Zac and Bo are living the Instagram Dream. Followed everywhere by their photographer, Lenny and their millions of fans they have a very public life.
They travel to Norway courtesy of a sportswear company and stay at a shelf farm owned by Signy and her mountain guide son, Anders. Signy has lived all her life on the farm and mountains but what is Anders secret?
At the end of their stay will they still be the same people with the same outlook on life.? and is anyone really who the seem to be?

I have read all of Karens books and I found this one hard going. I can't fault her descriptions of Norway and the beauty of nature, but I found the characters difficult to get excited about.

It seems very popular to do books with 2 time zones and in this book for some reason has not worked.

Set in Norway in December, amongst the snow and ice, I felt I was right there watching the story unfold. By the time I had finished my heart was racing and I had shed a tear or two. I loved the unexpected in this story, the little things you think you have guessed which turn out not to be quite right. There are twists and turns which kept me glued to the pages and made it such a brilliant read.

It did take me a little while to warm up to Zac, Bo and Lenny. They are free-spirited world travel bloggers, living the dream life and I found them hard to like at first. However, as the story unfolded and their characters and backstories became apparent I became totally engrossed in their tale. As well as Signy's story, which runs throughout the book. The characters were well developed and definitely believable.

This is yet another really well written, riveting read from Karen Swan. I loved reading it and found it so hard to actually put down. I would recommend reading this curled up in front of a fire on a winter's evening, though anytime is a good time to read such a well-written story.

I have liked books written by Karen Swan previously so I was excited to have the opportunity to read this book courtesy of Netgalley and Pan Macmillan in exchange for an honest review.

The book is set in the picturesque fjords of Norway, and incredibly, I was travelling in Norway when I was reading the book! It is a dual timeline book, following the present day story of Bo Loxley (and her partner Zac) who are 'insta-famous', and travel the world looking for adventures for their Instagram followers to see, together with their photographer Lenny, and a story set in 1936 in another part of Norway, following Signy, a teenage daughter of a farmer, working on a 'seter', the summer pastures high up in the mountains with her sister and the other girls from their village which is down by the fjord.

Signy is now a 96 year old grandmother who lives up in the mountains and rents out her shelf farm to Bo, Zac and Lenny for a month over Christmas. Almost immediately, Bo, who feels that something is wrong in her life, finds herself drawn to their serious mountain guide, and grandson of Signy, Anders, who listens to her in a way that Zac is unable to do.

I found the parallels between the two timelines fascinating, and although the secrets from the past and the present were not revealed until late in the book, it kept me wanting to know more. It was interesting to see the conflict in Bo, who has lived a life of great adventure for a number of years, where increasingly her private life was public for all to see on Instagram. Her craving for normality, which she finds in the stunning Norwegian setting, contrasts with the shallowness of her life in the public domain, where everything must look perfect in order to gain followers.

The setting of the book is just glorious, a frozen winter wilderness complete with the northern lights, and if you haven't been to Norway, it will definitely make you want to visit. I loved reading it whilst travelling around the fjords further south in Norway than the setting of the book, but it honestly made me want to stay in my hotel room and read more instead of going out! I found myself thinking about the book one of the days whilst standing at the side of a fjord looking up at the mountain to the side of me! Although set in December and into the Christmas period, this is far more than just a Christmas book, it is crammed full of intrigue, secrets, heartbreak, love, and finding the strength to take a step into the future without being held back by the past.

I didn’t get on so well with The Christmas Lights. I liked the cover and the blurb appealed to me so I thought I’d give it a try. The biggest issue is the main characters, Bo and Zac. They were arrogant, spoiled and completely unlikable. I appreciate you get diverse characters in fiction and I’m not going to like everybody. However, if an author wants me to invest in characters and root for them, they need to give them at least one redeeming quality. The book is festive and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. The book has some good moments and is much darker, especially towards the end, than the pretty cover lets on. However, I struggled to get into the story because I disliked the characters so much.

I enjoyed this book. I really liked the setting and the Christmassy feel in the book. It was very atmospheric. The story was good but I thought some of the characters were shallow. I cannot get my head around the concept of wanting to live your life pubically using social media and relying on likes.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I love Karen Swan's books so was delighted to get the chance to read her latest one. Karen's book always have fabulous locations and this was no different, they always make me want to travel! The story focused on the instragram perfect lifestyles that many people try to live and are influenced by in the 21st century and the impact this can have on people's lives. That picture perfect image is not so perfect when you scratch below the surface. Definitely recommend this book. Thank you Karen for writing such a fab story and for letting me review it.

