Book Review: A Very Coco Christmas by Robert Bryndza

A Very Coco Christmas (A Coco Pinchard Novella)

A Very Coco Christmas by Robert Bryndza
Release Date: November 2013
Publisher: CreateSpace
Buy: Kindle Paperback
Rating:

It’s 1985, and eighteen-year-old Coco is home in London for Christmas after her first term at Aberystwyth University. She has started to write, and fallen hopelessly in love with Daniel Pinchard, a devilishly handsome musician from the wrong side of the river.

But Coco’s overbearing mother has other plans and resumes her campaign for Coco to meet and marry the ‘right sort of man’, preferably Kenneth, son of her best friends Adrian and Yvonne Rosebury, who will be joining them for Christmas.

As snow falls softly over the city, and Coco tries to juggle a series of hilarious events, the stage is set for a Christmas lunch like no other. A Very Coco Christmas is a delicious, stand-alone ‘prequella’ to the smash-hit Coco Pinchard series, with a glorious cast of characters including Daniel’s mother Ethel, sister Meryl – and a turkey called Jean Paul Belmondo…

Fasten those seatbelts; we’re going back in time… all the way to 1985 where we meet an eighteen year old Coco as she returns home from University to spend Christmas with her parents in London.
Coco is not relishing the thought of returning home, especially as it means being apart from her gorgeous new boyfriend Daniel Pinchard (who she is pretty sure her mother wouldn’t approve of…)
Coco has been in the door less than five minutes when her controlling mother insults her and attempts to set her up with the awful Kenneth Rosebury.
However, an unforeseeable set of circumstances involving turkey’s (including one live one) lead Coco to being forced to introduce Daniel to her parents sooner than she anticipated as she invites him round for Christmas lunch. Although it’s not just Daniel who’ll be coming round to celebrate the big day, but his sister Meryl and his mother Ethel (complete with out-of-date pickled walnuts) will be sharing sprouts with Coco and her parents too…

If you read my blog regularly you’ll know that I love the Coco Pinchard series and I am a massive fan of Robert Bryndza’s writing and the trend very much continues with A Very Coco Christmas because I absolutely loved it (with tinsel on top!)
It was great fun to see a younger Coco and Daniel as they started their relationship as teenagers and it was also fascinating to see how Coco was when she was eighteen (I was delighted to realise that she is exactly the same as she is later on in life!) Things are just as crazy for Coco back in the 80s as they are in the modern day.
I also loved meeting Ethel for the first time and once again she has the BEST one-liners ever. That woman can do no wrong in my eyes and only she could call a turkey Jean Paul Belmondo…
This may only be a novella but so much is packed into it, a lot happens within these 83 pages and it’s an extremely satisfying story. There’s so much drama and so much comedy to this story, I really don’t know how Robert makes it all happen, but he does, and he does it exceptionally well. There’s the perfect blend of family, relationships, hilarity and love, as is the case with all of the Coco books, only with this one there’s an added extra…CHRISTMAS! Could it be any more perfect!?
My only criticism with this novel was that it had to end. Seriously, I love Coco so much I could just read about her all day every day and it was fantastic getting to know her when she was younger and getting the low-down on how things started with Daniel.
If you’re a die-hard Coco fan or have yet to discover the joy of Robert Bryndza’s books then this will appeal to you either way. It’s great to go back in time with these characters and at the same time it’s also a brilliant introduction to them all. If you only buy one Christmas story this festive season then make it this one, it’s the best 99p you’ll spend!

My love of Christmas novels is completely fulfilled with A Very Coco Christmas as the story starts on 21^st December and finishes on the 25^th, meaning there’s tons and tons of Christmas content in this story – just the way I like it! With runaway turkeys, Delia Smith, carol singers, and snow aplenty, there’s no way you can read this without a) hooting with laugher and b) feeling truly festive.

Click the link below to win a signed copy of A Very Coco Christmas, a limited edition Coco Christmas mug filled with chocolate sprouts, and a £25/$25 Amazon gift voucher
a Rafflecopter giveaway

A huge thank you to Robert Bryndza for sending me a copy of A Very Coco Christmas and for inviting me to be a part of the blog tour. ♥

Robert Bryndza was born in the UK and lived in America and Canada before settling in Slovakia with his Slovak husband Ján. His debut novel The Not So Secret Emails of Coco Pinchard became an Amazon bestseller and two sequels have followed, Coco Pinchard’s Big Fat Tipsy Wedding and Coco Pinchard, The Consequences of Love and Sex. A Very Coco Christmas, is a delightful introductory novella to the Coco Pinchard series. When he’s not writing Rob is learning Slovak, trying to train two crazy dogs, or watching Grand Designs – all in the hope that he’ll be able to understand his mother-in-law, build his dream house, and get the dogs to listen.