Stephanie Dagg
on
Tour December 5-16 with
Fa-La-Llama-La
It’s very nearly Christmas and, temporarily jobless and homeless, Noelle is back at home with her parents.
However, a phone call from her cousin Joe, who runs a house-and-pet-sitting service, saves her from a festive season of Whist, boredom and overindulging.
So Noelle is off to France to mind a dozen South American mammals. She arrives amidst a blizzard and quickly discovers that something is definitely wrong at the farm. The animals are there all right, but pretty much nothing else – no power, no furniture and, disastrously, no fee.
Add to that a short-tempered intruder in the middle of the night, a premature delivery, long-lost relatives and participation in a living crèche, and this is shaping up to be a noel that Noelle will never forget.
Fa-La-Llama-La is a feel-good, festive and fun romcom with a resourceful heroine, a hero who’s a bit of a handful and some right woolly charmers.
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
I’m an English expat living in France, having moved here with my family in 2006 after fourteen years as an expat in Ireland. I now consider myself a European rather than ‘belonging’ to any particular country.
The last ten years have been interesting, to put it mildly. Taking on seventy-five acres with three lakes, two hovels and one cathedral-sized barn, not to mention an ever increasing menagerie, makes for exciting times. The current array of animals includes alpacas, llamas, huarizos (alpaca-llama crossbreds, unintended in our case and all of them thanks to one very determined alpaca male), sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, geese, chickens and turkeys, not forgetting our pets of dogs, cats, zebra finches, budgies and Chinese quail. Before we came to France we had was a dog and two chickens, so it’s been a steep learning curve.
I’m married to Chris and we have three bilingual TCKs (third culture kids) who are resilient and resourceful and generally wonderful. I’m a traditionally-published author of many children’s books, and and am now self-publishing too. I have worked part-time as a freelance editor for many years after starting out as a desk editor for Hodder & Stoughton. The rest of the time I’m running carp fishing lakes with Chris and inevitably cleaning up some or other animal’s poop.
Visit her website.
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Buy the book: Amazon.com | Amazon.fr | Amazon.co.uk
Looking for a light hearted, holiday romance? Look no further than Fa-La-Llama-La by Stephanie Dagg. A fan of Christmas movies and music, I fell in love with the cute cover and title’s spin on a holiday classic. Colorful characters, comedic mishaps, and good dialogue kept me turning the pages from start to finish. If you like romantic comedies and have ever wondered what it would be like to take care of a llama, you’re going to want to pick up your own copy of this delightful story.Ms. Dagg does a great job developing the characters right from the start. I really connected with Noelle, a single woman who has been dealing with a broken engagement, job loss and the death of her beloved grandmother. While she’s a little down and out at the start of the book, and temporarily living with her parents, Noelle is determined to keep a positive outlook on life and I really admired that about her. I also liked how Noelle deals with things when nothing is what she agreed to or expects when she arrives to “house and animal” sit in France. She really makes the best of things.I also connected with Nick, the unexpected “intruder”, who arrives on Noelle’s doorstep. While he’s a bit grumpy at first, he quickly grows under Noelle’s skin and they become friendly. He’s handsome, somewhat witty and has ties to Noelle’s previous career. He’s also in a much better financial situation than Noelle, which is good since the money that was supposed to be at the house, is not there, and he too tries to make the best of things.The remaining secondary characters, mostly the local townspeople, are colorful and all contribute something to the story. Especially since some of them have an un-expected connection to Nick. Of course my most favorite secondary characters were the llamas, especially Gabrielle, Sir Winter and Holly, who made me want a llama of my own.Ms. Dagg’s voice as an author is established, easy to follow and very entertaining. The comedy is subtle and yet plentiful and the story’s pace is good. I enjoyed how Ms. Dagg incorporated the Christmas story into this romantic tale by character name, comedic circumstance and human stumbles along the way.Will Noelle and Nick discover how the “Kings” are tied into their future? Will they be willing to become a part of the local town’s holiday celebrations and will their blossoming romance turn into something permanent? You’ll have to read Fa-La-Llama-La to find out. I loved it and look forward to reading more of Ms. Dagg’s work.My Rating: 5 out of 5 Crowns
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Giveaway
Be sure to follow each participant on Twitter/Facebook, they are listed in the entry form below.
Enter here
tweeting about the giveaway everyday of the Tour will give you 5 extra entries each time! [just follow the directions on the entry-form]
Global giveaway - international: 1 winner will receive a $10 Amazon gift card
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FTC Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the author free of charge for review purposes.
Thank you for hosting my book on your blog! I'm delighted you enjoyed the story and I really appreciate you putting so much time and effort into reading and reviewing Fa-La-Llama-La. Wishing you a very happy Christmas. Best wishes, Stephanie
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fun little book. I'll have to check it out.
ReplyDeleteSt. Nick
ReplyDeleteNone yet.
ReplyDeletethanks for your awesome review! Let us know when you get your own llama, lol!! Emma at FBT
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