Book Review - Joy To The World by Beth Moran

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Title: Joy to the World

Author: Beth Moran

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Boldwood Books

Publication Date: 15th September 2026

Rating: 5 Stars

This Christmas, the nation’s favourite life coach is in desperate need of a little holiday magic. 🎄❤️

Alex Nixon has built a glittering TV career teaching clients how to win at life. But when a disastrous viral awards speech reveals that she has zero friends, her family is a mess and her boyfriend has just dumped her, Alex hunkers down in her cottage to hide from the media storm. Her plan? Survive the festive season with only her rescue dog, Ernest, for company.

But she didn’t count on stumbling into the eccentric and welcoming ‘Friends Wanted’ club. And she definitely didn’t count on meeting Will – a gorgeous, warm-hearted single dad raising three chaotic but charming children.

When a devastating family crisis turns Alex’s fragile new life upside down, she has a choice to make. Should she batten down the hatches or let go of her perfect façade long enough to discover that a Christmas filled with new friends and real love is the greatest gift of all?

Curl up with this heart-warming, joy-spreading, unputdownable story of friendship, family and festive forevers. Perfect for fans of Jill Mansell, Sarah Morgan and Jenny Colgan! ✨

What a book! What a read! That was brilliant, although I would expect nothing less from this always very talented author. 

I was hooked on this, from start to finish and couldn't get enough of it. 

This is a story that deals with tough themes in a way that is both eye opening but also compassionate, and I had tremendous amounts of empathy for the characters in this book.  

They are characters that are feel very real to me, and the circumstances that Alex and her family are dealing with both now, and back when Alex was a child, highlight was many people may be going through this Christmas.   It is a very rare book of the sorts that I tend to read that features characters that are in the UK and suffering with extreme poverty and unsure of how to climb their way out of it. 

Alex also has parents who really shouldn't have had children, and all of it has moulded her life as she is determined not to be like them.  But then she has a meltdown on TV and it alters her entire life. 

She meets Will. a widower with three children, and it is obvious that she feels some sort of connection with him. I adored meeting his children, and I also really enjoyed how much this book focuses on making new friends and connections, thanks to a Friends Wanted Club. 

There are plenty of light hearted moments in this story too, especially with the various children involved, and also with the advent challenges of the new friends she is making. 

I was never totally sure of how or where this book would end, there are a fair few directions the author could have taken it, but I'm incredibly satisfied with the journey these characters went on, and where the ended.

Emotional, thought provoking and ultimately full of joy, what a great book. 

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