Review: A Gift to Remember by Melissa Hill

Discover the magic of Melissa Hill this Christmas... Darcy Archer works in a small bookstore on Manhattan's Upper West Side. A dreamer who secretly wishes for true love similar to that in her beloved novels, Darcy refuses to settle for anything less than being swept off her feet by the perfect man.

One day, when cycling to work, Darcy accidentally crashes into a sharply dressed man walking his dog. He is knocked unconscious and rushed to the hospital, but his dog gets left behind. Wracked with guilt over the accident, Darcy resolves to care for the dog and reunite him with his owner. But the dog is not the only thing that's been left behind and when she finds a small beautifully wrapped package - suspiciously shaped like a book - she becomes curious. She decides to try and figure out all she can about this man, and make the delivery herself. Darcy gradually becomes drawn into his life; one that she soon discovers is filled with books, travel, adventure and all the wonderful things she's ever dreamt about. It doesn't take long before Darcy builds up a picture of this man's lovely life, and feeling an immediate kinship towards him, tries to make things right.

It might be a challenge but doesn't she owe it to him to try? But does fantasy match reality? And what happens when he finally wakes up?

Review: wow, I literally devoured this book. It was just the right amount of light-hearted loveliness that I needed at the time and I actually could not stop listening to it! I actually downloaded this book on audiobook because I was moving house and I could listen to this whilst unpacking boxes. I was hooked into this book right from the word go, I think this was becaus main character Darcy worked in a bookshop and loved books so I could wait to see what bookish tales she was going to tell us and what adventures her books would take her on next! This book had a good amount of mystery involved, but not so much that you didn't know what was going on the whole time. The mystery kept you wanting to turn pages and find out how everything was going to come together in the end. 

I loved the character if Darcy. She was such an optimistic person, something which is a rarity nowadays and she wanted to please everyone and make everything right. It was exciting waiting to see where this desire to please was going to take her next and indeed much of the storyline revolves around her trying to make a situation right. She didn't expect anything or assume anything and I think I was willing things to go right for her because of this! Aiden is the main make character in this book and a lot of the mystery in the storyline revolves around him. For this reason we really don't know a lot about him and so it is hard to form an opinion of him as a character. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but it does make him a little unrelatable. Despite the fact that there are chapter narrated by him, designed for us to get to know him, we find out details about his life but not really about his character or his personality. I really liked the structure of this book, the way these chapters were dropped in every now and then though! 

This book has it all, a great mix of characters, an interesting storyline and a great New York setting. I actually preserver red the beginning of this book to the ending. I think this is because I liked the thrill of the mystery and not knowing and so when everything was tied up neatly at the end, I had a reached a natural stopping point anyway! Although this book is set predominantly at Christmas, it's definitely something that will entertain you and pick you up at any time of year! I'm definitely going to go away and read some of of the fabulous Melissa Hill novels that are sitting on my shelf now!