All I Want For Christmas by Karen Swan

 

All I Want for Christmas by Karen Swan.

Published 10th October 2024 by Pan Macmillan.

From the cover of the book:

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 . . .

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Darcy Cotterell will be spending Christmas in beautiful Copenhagen this year, where she has been studying for her PhD in art history. With her heart recently broken, after one more failed love affair, she is planning to forget all about romance this festive season and concentrating on putting all her efforts into her thesis this holiday - but her flatmate Freja has other ideas. Freja signs Darcy up to a dating app for the rich and famous and challenges her to choose three eligible bachelors to date over the Christmas period, which she reluctantly agrees to - who knows, it might be the chance for cosy kisses under the mistletoe without any sort of commitment.

But any thoughts of love, however fleeting, are pushed rapidly aside when Darcy is called into consult on a high profile project at work. A mysterious portrait of a young woman has been found on the reverse of a painting by Denmark's most famous artist, and it falls to Darcy to try to discover who this woman might be. Her research into the archives of a prominent Danish family brings her into contact with arrogant lawyer Max Lorensen, who just happens to be one of the men she matched with on the dating app. She immediately feels a strong attraction to him, but it is soon clear that his interests put him firmly against her when it comes to what this new finding means for the provenance of the painting...

The story unfurls against the deliciously snowy backdrop of Copenhagen, in the run up to Christmas, but typically this is not your average take on a traditional festive romance, which I always really enjoy about Swan's wintery stories. Instead, this is a fabulous combination of beautifully wrought mystery set in the art world, with a heart-wrenching love story running through it, which makes for a real page-turner of a novel.

As Darcy gets to grips with her research into the archives, searching for clues about who this woman could be, she gradually uncovers links to possible secrets within a prominent Danish family who have a very firm eye on their reputation and pecuniary interests - a family connected to the man she cannot keep from her thoughts, Max Lorensen, who is full of fathomless depth despite appearing to be a player. Pretty soon, things are getting complicated on the love and work fronts, with oodles of tension and suspense, and I really did not know where this story would land until all the emotionally power-packed threads of past and present tied up in a very satisfying bow at the end. 

I loved everything about this book from the magical setting, to the fabulous cast of characters, and the glimpses of Danish high society past and present. I am especially partial to an art mystery, and Swan weaves a really clever one on these pages that brought in lovely themes of family, reputation, and early twentieth century misdeeds that works beautifully with the contemporary elements of the story too. An absolute cracker. 

All I Want for Christmas is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Karen Swan is the Sunday Times top three bestselling author and her novels sell all over the world. She writes two books each year – one for the summer period and one for the Christmas season. Previous summer titles include The Spanish Promise, The Hidden Beach and The Secret Path and for winter, Christmas at Tiffany’s, The Christmas Secret and Together by Christmas.

Her books are known for their evocative locations and Karen sees travel as vital research for each story. She loves to set deep, complicated love stories within twisting plots.

Her historical series called The Wild Isle, is based upon the dramatic evacuation of the Scottish island St Kilda in the summer of 1930.