About the Book

Haley ‘the Grinch’ Hanson’s idea of the perfect Christmas is escaping into work and avoiding all the traditional distractions. Over the years, she’s sacrificed her personal life to climb the ladder at a prestigious advertising agency. Now she just needs to land a coveted Christmas toy company account to make partner. But first, her boss thinks she needs a holiday attitude adjustment, so he ships her off to Christmas Camp – a mountainside retreat promising to revitalise even the most determined Scrooge’s festive spirit.

Arriving reluctantly at the snowy inn, Haley meets the owner’s handsome son, Jeff, and feels an instant spark. Yet despite the attraction, she’s determined to ‘graduate’ camp as fast as possible so she can get back to work.

But it’s impossible to resist the charm of the season and soon even Haley starts to live in the moment, growing ever closer to Jeff. Although when he discovers she’s been conspiring with his dad to defeat Jeff’s plans for the future, it will take all the magic of Christmas to bring these two hearts together . . .

My Thoughts

I couldn’t resist looking at the Christmas novels on NetGalley recently and found myself downloading a few. Christmas Camp was the one that called to me the most due to the gorgeous, snowy cover and I’m so happy to say that the novel is every bit as fabulous as it looks!

Haley is a workaholic and is something of a grinch, she has zero Christmas spirit but is vying for a partnership in her firm and this means winning a lucrative toy campaign requiring lots of Christmas joy. Her boss decides that the things she needs is a week at Christmas Camp to find her Christmas spirit and Haley has no option but to go.

I loved this novel so much! It’s set in the week before Christmas and is full of festive spirit. I get so disappointed when a novel is marketed as a Christmas read but you really only get Christmas at the very end of the book but I’m so delighted that Christmas camp has all the Christmas you could possibly want from start to finish!

Haley is determined to get through the activities as quickly as possible each day so that she can return to her room to get on with her presentation but the adorable Max the dog has other ideas! He latches on to Haley right away and is determined to get her involved. I loved Max so much, he’s made me want to get a dog. He really is a character!

The Camp activities include things like making cookies, going sledging, cutting down a Christmas tree – everything you can think of that relates to celebrating Christmas. I’ve always adored the festive period and still I want to go to this Camp, it just sounds so magical and wonderful!

There is a potential romance in this book between Haley and the owner’s son but the path of true love doesn’t run smoothly for these two and I was never quite sure if they’d ever manage to get things worked out so they could be together. I enjoyed these parts of the novel but especially the way that it was more about Haley working out her own life and what she wanted rather than her bending her will to be what a man wanted her to be.

There is real heart in this book; it explores so many of the complicated emotions that always come with the festive time of year and does it in a way that is really genuine but also always uplifting. I shed a few tears reading this book but ultimately I finished it with a great big happy smile on my face!

Christmas Camp is a really festive, feel-good novel and I highly recommend it. This is going on my list of books that I’ll read again in future at this time of year!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

Christmas Camp is out now and available here.

About the Author

Karen Schaler is a three-time Emmy Award–winning storyteller, author, screenwriter, journalist and national TV host. She has written original screenplays for Netflix and Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies. Her travels to more than sixty-five countries as the creator and host of Travel Therapy TV inspired Christmas Camp. All of Karen’s stories are uplifting, filled with heart and hope.