The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "We Met in December" by Rosie Curtis, Served with Hot Chocolate with Rum

Happy Friday and Happy Weekend! Halloween has passed, Starbucks has rolled out their holiday red cups, and although I am mostly a no-Christmas-until-after-Thanksgiving kind of person, I do make exceptions for a holiday-themed book or two. That makes me happy to be today's stop on the TLC Book Tour for We Met in December by Rosie Curtis. Accompanying my review is a recipe for Nigella's Alcoholic Hot Chocolate. 

Publisher's Blurb:
 
Following a year in the life of a twenty-something British woman who falls hard for her London flat mate, this clever, fun, and unforgettable romantic comedy is the perfect feel-good holiday read.
 
Two people. One house. A year that changes everything. 

Twenty-nine-year-old Jess is following her dream and moving to London. It’s December, and she’s taking a room in a crumbling, but grand, Notting Hill house-share with four virtual strangers. On her first night, Jess meets Alex, the guy sharing her floor, at a Christmas dinner hosted by her landlord. 

They don’t kiss, but as far as Jess is concerned the connection is clear. She starts planning how they will knock down the wall between them to spend more time together.

But when Jess returns from a two-week Christmas holiday, she finds Alex has started dating someone else—beautiful Emma, who lives on the floor above them. Now Jess faces a year of bumping into (hell, sharing a bathroom with) the man of her dreams…and the woman of his.

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (November 5, 2019)

My Review:

Although it starts and ends in December and the Christmas holidays, We Met in December is about a year in the life of Jess, a close to thirty-year-old woman who moves from a suburban coastal town to London. Jess applied for her dream job in publishing and her friend from university just happens to have inherited a crumbling old house in Notting Hill and is renting out very affordable rooms to Jess and three others. The location is perfect for Jess as she is a rom-com geek and loves being in the city of so many of her favorite movies. On the first night she reconnects with her friend and landlord Becky and meets two of her roommates, beautiful and polished Emma and Alex, who like Jess, is starting over and studying to be a nurse, while nursing his slightly bruised ego from his fiance dumping him because she wanted life with the lawyer he was rather than the nurse he wants to be. At a get acquainted party with all of the group besides the usually working chef Rob, sparks fly between Jess and Alex, even though Becky has a "no relationships between housemates" rule. When Jess returns from a holiday with friends, she is dismayed to learn the role has already been broken by Alex and Emma who have a "secret" roommates-with-benefits relationship going that Jess, with a room next to Alex becomes privy to. Jess resigns herself to friendship with Alex who takes her all about London on long walks where they form a bond.

I liked Alex although (and maybe it's due to my age) she felt much younger than her age to me. The story goes back and forth over the year from her perspective and Alex's. I also liked Alex although the amount of drunken shagging he did with Emma while realizing he was having feelings for Jess was a bit off-putting. This book reads like a rom-com and and also like a love letter to London and I enjoyed Jess and Alex's walks about the city, visiting the sights that I got to see a few times during work trips there in the mid-nineties. The story is charming and although you can predict what will happen, much like a good rom-com, I enjoyed the journey of getting to the happily-ever-after part. (That's not a spoiler because it's a rom-com--there MUST be a happy ending--it's the law.) ;-) We Met in December made me want to watch a few movie favorites like Notting Hill and Love Actually and would make a great addition to a stack of light holiday reads, perfect for curling up with a cuppa tea or a cup of of rich, spiked hot cocoa. 

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Author Notes: Rosie Curtis was born in the Highlands of Scotland, and now lives with her family in a 150 year old house by the sea in the north west of England. She loves travel, happy ever after stories, and daydreaming. Her favourite book character is a toss up between Anne Shirley and Jo March. Rosie also writes adult and teen fiction as Rachael Lucas.





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Food Inspiration:

There is a good amount of food (and even more alcohol) mentioned in the book with it being London and one of the housemates being a chef. The books starts with a Mexican-themed dinner of chicken fajitas, salsa, guacamole and chips and lots of tequila and margaritas. Other food included hot chestnuts by the bag, a "honking" tuna sandwich unwrapped on the bus, beer, a pomegranate cocktail, vodka and limes, avocado on toast, boxed chocolates, hot chocolate laced with rum, vin chaud, pizza (included my dreaded "Hawaiian" pizza with pineapple and Canadian bacon), champagne, health food of spiralised courgette and carrot hummus on raw grain bread and a radish and sprout salad, a cinnamon and raisin bagel, burgers, cinnamon buns, olives, paella, German sausages, flat whites, red wine and Pringles, crème brûlé, toast-and-Marmite, Coke, 20p noodles from Tesco, soup and sandwiches, orange juice, ham sandwiches cut in triangles, ice cream, a packed soup mix labeled "Cock Soup" that some of the roommates eat in desperation when finances are tight, toast and marmalade, lemonade, pasta carbonara with green salad, a ploughman's lunch with no pickled onion, celery juice, peppermint tea, posh French cheeses, spiced chicken kabobs, curry, Pimm's Cups, espresso, toasted sandwiches, appetizers, negronis, prawn curry, lemon barley water, pastries, vodka and orange, chilli-spiked vegetables and shredded beef, chili, panini, Prosecco, cashew nuts, cinnamon-scented lebkuchen, brownies, lamb jalfrezi with all the trimmings, and Sunday roasts.

For my book-inspired dish I wanted to go with hot chocolate with rum as Alex is planning a birthday walk and lunch with Jess and wants to end up back at their favorite cafe where the owner will make them hot chocolate with rum and he can give her the signed copy of her favorite book her bought and maybe work up the nerve to tell her how is is feeling. Of course the plans go awry but the idea is sweet and hot chocolate sounded really good even if our weather isn't quite ready for it.

I went to Nigella looking for a boozy hot chocolate recipe and she had one of course from Food Network.

Hot Chocolate with Rum
Slightly Adapted from Nigella Lawson via FoodNetwork.com
(Serves 2)

2 cups milk
3 1/2 oz best-quality dark chocolate, bittersweet or semisweet, as preferred
1 cinnamon stick
2 tsp honey
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp dark rum, or to taste

Put the milk into a saucepan and break the chocolate into pieces and add to the milk along with a cinnamon stick, honey, and sugar and heat gently until the chocolate is melted.  

Add the vanilla and mix with a small hand whisk and still whisking, add a spoonful of the rum first and taste to see if you want more. Add more sugar if you want this sweeter, too. Take out the cinnamon stick and pour into 2 cappuccino or caffe latte cups.

Notes/Results: This is a easy and rich and tasty hot chocolate with the extra nip of the (spiced) dark rum. I confess that I am more of a peppermint schnaps in cocoa person but this was a nice change and a nice Friday night "dessert" to put the cap on a long work week. I used some Ghirardelli semi-sweet chunks and part of a dark chocolate Linder bar for my base topped it with A LOT of whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Served with a couple of Lu biscuits and peppermints, it was sweet and delicious and my first hot chocolate of the season. I will happily make it again.

Linking up to I Heart Cooking Clubs where this week's theme is Made Simple--recipes you can fix simply and easily by any of our 19 featured chefs.

I'm also sharing this post with the Weekend Cooking event at Beth Fish Reads, a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. For more information, see the welcome post.

Note: A review copy of "We Met in December" was provided to me by the author and the publisher Harper Collins, via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for my review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own. 
 
You can see the other stops for this TLC Book Tour and what other bloggers thought of the book here.