ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Christmas at Flora’s House by Freya North

Christmas at Flora’s House is independently published and is out now. I bought my own copy from Freya’s website.

On the windswept dunes of the Isle of Harris in the wild and beautiful Outer Hebrides of Scotland, is a small white house with a big history. These days, Flora’s House is a holiday home – the perfect base for visitors from far and wide to explore the stunning and often dramatic landscape.

Arriving with one suitcase for clothes and another for their own decorations, retired couple Maggie and Roger have booked Flora’s House for the festive season. It’s their first trip to the island and their first Christmas away from home – but where does Roger disappear to on his long walks? And why is Maggie so taken with one particular member of staff at the local shop?

Christmas is coming: a time for family and togetherness, for joy and forgiveness. Out there, high on the hills and deep in the heather, across the shimmering lochs and hidden in the waves, this Christmas will soon become unlike any Maggie and Roger have had before.

Christmas at Flora’s House is the first in four planned novellas from Freya North. If you’ve read Little Wing then some of the characters and settings will be familiar but if not then this works perfectly well as a standalone, although I highly recommend reading Little Wing too.

Maggie Birch and her husband Roger will be spending Christmas at Flora’s House, a holiday rental on the Isle of Harris. It’s a big change for them as all their previous Christmases have been spent at home in Alderley Edge, but they’ve brought their own Christmas decorations with them to make them feel more comfortable. Maggie soon finds the community run shop and stocks up with all manner of gorgeous-sounding items but Roger is a bit more distant and keeps taking himself off for walks on his own.

To say anymore about the story itself might mean spoilers but what I can say is that this is a beautifully written and poignant story of community spirit, especially at Christmas, and the power of love and healing. As with Little Wing, this is a love letter to Harris and its windswept and wild beauty and I now want to go and stay at Flora’s House and visit Shona at the shop to buy Scottish tablet and Talisker whiskey from across the water on Skye, both buildings feeling so real to me.

Emotional yet hopeful, Christmas at Flora’s House is an absolute delight to read and I can’t wait for the next novella to see who the inhabitants spending Spring at Flora’s House will be.

I’m the British author of 16 bestselling novels and have been published for almost 30 years! Alongside my traditionally published novels such as THE UNFINISHED BUSINESS OF EADIE BROWNE and LITTLE WING, I am also independently publishing too! These are exciting times for authors as never has there been such a fertile time to reach the reader…and my readers are so fundamentally important to me.

I’m thrilled to bring you the first of a series of novella’s set in Flora’s House – a wee white cottage on a wild, beautiful and remote part of the UK: the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.

CHRISTMAS AT FLORA’S HOUSE is the first in the series – an emotional, heartfelt story set over the festive period featuring a long-married couple and their first ever Christmas away from home. I had a little cry as I wrote it…and I hope so much you’ll enjoy it!

The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne is very much my own intensely personal love letter to youth, to friendship and to coming-of-age in the late 80s/ 1990s… Much of it was drawn from my own memories of leaving home for Manchester Uni and how that FELT.

My 15th novel Little Wing was written during the first lockdown. Set partly in the Outer Hebrides and interweaving the secrets and lies of two families over two time frames – it was a joy to research and write and certainly kept me sane during the Pandemic. In Spring this year (2025) I wrote its ‘companion piece’ STILL TIME – it’s not a ‘sequel’ per se as I conceived and wrote the two books to be read in any order. I don’t have a pub.date yet – but I can’t wait to tell you more!

I’ve always been focussed on a sense of place being a key feature of my writing – settings being a leading character, not merely a backdrop. Previous locations have included North Norfolk, British Columbia, Derbyshire, Vermont, France, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall… I’m an avid reader too – and the novels of Barbara Trapido, Jane Gardam, Rose Tremain and Mary Wesley inspired me to write. I hope you enjoy my books – please keep in touch via my website, Facebook, Twitter and Insta! Happy Reading! Sign up for my newsletter (via my website) there’s a prize draw and exclusive news every month!

Happy Reading to all of you, Freya x