Christmas at the Gin Shack
by
Catherine Miller
I am delighted to participate in the Blog Tour for Christmas at the Gin Shack organised by Rachel’s Random Resources.
About the Book
Welcome in the festive season with love, laughter and the perfect G&T in Christmas at the Gin Shack – the most uplifting holiday read of 2017!
Gingle bells, gingle bells, gingle all the way…
Olive Turner might have lived through eighty-four Christmases, but she’ll never get bored of her favourite time of year. And this one’s set to be extra-special. It’s the Gin Shack’s first Christmas – and there’s a gin-themed weekend and a cocktail competition on the cards!
But, beneath the dazzle of fairy lights and the delicious scent of mince-pies, Olive smells a rat. From trespassers in her beloved beach hut to a very unfunny joke played on her friends, it seems that someone is missing a dose of good cheer.
​Olive knows she’s getting on a bit – but is she really imagining that someone in the little seaside town is out to steal Christmas? More importantly, can she create the perfect gin cocktail before Christmas Eve – in time to save the day?
My Review
I wouldn’t normally choose to read a Christmas book in October but the title ‘Christmas at the Gin Shack’ had me intrigued. I haven’t read the first in the series, ‘The Gin Shack at the Beach’ but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment of this one.
I was interested to find out how a trio of octogenarians had come up with the idea for a gin themed bar right next to the sea. The main character Olive is a force to be reckoned with.She travels around the coastline on a rather unique mode of transport and breaks every rule in the ‘Elderly Person’s Handbook’. In addition to this, she knows everything there is to know about gin!
Olive has to turn into a sleuth when things start to go wrong at the gin shack and despite being eighty-four she won’t rest until she finds out what is going on. She is aided by her son Richard, a lawyer who returns to Westbrook Bay to spend more time with his mum. Lovebirds Randy and Veronica from Oakley West Retirement Quarters are such a cute couple and Veronica’s extensive knowledge of social media really made me chuckle. Friends from the beach hut community Skylar, Tony and Esme are on hand to help out and they all pull together to unravel the strange goings-on.
What really made this book different for me was the delicious sounding flavoured gin recipes. The customers of the gin shack are treated to some really imaginative concoctions and I licked my lips at the thought of some of them.
Packed full of mystery, mischief, and adorable characters, Christmas at the Gin Shack should be in everyone’s Christmas stocking, to be enjoyed with a homemade mince pie and a drop of gin for good measure.
About the Author
When Catherine Miller became a mum to twins, she decided her hands weren’t full enough so wrote a novel with every spare moment she managed to find. By the time the twins were two, Catherine had a two-book deal with HQDigital UK. There is a possibility she has aged remarkably in that time. Her debut novel, Waiting For You, came out in March 2016. She is now the author of four books and hopes there will be many more now her twins have started school. Either that, or she’ll conduct more gin research on Olive’s behalf.