Set in the sucicide Fjords of Norway. It's December 2018 an Bo Loxley and her partner Zac are living the life of the Wanderlust, traveling the globe and sharing their adventures with their millions of fans. They are a travel Instagram brand who have over 9 million followers.. They travel with their cameraman and they are known as the wanderlusters. They spend Christmas in a remote farm owned by an enigmatic mountain guide Anders and his grandmother Signy. We are also told of Signy when she was 14 years old and was sent with her sister and their village friends to work in the summer as milkmaids.

I did not like the characters Bo and Zac. You do get a real feel for the location with some of their customs in the run up to Christmas. Signy has secrets that go back 80 years. The story takes us back to the 1930's and the present day.. Will Bo and Zac's relationship survive? As Bo's life begins to spiral she is forced to question who is her friend and who is her foe.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Pan MacMillan and the author Karen Swan for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This has much more to it than the average "Christmas at......." chick lit. It's a proper story, with a back story set about 80 years earlier, and keeps moving from present to past.
However I really did not like Bo and Zac and their roadie/manager.
It seemed the only thing that mattered was the cynical manipulation of their fans to make more money. As such, I didn't mind too much what happened to them.
A pity as I did like the plot.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC

I loved this so much. I’m a massive Karen Swan fan for her great stories, with characters that are multi faceted - sometimes a tad unusual in this genre. The Christmas Lights didn’t disappoint, looking at the ‘other side’ of being ‘insta-famous’ and the highs and lows that accompany it, as well as Bo and Zac’s relationship. I desperately want to visit Norway now too - the perfect backdrop to their December adventure.

This is the 1st book I have read by Karen Swan, and this is a rather dark festive read set in the beautiful wintry location of Norway, with its stunning icy fjords, frozen waterfalls and brooding dangerous mountains. It is an ideal, remote and off the beaten track place for social media stars, beautiful Amy 'Bo' Loxley and Kiwi Zac Austen with their 9+ million followers. They are the Wanderlusters, who make a profitable living by updating their blog and Instagram accounts on a daily basis, with photographs of themselves constantly throughout the day, of their personal lives and adventures in exotic locations. They rely on sponsorship to live the dream life, they are ostensibly the perfect couple, a threesome with Lenny, their organiser, planner and photographer. After a trip to Samoa in the South Pacific, they have chosen to spend Christmas on a remote shelf farm with breathtaking views that stun people into silence.

Bo is having niggles about her and Zac's lifestyle, specifically about the lack of privacy in their personal lives, but she is struggling to be heard by Zac and Lenny who are looking to increase their following. Bo finds herself getting closer to 96 year old Signy, the owner of the shelf farm, a mischievous woman who was part of a group of women and girls working away from their families as milkmaids in the summer pastures in 1936, looking after the herds so that their farms will survive the winter months. With a narrative that goes back and forth in time, there are frighteningly common threads of threat and danger in the past and the present. As Bo's life begin to spiral out of control, she is left to confide in Anders, Signy's taciturn grandson. Not knowing who she can trust, Bo is beginning to think the unthinkable, is it possible the life she has been living is no longer a perfect fit for her?

Karen Swan writes a festive read of intrigue, personal relationships, in a modern contemporary setting of the problems of living through social media and the issues that this raises. The characters of Bo and Zac come across as shallow and unlikeable, driven by the number of followers and likes they get and the agenda of their corporate sponsors. That this is no way to live an authentic life slowly dawns on Bo, and she begins to acquire the depths in character that make her a more interesting person. Swan does an excellent job in capturing the lives and thinking behind the phenomenon of reality stars and the inherent threats of social media, a world that is not as benign as it might appear. If you are looking for more demanding festive reading fare, then this might just be for you. Many thanks to Pan Macmillan for an ARC.

The Christmas Lights by Karen Swan is the story of Bo and Zac who travel the world funded by advertisers for their Instagram blog.
They are pampered, spoilt and unlikeable. The are accompanied by their photographer wherever they go and he does not like them doing anything without him.
I was invited to read this book by the publishers but unfortunately I just couldn't get into the story.
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

What can you say about such a marvellous book, written by one of my favourite authors that hasn't already been said.

Am I allowed to just say Wow! ... and leave it like that - as I think wow is the best was to describe the setting of this book, the stories contained within the pages, and just my overall feeling towards it all.

I've read a couple of other Christmas books this year that have had a reference to the The Northern Lights in the title, and set somewhere in Scandinavia, so i was curious to see what Karen Swans' take on the setting would be.

And if you are in the same position as me with Christmas reads then don't worry this was completely different, had a very different feel to it, and that is all due to the main characters and the setting.

For Bo and Zac are a travel Instagram brand, and have over 9 million followers, they travel with their cameraman and are what appear to be a close threesome. To the outside world they appear to have a perfect life and they are inspirational.

