I picked this up looking forward to a cosy story with low stakes and a Christmassy atmosphere, and The Country Village Christmas perfectly met those expectations. This was the first book I've read by Cathy Lake, and while I'm not going to seek out other books by the author it was very readable. The cover is beautiful (it looks like a Christmas card) and fits the feel of the story.
In the story Clare moves back to her home village, gets involved running the village Christmas show, and eventually finds a new love. There are few surprises, it develops as you would expect, and sometimes that is exactly the type of book that you want to read. However, as other reviewers have noted the main love interest has his problems, apologies are made and accepted, and their relationship might not suit everyone. Overall it will depend on the reader how comfortable they are with that.
In the story Clare moves back to her home village, gets involved running the village Christmas show, and eventually finds a new love. There are few surprises, it develops as you would expect, and sometimes that is exactly the type of book that you want to read. However, as other reviewers have noted the main love interest has his problems, apologies are made and accepted, and their relationship might not suit everyone. Overall it will depend on the reader how comfortable they are with that.