If you could.......

If you could live in a book, which book would you love to live within?

For me, it's hands down Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher written in 2000.  As one book reviewer wrote: A story of 5 very different people by happenstance ending up in northern Scotland during the Christmas season. I've read this book every year during Christmas and when I've finished I dream of being in northern Scotland during Christmas and these are my dearest and closest friends.

Elfrida Phipps, once of London's stage, moved to the English village of Dibton in hopes of making a new life for herself. Gradually she settled into the comfortable familiarity of village life — shopkeepers knowing her tastes, neighbors calling her by name — still she finds herself lonely. She's the auntie that gives you huge hugs, never judges and opens her heart fully to those she loves.

Oscar Blundell gave up his life as a musician in order to marry Gloria. They have a beautiful daughter, Francesca, and it is only because of their little girl that Oscar views his sacrificed career as worthwhile.

A quiet, kind and thoughtful man who leans on Elfrida to get through a tragic event.

Carrie returns from Australia at the end of an ill-fated affair with a married man to find her mother and sister sharing a home and squabbling endlessly. With Christmas approaching, Carrie agrees to look after her sister's awkward and quiet teenage daughter, Lucy, so that her mother might enjoy a romantic fling in America. Carrie is always there when Lucy needs her and she needs her now. Carrie is a beautiful woman, at loose ends herself and needs a huge hug from her great aunt, Elfrida.

Sam Howard is trying to pull his life back together after his wife has left him for another. He is without home and without roots, all he has is his job. Business takes him to northern Scotland, where he falls in love with the lush, craggy landscape and set his sights on a house.

A strange twist of faith lands Sam on Elfrida and Oscars door step on a cold and snowy night.

It is the strange rippling effects of a tragedy that will bring these five characters together in a large, neglected estate house near the Scottish fishing town of Creagan.  It is in this house, on the shortest day of the year, that the lives of five people will come together and be forever changed. Winter Solstice is a novel of love, loyalty and rebirth.