Title: A Gift to Remember
Author: Melissa Hill
Genre: Fiction/ Romance
Source: Kindle
Rating: 3/5

Favourite Quote: “Quiet little corners to get lost in, making browsers helplessly lose their bearings, the way any great bookshop should.”

I’m reading more books than I have time to review. I’ve started this problem where I finish a book, then get so lost on the hunt for the next one to get stuck into that I forget to complete my review.. I then get so lost in the next book that I start getting stories mixed together. I seriously need to slow down!

A Gift to Remember is a lovely Christmas themed romance that I picked up in December, by picked up, I mean I brought it for myself as a Christmas present along with 6 others. It was a sweet easy read romance that was pleasant to get lost in for a few hours.

It’s a story about Darcy, a young single woman who works her dream job in a bookstore in Manhattan, prefers to cycle to work to take in the beauty of the city instead of a taxi and prefers the solitude of her cosy flat than living with her rich aunt Katherine, who is determined to set her up with one of her not so suitable wealthy connections. Darcy would personally prefer being suited up with one of her fictional characters.

When rushing into work one morning on her bike, she collides straight into a man walking his dog across the road, who ends up unconscious and rushed to hospital in a coma. Even though the cause of the collision was clearly the man’s fault, she feels incredibly guilty and ends up looking after his Husky, Bailey, and his mysteriously wrapped package.

When Aidan finally awakens, he can’t remember who he is or what happened to him. Darcy confesses that she is the reason why he is in the hospital and feeling sorry for him, decides to help him piece his life back together whilst he is stuck in the hospital.
Darcy becomes temporary dog sitter for Bailey who ends up dragging her to the Upper West Side of Manhattan to a three-storey brownstone townhouse. Aidan’s keys work in the front door thus begins the search into who he really is when Darcy is granted permission to search through the extravagant property for answers.

‘Every time Darcy thought she was getting closer to figuring out who Aidan Harris was, something else came along to blow her assumptions out of the water.’

Darcy beings to create her own character in Aidan based on her findings within the brownstone townhouse but only finds a collection of contradictions and a photo of a women hidden in the bedside drawer. She decides to use her aunt’s connections to put the pieces of the puzzle back together from the information in his wallet and the messages left on his machine.

I think Melissa Hill did a great job creating a very relatable character in Darcy’s, someone who would prefer to stay at home curled up with a book, dreaming of a Mr Darcy of their very own. A character that knows what she wants in life and her kindness and determination to help Aidan is admirable. I really enjoyed this seasonal read and will probably read it again in future.

‘But I knew better. I knew that you could spend a fortune filing shelves with rare books, travel all over the world and take pictures of exotic locations that most people could only ever dream about visiting, but at the end of the day, if the books remained unread and the journeys were mostly taken alone, then there was something missing.’

Goodreads Review: 
Darcy Archer works in a small bookstore in Manhattan. A daydream believer, she refuses to settle for anything less than being swept off her feet by the perfect man… literally.
One day, when cycling to work, Darcy accidentally crashes into a sharply dressed gentleman walking his dog. He is knocked out cold, rushed to hospital and the poor pup gets left behind. Wracked with guilt, Darcy takes the dog and makes plans to reunite him with his owner, Aidan. As she discovers the mysterious stranger’s world of books, travel, adventure and all the wonderful things she’s ever dreamed about, Darcy builds a picture of this man and wonders if he could be THE ONE…
But does fantasy match reality? What happens when Prince Charming wakes up? Will Aidan be the happy ever after she’s always imagined?