Winter Fires at Mill Grange by Jenny Kane is a sweet, lovely small town story with lovely characters. It is the fourth book in her Mill Grange series, so if you haven’t read the other three books it’s a bit more difficult to keep up. There are a lot of characters at the beginning of the story, but it wasn’t too hard to sort them out after a while.
Harriet has finally landed a paying role as an actress, as she prepares for the outdoor production of Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale, she learns that their venue has been flooded and the show is in danger of closing down. She suggests to the production staff that they do the play at Mill Grange. The staff at the Mill Grange are happy to host the troupe of actors and use their grounds for the production. But, that’s a lot of work for the staff, and Thea, Tina, Sam, Shaun, Helen and Tom – along with retirees Bert and Mabel Hastings have a lot on their hands over the Christmas holidays.
I enjoyed this story and all the characters. It seemed like a lot of characters at the beginning of the book, but it wasn’t long before I had them all sorted out in my head. The descriptions of Mill Grange and the village of Upwich are vivid and I felt like I was there in the cold winter watching Gertrude the chicken pecking around the grounds of the Mill Grange.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves women’s fiction and who loves sweet stories set in lovely small village locations. I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.