Review • Baby It's Cold Outside by Emily Bell

 

Synopsis

FATE PULLED THEM APART BUT NOT BEFORE THEY MADE A PROMISE.

TEN CHRISTMASES LATER WILL THEIR WISH COME TRUE . . .

As Norah battles alone, yet again, through the bustling December crowds outside Fortnum & Mason, she hears the first notes of a busker's song that transports her back to the most romantic week of her life.

Laughing under an Italian sky, knowing they had to part, Andrew made her a promise:

If they are both single on Christmas Eve in ten years' time, they will meet under the clock on Grafton Street, Dublin.

Norah has no idea if Andrew will remember, but she has nothing to lose.

So that's where she decides to go. To Dublin. To that clock. Hoping for a Christmas miracle with Andrew.

But it wouldn't be Christmas without a few surprises . . .

Review

I'm not going to lie I love a good smut book... in fact most of my reads are that... but this one isn't and yet, I adore it.

The book is written in the present day, but the flashbacks to 10 years ago blend seamlessly and add just the right about of info to keep us in the loop and how it's translating to the present day.

When I first started reading it, I questioned how it would take the whole book to go from just before Christmas to Christmas eve and their meeting date... and yet it did. Not in a long, drawn out way, but in a nice build up, live life and reflect kinda way.

None of the characters irked me which is rare and you could actually put yourself in the characters shoes.

Norah has had her plans squashed for Christmas and that leads her down Memory lane to the time she met Andrew in Italy, back in 2009. It's now 2019 and being at a loose end, she wonders if he remembers arranging to meet at a certain spot in Dublin on Christmas eve. She tells Joe this, her friend who is convinced to go with her.

I mean, I struggle remembering plans I've written in my diary, on my calendrer and in notion... so how can plans, with someone you haven't spoken to in years be at the forefront of someone's brain is beyond me... 

Norah and Joe head off on this impromptu trip and along the way we get transported to Dublin. Mentally anyway... not going to lie, I googled train prices to go during the book and I've never had the inkling to go to Ireland... but it genuinely sounds magical!

It's like fate is pushing Norah to Andrew with those "moments" which seem weird... but what's even weirder is realising that that missing piece you set off to discover were already with you.

Honestly I loves this book. Perfect winter and Christmas read. definitely a log fire and mulled wine kinda book!

About the Author

Hi, I’m Emily – thank you for browsing my book page.

I can remember clearly when the idea for Baby It’s Cold Outside came to me. It was November 2020 and I was standing in the mud in Clissold Park, my local park in North London – it’s a lovely place but I was completely sick of it by that point in lockdown. I was thinking about all the things I used to take for granted: like travel, and live music, and seeing people who live far away. As I stood there an image came to me of a woman hurrying towards Bewley’s café on Grafton Street in Dublin. I didn’t know who she was or where she was from, but I knew she was there to meet someone important from her past … I started writing the book shortly after and it became somewhere I could escape into during lockdown, as I delved into the story of Norah Jones (not that one ...) and her family, friendships and love life over ten years. 

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