On Strike For Christmas By Sheila Roberts

[amazon_link id=”0349407371″ target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link]’On Strike For Christmas’ is a Christmas themed book by Sheila Roberts.

At Christmas time, it seems as though a woman’s work is never done. Trimming the tree, mailing the cards, schlepping to the mall, the endless wrapping – bah humbug! So this year, Joy and Laura and the rest of their knitting group decide to go on strike. If their husbands and families want a nice holiday filled with parties, decorations, and presents – well, they’ll just have to do it themselves. The boycott soon takes on a life of its own when a reporter picks up the story and more women join in. But as Christmas Day approaches, Joy, Laura, and their husbands confront larger issues in their marriages and discover that a little holiday magic is exactly what they need to come together.

It might be nearly Easter but that doesn’t mean that you can’t settle down and enjoy a Christmas story and that’s exactly what I did with this book. Sheila released three Christmas books in 2014 and I managed to read two of them before the Christmas holidays so I thought would get stuck into this story as the dark and blustery evenings were getting to me. Even though the premise of this book isn’t particularly festive, it was still an enjoyable and sweet story that made me giggle as it flowed along.

The women at the Stitch N’ Bitch knitting club are fed up of being taken for granted, whilst they run themselves ragged sorting out gifts, parties and cooking, their husbands kick back and relax. So this year Joy, Laura and their friends decide to turn the tables and they tell their husbands that they are going on strike so they need to sort out Christmas themselves. This makes for quite funny reading as the roles are completely reversed as the women relax and enjoy the season of goodwill whilst their husbands juggle their jobs plus their new responsibilities all whilst claiming that “they can handle it” And then when local reporter Rosemary Charles hears about the strike, the town of Holly finds itself filled with more exasperated women who are tired of doing of everything.

The story is filled with wholesome American families and characters who are all quite relatable and fun to read. Joy wishes her husband wasn’t such a stick in the mud or old hermit, preferring his own company to others, he dismisses the grandeur and fuss of christmas making Joy the first woman to announce the strike. He is arrogant with this attitude towards Joy and Christmas and sometimes like Joy, I would have liked to have punched his smug face. Joy adores christmas particularly being surrounded by her huge family and finds Bob’s attitude taints the experience for her and begins to resent the way he makes her feel. Laura likes everything to be perfect and I actually felt sorry for her poor husband Glen, as much as he tried to get everything sorted and flawless, there was always something went wrong. The story doesn’t focus solely on the commercial side of the season, it also concentrates on the coming together of family, friends and how one should not be alone at this time, as we meet widower Carol who finds the time lonely but with a little bit of courage and confidence, she begins to make new friends.

Filled with funny moments, adorable children and plenty of christmas recipes to tuck into, no matter the season, this book is a lovely story that will make you smile.

You can buy [amazon_link id=”0349407371″ target=”_blank” ]On Strike for Christmas from Amazon [/amazon_link] and is available to buy from good bookshops.