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Book Tour: Christmas in Castleby by J.M. Simpson
Christmas in Castleby was the 11th place BBNYA 2025 finalist!
About BBNYA
BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 (17 in 2025) finalists and one overall winner.
If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official.
About The Book
When Tess Dutton arrives in Castleby to help in her sister’s restaurant for the Christmas period her worst nightmare awaits. Tess finds her sister unconscious at the bottom of her stairs, and a restaurant fully booked until Christmas.
Ex-Navy chef Griffin Jones returns to his late mother’s house trying to put his past behind him. He can’t forgive himself for what he did, and someone from his past won’t let him forget either.
Griffin steps in to help Tess in the restaurant, but he is haunted by his past. As he grows closer to Tess and their attraction blossoms, Tess receives a visit from an ex-lover, who wants to rekindle their romance.
Tess struggles when she finds out about Griffin’s past.
But he’s being persecuted.
And then Tess’s life is threatened.
Someone is so full of hate and so intent on revenge, that the only solution is to kill.
Revenge, betrayal, suspense and romance continue in this Christmas special of the Castleby series
My Review
Christmas stories are always appealing, and with a tagline like “Coming home can be deadly”, how could I resist?
Griff and Tess are both looking to rebuild their lives after tragedy.
Tess has left behind her nursing career and a serious relationship and is visiting Castleby to help her sister run her restaurant over the busy weeks coming up to Christmas.
Ex-Naval chef, Griff has returned to Castleby to sort out his mother’s house after her death.
Could a relationship be the new start that both Griff and Tess desperately need?
However, the past refuses to stay buried. Griff and Tess have to overcome their tragic pasts in order to move forward together.
Griff is the male main character in this romance with elements of suspense. He has all the necessary requirements for a romantic lead. Good looking, funny, kind, selfless, good at cooking, protective, and a little tortured by a traumatic past.
He is a likable character and believable in the circumstances. There is a lot of plot exposition about his background and alternating scenes from his point of view, but the book doesn’t go into Griff’s character with any depth. He’s a thoughtful, nice guy with a great body. There isn’t much more to him than that.
Tess is the female main character. She’s beautiful, a former emergency nurse, has a talent for decoration and an innate ability to turn a flagging restaurant into a thriving business. She’s also a bit snippy, goes weak at the knees at the sight of an attractive man, and easily distracted.
Likewise, the reader is given a lot of details about Tess’s past, but I didn’t feel I knew her beyond a superficial level at the end of the book. She is caring and feisty and very attractive, and she values honesty after dealing with a lying ex-boyfriend.
The start of the book is full of info dumps dealing with getting Griff and Tess to Castleby, getting rid of Tess’s sister, and long passages about Tess’s search for a new chef. I found the paragraphs of exposition made the story choppy and difficult to get through. However, once the story gets started, the writing is quite smooth. The point of view alternates between Griff and Tess. There are some nice descriptions of the Christmas decorations around the seaside town.
The author has written a series of suspense stories set in Castleby, so it is no surprise that the setting really zings. Side characters such as Maggie, who owns the café on the beach, and Foxy, the perpetually hungry owner of the nearby climbing centre, appear in other books. Castleby is written about with affection, and it is easy to imagine the beautiful beach, little shops and restaurants that exist within the town. It is a believable setting and I’m sure most readers will have visited such locations at least once in their lives.
The book is slow paced and concentrates on the minutiae of life rather than the suspense aspect of the story. There is a lot about the day to day running of the restaurant, planning the menu, getting supplies, and booking in of customers. This gives a cosy feel to the story and allows the romance to take centre stage. The passages about Griff’s culinary inventions are engaging.
While the suspense elements are very serious when they do appear, they are dealt with quickly and with minimal drama.
The strengths of this book lie in the town of Castleby, the cast of charming characters that call it home, and the lovely canine characters of Frank, the pug, and German shepherd, Solo.
The main weakness of this book are the two accidents at the start that get rid of Tess’s sister and take Tess out of action for a while. They were contrived and repetitive. Tess’s sister, Lorraine, is an unbelievable character who abandons her business and her dog without good reason or any interest in what happens to either. Tess’s ability to take over the running of the restaurant so quickly and effortlessly was also unbelievable.
I was drawn to this book because it was described as a mystery set at Christmas. I love mystery and horror stories with a Christmas theme. While this book is set in the weeks coming up to Christmas and is full of descriptions of decorations, lights, festive foods and songs, I would classify it as a romance with mystery elements rather than a mystery with romantic elements.
It has all of the beats of a romance novel. The meet cute of the male main character and female main character. Their instant dislike/tension which soon leads to intense physical attraction. The misunderstanding that drives them apart, followed by the dramatic climax that makes them realise how much they mean to each other and they overcome their differences to ride happily into the sunset together.
I have nothing against romance fiction, but it is not something I enjoy reading. The mystery element of this book was much too minimal and had no intrigue to provide an intellectually or emotionally satisfying journey for this reader.
However, those looking for a romance set at Christmas in a charming location with some mild peril will most likely love this book.
An easy to read romance with likable characters and some Christmas set dressing that is sure to thrill fans of romance and the author’s Castleby series.
Congratulations to the author for coming 11th in BBNYA 2025. Thank you to The Write Reads and the author for providing me with a review copy.
About the Author
J.M. Simpson was born in Essex, but was raised primarily in the West Country, never far from a rugged coastline, a sandy beach, or harbour. With a degree and PhD, much of Jo’s working career has been spent undertaking research in a variety of subjects; most notably in construction and development where her expertise lies.
Staying in the Welsh town of Tenby some years ago and watching the local lifeboat launch one stormy winter night, gave Jo the beginnings of an idea for a book. She was fascinated with the idea of the crew risking everything they know and love to plunge into a stormy sea to rescue a stranger. She wondered who these people were and what their lives were like. And so, the Castleby series was born.
Jo’s Castleby series; Sea State, Sea Change, Sea Shaken, Sea Haven and Sea Rift are suspense thrillers set against the backdrop of the lifeboat crew in a coastal town. There is a Christmas Special due in November and there are further books in the series to come.
Jo lives in Kent, with her two (occasionally stroppy) teenage daughters, her extremely long-suffering husband and her rescue Border Collie Merlin. She also runs a successful research consultancy, but dreams of becoming a full-time writer. In early 2025, Jo will release the first in a new series based in the Scottish Highlands called The Ophelia Murders – First in The Whistlers Peak Series.
In what little spare time Jo has, she spends writing, walking the dogs, seeking out live music (except difficult jazz), being an armchair movie critic, dreaming of Scotland or the Pembrokeshire coast; drinking endless coffee’s in various local café’s (on the pretence of writing) or drinking copious amounts of wine in her most favourite pub with friends, (where no writing occurs whatsoever).
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