But I Smile Anyway…

Another wonderful blog tour stop this time for Helen Rolfe and her gorgeous festive novel, So this is Christmas.

The Blurb

​Care assistant Sophie loves the holidays, and nothing makes her feel more festive than helping 82-year-old resident Bea keep in touch with her old friend Greta. In their Christmas letters, the women update each other on their lives – Bea’s in the quiet residential home in London, Greta’s in the heart of Vienna and the grand Wynter Hotel.

But everything changes when Bea passes away before Sophie’s had a chance to post this year’s letter. Devastated, Sophie struggles to imagine this Christmas without her dear friend. But then Sophie finds one last note from Bea – and this time, it’s not addressed to Greta. It’s to Sophie, telling her to go to Austria.

Which is how Sophie finds herself in Vienna at Christmas, with the snow falling, and an important delivery to make… But when Sophie reaches the Wynter Hotel, there are surprises in store, and before she returns to England, her life will have changed in ways she could never have imagined…

My Review

So This is Christmas by Helen Rolfe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh, what a beautiful story with friendship at the core!
The story starts many decades ago, with two friends, Greta and Bea. They both move from Vienna to England, and begin the habit of writing letters to one another regularly, including that Christmas ‘newsletter’ style update every year.
Fast forward fifty-odd years later, and they are still writing to one another. Bea from her care home in England and Greta from Vienna, where she moved back with her husband, Walter.
Both use the assistance of others to support their writing, as they are in their 80s and have failing eyesight, which makes technology difficult for them to comprehend.
Of these helpers, Bea has Sophie, a care home assistant who has become more of a daughter than a helper. Together, they curate letters, and Sophie sends them on, and in Vienna, Walter does the same for his wife, with a bit of assistance from Jennie, a woman like an adopted daughter, and their son Nick.
Unfortunate circumstances mean Sophie ends up taking a trip to Vienna to visit Greta on Bea’s behalf, and what she finds there is both heartwarming and heartbreaking.
The art of letter-writing is dying, and I loved the fact that these letters were at the heart of everything within this book. Greta and Bea’s friendship lasted a lifetime, and their bond stretched further to encompass many souls who were floundering, bringing them back to safer shores.
This is such a beautiful Christmas read.

About The Author

Helen Rolfe is the author of many bestselling contemporary women’s fiction titles, set in different locations from the Cotswolds to New York. She lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and children.

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