Author: Sophie Pembroke
Format reviewed: Ebook
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: 20th October 2016
Rating: 5 Stars
This Christmas a little dog is in for a BIG adventure…
Meet Claude. He’s a loveable, big-eared, permanently hungry French Bulldog, who loves his humans – the McCawley family of number 11 Maple Drive to be precise.
When Daisy and Oliver McCawley start using new words like, ‘ferry’, ‘chateau’ and ‘France’, Claude realises they won’t be spending this Christmas at home. Only, when he finds himself on the street, as the family car pulls away, Claude realises he is ALONE. And more importantly, he is without all the yummy treats he knows the festive season brings…
Cue the start of Claude’s Christmas Adventure. It all begins with a belly-flop through next door’s catflap, where he finds newly single and craft-a-holic Holly, Jack the ex-army postman, his arch nemesis Perdita the cat … and serious amounts of gingerbread.
Maple Drive’s cutest resident is about to bring the street together for Christmas, in ways no-one could have imagined …
Meet Claude. He’s a loveable, big-eared, permanently hungry French Bulldog, who loves his humans – the McCawley family of number 11 Maple Drive to be precise.
When Daisy and Oliver McCawley start using new words like, ‘ferry’, ‘chateau’ and ‘France’, Claude realises they won’t be spending this Christmas at home. Only, when he finds himself on the street, as the family car pulls away, Claude realises he is ALONE. And more importantly, he is without all the yummy treats he knows the festive season brings…
Cue the start of Claude’s Christmas Adventure. It all begins with a belly-flop through next door’s catflap, where he finds newly single and craft-a-holic Holly, Jack the ex-army postman, his arch nemesis Perdita the cat … and serious amounts of gingerbread.
Maple Drive’s cutest resident is about to bring the street together for Christmas, in ways no-one could have imagined …
I would love to start a campaign to get this turned into a film, it already feels very movie-esque and would become a must watch over the festive season. In fact if I was in the habit of re-reading I would certainly be tempted to read this each year, as it sums up Christmas miracles and human nature at Christmas perfectly.
Claude is a French Bulldog who is ruled by his stomach, he is constantly on the prowl for food, but when a series of slight errors mean he starts chasing arch nemesis, Perdita a cat that lives next door, he finds the family car is driving off without him on the day before Christmas Eve.
Claude has no idea what that moment will mean in the end to not just him, but everyone on Maple Drive, in the run up to Christmas. Claude has this way about him that leads to various humans wanting to help, and in doing so they end up helping themselves.
Each chapter is split into three perspectives, Claude's which is always great as I love seeing the world through the eyes of an animal, Daisy who is Claude's human and mother of 4, and then Jack or Holly. Jack is the Maple Drive postman who is a bit disappointed that Maple Drive doesn't have the sense of community that he thought it would, and Holly loves crafting, and baking and Christmas, but is alone this Christmas.
We get to see the various ways a two day period play out from different points of view, and from what starts as reasonable paced sweet sounding story, turns into the most wonderful and heart warming of tales.
There are laughs to be had, and not just from Claude's antics, but also incidents involving Daisy's trip to France and what happens in her parent's chateau, while from Holly and Jack we get two people who are starting up a fledgling friendship while they wait for Claude's family to return.
Claude's Christmas Adventure is a big hearted, festive feast of a story, with all the gingerbread you could ever want, and with a gorgeous dog with unusual ears, plus a whole cast of characters, including a meanie I just wanted to boo at, this is a fantastic story to read at Christmas.
Thank you so much to Netgalley and Avon for this review copy. This was my honest opinion.
Claude is a French Bulldog who is ruled by his stomach, he is constantly on the prowl for food, but when a series of slight errors mean he starts chasing arch nemesis, Perdita a cat that lives next door, he finds the family car is driving off without him on the day before Christmas Eve.
Claude has no idea what that moment will mean in the end to not just him, but everyone on Maple Drive, in the run up to Christmas. Claude has this way about him that leads to various humans wanting to help, and in doing so they end up helping themselves.
Each chapter is split into three perspectives, Claude's which is always great as I love seeing the world through the eyes of an animal, Daisy who is Claude's human and mother of 4, and then Jack or Holly. Jack is the Maple Drive postman who is a bit disappointed that Maple Drive doesn't have the sense of community that he thought it would, and Holly loves crafting, and baking and Christmas, but is alone this Christmas.
We get to see the various ways a two day period play out from different points of view, and from what starts as reasonable paced sweet sounding story, turns into the most wonderful and heart warming of tales.
There are laughs to be had, and not just from Claude's antics, but also incidents involving Daisy's trip to France and what happens in her parent's chateau, while from Holly and Jack we get two people who are starting up a fledgling friendship while they wait for Claude's family to return.
Claude's Christmas Adventure is a big hearted, festive feast of a story, with all the gingerbread you could ever want, and with a gorgeous dog with unusual ears, plus a whole cast of characters, including a meanie I just wanted to boo at, this is a fantastic story to read at Christmas.
Thank you so much to Netgalley and Avon for this review copy. This was my honest opinion.
