Book Review - All I Want For Christmas by Karen Swan

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Title: All I Want For Christmas

Author: Karen Swan

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Pan

Publication Date: 10th October 2024

Rating: 5 Stars

Three first dates and an art-world mystery – it's going to be a busy Christmas for Darcy. All I Want for Christmas is the Sunday Times bestselling cosy winter romance from Karen Swan, author of Christmas By Candlelight.

Can she find love this Christmas?

Christmas in Copenhagen is a magical time of year but Darcy Cotterell isn’t feeling festive. Newly single, again, she's not even going home for Christmas. Instead she will be spending her holiday finishing her art history PhD. Her best friend, Freja, has other ideas. She signs Darcy up to a dating app, determined that she won't be lonely this Christmas.

Darcy agrees to three dates – but her mind is on work, not play: an unknown portrait by Denmark’s greatest painter has been found and she is tasked with identifying the woman in the painting. During her research, she encounters sexy, arrogant lawyer Max Lorensen – who happens to be bachelor number one! The attraction is instant but, knowing they must work together, they abandon the match. Or try to. But their feelings are undeniable - until Darcy discovers Max has an agenda . . .

It wouldn't be Christmas without a cracking new festive book from Karen Swan, and this year's is as brilliant as ever! 

What an utterly absorbing story this was, I was engrossed in the mystery at the heart of it, and just how Darcy was going to work out who the subject of a hidden painting was, and then bringing them to life, all with a seemingly impossible time frame. 

Set to a Copenhagen backdrop, this was a fascinating story, that offered moments of great levity with Darcy's dating exploits.  She is on a new app, and her picks are not the best, although it does turn out she will be seeing a lot more of one of them, whether she intends to or not. 

Also set in the art world and acedemia, this just combines all matter of worlds in a way that was compelling to read.  I was never completely sure how things would turn out, and I was overall astounded by some of the revelations. 

I also loved the descriptions of the Christmas markets and various Danish festive traditions that are also featured in the story. 

It's a fabulous book, and was joy to read it. 

Thank you to Pan and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.