They are known as The Wanderlusters and they go to places off the beaten track and try to spend at least a month if not longer in their new destination, living like a local, not in hotels, and trying to experience authentic activities.

For this trip to Norway they have decided to spend Christmas in a shelf farm, in the Norwegian Fjords, an area that is incredibly hard to navigate to and around, even in the summer when its the season, and close to impossible in winter.

They are renting their accommodation from Signy, and interspersed with the 2018 chapters, we have those set in 1936, in Signy's childhood, highlighting key events from one summer when she was fourteen. At times I did wonder other then background colour what the point of the chapters were, but as the book progresses, well there are some similar themes being explored.

As someone who is keen to do a more mainstream Norwegian Fjord cruise at some point in the future, I was very curious as to the setting of this book, and I am now completely convinced the best way for me in real life to view the fjords is by boat. All this hiking and action man stuff isn't for me but its riveting to read about in this book.

There is plenty of action scenes, and you really get a great feeling for the location, a spattering of the language and food, and various customs in Norway in the run up to Christmas.

And that is before you take into account what appear to be cracks in the real version of Bo and Zac - and their stay in Norway is eye opening in so many ways that I will leave you to ponder and find out for yourself.

This is a perfect winter's day read, that will have you utterly absorbed and not really caring how cold it is outside. It is an enthralling story that had me completely hooked. Easily one of Karen Swans best books to date, if you are even halfway tempted, go and read this, you won't regret it!

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

The description of the book enticed me as Norway is a country that is in my list to visit. There are two threads to the story. The past about a family who live in the mountains. The second thread is focused on Bo & Zac who are two people who have very high profiles on Instagram therefore join together to travel around the world on extreme & native adventures. All of which is funded by gifts & sponsorship through instagram. This I found very interesting and reminded me that how one presents themselves online is only a version they want to project of themselves.

For me the story was only ok, I was keen to read about Bo & Zac so found myself reading through the past story as quickly as I could. I loved the sweet love story that developed for Bo in the story and the conclusion on her trouble was interesting.

Thank you to NetGallay & the publisher for the ARC copy in exchange for a honest review.

I love Karen Swan and her books set at Christmas! This was another cracker. Really enjoyable on these dark nights.

Did I love this novel or did I love this novel? To spend time in the stunning Norwegian fjords in a story which marvels at and respects the landscape was a treat to behold. The dual timeline takes us back to 1936 when a woman named Signey is working as a milkmaid. Many years later, she has a grandson Anders and they are living in the Norwegian fjords when two travellers come by. Their stories mix and the landscape proves to be both stunning and deadly.

The fact that Bo and Zac are social media stars and that each move is perfectly crafted is very apt for our times. It made me scream at them a bit though when they were at some of the most scenic points in the world - put down your camera and LOOK! - I wanted to say. The thought and time it took them to take a shot, add a filter...sad but true.

When the story got to the heart of their stay in Geiranger and their time with Anders, the story really stepped up and there was an icy suspense right unti the end. These mountains are remote, deadly and you meet and depend on strangers.

I don’t want to give anything away about plot of course but for the sheer exhilarating visit to the Norwegian fjords and story which captures their magic and awe so much, I am offering my Scandi language and travel services to Karen Swan on her next research visit. I read at the end that she bought a coffee table book in Norwegian as she loved the pictures. Now there’s an author who takes research to a whole new level!

Bo and her boyfriend Zac travel the world posting their adventures on social media; they have thousands of followers and with the help of photographer Lenny, they live their lives in the spotlight. The next stop on their itinerary is to spend Christmas at a remote farm by the Norwegian fjords, where they meet brooding guide Anders and his eccentric grandmother Signy.

As they continue to share their lives, someone who has followed Bo in the past appears back on the scene sending her into a meltdown. Feeling she can’t confide in Zac, she turns to Anders for support. As feelings spiral out of control and Bo discovers what she is dealing with, she has to decide if her only option is to run.

Another excellent book from Karen Swan, a story linking the past and present, with a good cast of characters and a surprising twist towards the end.

Karen Swan is my GO-TO author for Christmas books. Every year, I make sure I read her new novel. Christmas At Claridges is my favourite, and I quite enjoyed last year's Christmas Secret, too.
This one didn't let me down either. It was a beautiful story. I liked the setting in Norway. It was very atmospheric, which I love in Christmas books.
I definitely recommend Karen Swan's books, and this one for your holiday reading :)
Thanks a lot to NetGalley and the publisher for granting access in exchange for an honest review.

I've read several of Karen Swanan's Christmas novels & enjoyed them all. This story has an unusual but very beautiful setting on a Norwegian fjord & I found myself looking online for photos of the waterfalls mentioned. I would definitely recommend this book.