her previous books. I cannot tell you how thrilled I was that two of the characters from The Twelve Dates of Christmas made an appearance!  
Another brilliant book from Trisha that I heartily recommend.