Deck the Halles
It’s next Christmas at the little French llama farm.
Do you love the holiday season or do you sometimes get overwhelmed with everything there is to do? Either way, you will have fun with Nick and Noelle and all their human and animal friends as they romp through a French Christmas. I am happy to welcome you to this blog tour, featuring all the details about this charming read and my review.
Joyeux Noel!
Last Christmas infamous Australian author Nick bought the farm, that was meant to be furnished and without llamas. The reverse proved to be the case. Noelle had been sent to pet sit the llamas until his arrival. After a decidedly frosty start, Nick and Noelle’s relationship warmed up rapidly and they’re now happily living together, with an ever growing assortment of animals.
They’re looking forward to a quiet, romantic Christmas together but at the last moment Noelle is called on to find a venue for the annual national llama show. The local agricultural halles are free so she books them, thinking that’s all she’ll have to do to help. She couldn’t be more wrong! On top of that, various relatives start turning up on her doorstep unexpectedly, as the result of assorted crises. The farmhouse is about to burst at the seams. Add in a few other events, such as playing the part of a pixie at a Christmas fête, organising Nick’s book launch and training a non-cooperative llama for the agility class in the show, and Noelle is pushed ever closer to the end of her tether. Can she hold it together and stay as calm as a llama? Or will she be the next member of her family to make a bolt for pastures new?
This festive, feel-good and fun novel is the sequel to ‘Fa-La-Llama-La: Christmas at the Little French Llama Farm’ but can be read as a standalone.
Purchase Links
universal one: getbook.at/DTH
amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07KRKSQ9Q/
amazon.com.au: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07KRKSQ9Q
amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KRKSQ9Q
Deck the Halles: Next Christmas at the Little French Llama Farm by Stephanie Dagg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Many readers are thrilled to read about llamas. Or expats living in rural France. Or Christmas. Readers- get very excited. Deck the Halles features all three! And the cherry on top of the pain au chocolat is that this book is the second in the “Little French Llama Farm series”. Plenty of delightful tales (and tails!) await you, whether you start with this book or the first!
Noelle is the first-person narrator of this fun farm frolic. In the first book in the series, she and her partner, a rich author, accidentally became the owners of a llama farm in the French countryside. Noelle’s love, suitably named Nick, describes her, “You’re a nutcase. A creative, Christmas-crazy nutcase.” Their first Christmas was rocky, so they are looking forward to an enchanted holiday this year.
As this December rolls along, Noelle will need all her creative Christmas vibes as it turns out that she is not the only nutcase in her family. Various family members turn up at all hours, and with all kinds of traumas. Mom and Dad are on the outs, sister has left husband because of a row with his parents. Cousins and friends stop by- all drawn by the enchanting llama farm. Even additional animals stop by. And the creme de la creme is that Noelle must put on the national llama competition. (Hence the clever title. Noelle must secure a venue at the local halles.)
This is a fun story with a different look at Christmas. The book gets off to a slow start with all the back story from the first book. But once Noelle hits her stride, readers will enjoy all the merry mayhem and Christmas chaos. And Noelle may even make it to a happily ever after Christmas Eve.
Thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources and the author for a review copy. Jena C. Henry
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Author Bio –
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, canaries, lovebirds and Chinese quail. Before we came to France all we had was a dog and two chickens, so it’s been a steep learning curve. I recount these experiences in y book Heads Above Water: Staying Afloat in France and the sequel to that, Total Immersion: Ten Years in France. I also blog regularly at www.bloginfrance.com.
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 am now self-publishing too. I have worked part-time as a freelance editor for thirty years after starting out as a desk editor for Hodder & Stoughton. Find me at www.editing.zone. The rest of the time I’m running carp fishing lakes with Chris and inevitably cleaning up some or other animal’s poop.
Social Media Links – @llamamum
www.facebook.com/StephanieDaggBooks/
About the Author
4 Responses to A New Book to Share with you! Deck the Halles by Stephanie Dagg