Between The Lines

Author: Jan Ruth

Format: Kindle Edition

Published: October 2014 by Celtic Connections

Category: Contemporary

An emotive trio of stories with festive themes from the Welsh Mountains of Snowdonia.

A collection of three ‘long short stories’ from Jan Ruth are the perfect seasonal read. 

Rudolph the Brown Nosed Reindeer

Rick’s Christmas gets off to a dismal start. His live in girlfriend leaves for a job in Florida and Rick has to make the trip to a remote cottage in Wales for a corporate Christmas event. Rick meets his personal assistant in the flesh for the first time. Will Pauline be the answer to his lonely festive season?

How would he survive this? Two nights trapped with work colleagues he mostly despised or did his utmost to avoid……a depressing blend of training and team building; they’d even managed to slip in the yearly personal development interview on the afternoon they arrived.

Jim’s Christmas Carol

Jim wants to call a halt to his extra marital affair but the lady in question is having none of it. The story is told from multiple perspectives and the Christmas gathering at Jim’s house is not at all what he expected or wanted which undoubtedly gives him a Christmas to remember for all the wrong reasons. An original and humorous tale told with satire and a dash of the paranormal.

“What’s happening then, on Christmas Day,” she said. “Will I get to see you?”

“Oh, you know, the usual. The High Priestess will knock herself out making a Christmas to remember. I’ll be sucked in, hanging sparkly balls and laying the fire, decanting the port.”

Home For Christmas

Pip is home for the holidays after another failed romance and what could be worse than being home alone. Her parents are in Spain for the winter but the villagers are curiosity personified. Lies fall from her lips almost of their own accord and take on a life of their own. A fun and entertaining romance.

“Hello, Daffyd. Er, yes, house sitting.”

“Boyfriend on his way?”

“He’s had to attend a very important business meeting conference. Overseas. Urgently, at the last minute,” she added, hoping Father Christmas wasn’t listening.

Three delightfully entertaining and completely different takes on Christmas, with an underlying flavour of romance, and definitely not your average festive stories. For all they’re effectively short stories, there is a really good storyline in each one and the writing is so concisely descriptive it’s easy to visualise the scenarios. I love how the stories play out and the fact they’re set against the wonderful backdrop of Snowdonia.