All I Want For Christmas By Joanna Bolouri

‘All I Want For Christmas’ is the latest book by Joanna Bolouri.

When Nick loses his job and is dumped by his glamorous but demanding girlfriend, he is forced to grudgingly accept work as a Santa at a local Christmas grotto. As his friends are getting married or promoted, Nick spends his days being terrorised by unfriendly elves and cried on by snotty, spoiled children. Then he meets 4-year-old Alfie. All Alfie wants for Christmas is for his mum, Sarah, to be happy again. Moved by the boy’s selfless wish, Nick arranges a date between Sarah and his best friend, Matt. But as Sarah and Alfie become part of all their lives, Nick realises that happiness for Sarah and Matt might mean heartbreak for himself.

When it comes to great comical writers with implacable timing and great dialogue, I wholeheartedly rank Joanna Bolouri in that category.

Having read her previous books such as ‘The List’ and ‘Relight My Fire’, I was keen to read her latest festive book called ‘All I Want For Christmas’, as I knew it would lift me out of my reading slump and I was delighted to be right.

The story is seen through the narrative of Nick, who loses his high powered job just on the mouth of Christmas. Unable to find a job, he decides to take on the role of Santa Claus at the local shopping centre. Not the greatest fan of children but proving to be a natural, Nick embraces the job promising the latest toys, but finds himself in a quandary when one of the children asks for his mother to be happy for his Christmas present.

Nick literally takes the task to hand even though, he finds himself attracted to Sarah, the mother of Alfie and decides that setting her up with his best friend Matt.

The story follows the course of the year as Matt and Sarah become a couple, whilst Nick watches on from the sidelines and realises that Sarah is the perfect woman for him and begins to see Alfie as a surrogate son.

Everything about this story is simply perfect, the characters, the plot line as well as the witty dialogue between the characters. I loved Nick, he’s kind, warmhearted and such a giving person putting other needs before his own. Even though, he feels drawn to Sarah, he still believes that Matt can offer her more and watches from the sidelines as he slowly falls in love with her. Also Alfie, Sarah’s little boy was adorable in his sweetness and his primary concern was his mother’s happiness, since his father had died.

The story is filled with hilarious moments with funny one liners as well as the crazy situations that Nick found himself in. But as well as the humour in the story, there’s also an element of poignancy and grief as both Nick and Sarah have to deal with losses and how grief is particularly hard at Christmas.

Witty and heartwarming from the first page, ‘All I Want For Christmas’ is a festive bundle of love and fun that will you creasing up with laughter throughout.