This was better than I was expecting and a nice holiday read. It follows one woman and her motley group of friends and family over three Christmas celebrations, during which she learns what it means to understand and be okay with herself, her world, and her place in it. Worth reading for the character of the mother, who was wonderful. I listened to this one and the narration was great. ( )

Bit of Christmasy fun. Follows Clara over three Christmases as she tries to keep everyone (including herself) happy during the festivities. Simple story but polished intelligent language. If you enjoy India Knight's columns I imagine you would enjoy this too. ( )

Comfort and Joy by India Knight would be classified as chick-lit. But for me there was a little more to it, as it wasn’t a straight forward girl meets boy love story. This was, in fact, a love story about a family and by family, I don’t mean the traditional mother-father-child family, but rather a huge conglomeration of people who are connected to each other in various ways. The common denominator to this family is the love they have for each other.

Covering three Christmases, the reader follows Clara’s life and how each Christmas is affected by the growths and changes in her life. Starting when she is forty, there is a lot of humour, some emotional truths, a few hard hitting facts and a warm holiday feeling that made this book a lovely Christmas read.

If you like your Christmas stories a little on the bawdy side, Comfort and Joy would make a great addition to your Christmas book list. ( )

A novel about modern relationships and blended families using the traditional Christmas family get-together as the setting. While Knight can be quite ribald - she does not hesitate to call a spade a spade - some situations are dark, some laugh-out-loud funny, others poignant. As entertaining as this novel is, it's a larger-than-life look at the complexities of family relationships and not for anyone looking for a cosy seasonal story even though it has a few warm fuzzy spots too. ( )

Comfort and Joy by India Knight, narrated by, Anne Flosnik

Hmm what to say about Comfort & Joy, first of all this isn’t your normal sappy with a good moral Christmas story it is more Sex in the City meets AbFab Christmas story. And that is exactly what I liked about this book it was fun and had many laugh out loud moments, but not one you want to listen to in public without earbuds in it does get a little racy in spots but that is half the fun of this book.

I liked the characters in this book, Clara was trying to do the best she could and I like that she included not only her exes but their families too so her children would still have family there for Christmas, which I found very refreshing. She is a bit of an A personality when it comes to planning the big Christmas meal and was happy that on the third Christmas in the book they went to Marrakesh and she let others do much of the work.

I related to Clara so much, trying to plan the perfect Christmas for a bunch of people you’re not sure you even want to spend time with let alone what’s supposed to be a happy holiday. But I loved how she handled it, I myself would have drank much more! I loved Clara’s wit and sarcasm, I am a bit sarcastic myself so I enjoyed this aspect of Clara’s personality immensely!

Anne Flosnik’s flawless narration helps this book along at times and who knew she had such good comic timing, she embodies Clara and all the other characters, as always Anne’s narration was spot on!

Just a warning if you are reading or listening to this in public there are some laugh out loud moments and you may get sideways glances from people around you, I would also recommend not eating or drinking anything while reading especially the first half or you may ruin your book and/or your clothes from spitting whatever you have eaten or attempted to drink!

If you like your Christmas stories on the bawdy, funny side I highly recommend this book. Just don’t go into it thinking you are getting a heartwarming sappy read because that’s not this book!

4 Stars ( )