Book Review: The Christmas Lamp by Lori Copeland (2009)

The Christmas Lamp
Lori Copeland
Zondervan
2009
✯✯✯

Official Synopsis

Christmas trees, twinkling lights, skating in the park, and holiday displays are the hallmark elements for celebrating Jesus' birth for the sentimental residents of Nativity, Missouri. Will fiscal responsibility replace Christmas their traditions when times are tough?Though their priorities and methods clash, Roni Elliot and Jake Brisco want the same thing---the town to prosper. As the two get to know each other better, each begins to gain a new perspective on what the real wealth of Nativity---and the season---might be.

My Thoughts

This plot had a lot of potential, but it sort of fizzled out about halfway through. The actual Christmas lamp felt a bit like an after-thought, and to be honest, I'm not sure which lamp was actually the Christmas lamp because the story involves 3 lamps. It is supposedly a romance, but I'm at a loss as to how the relationship between Roni and Jake moved from purely platonic to romantic because the sparks just weren't there. I do like some chemistry with my romances, and theirs was sadly lacking.

The plot apart from Roni and Jake's story made slightly more sense. A small town that's reluctant to change its traditions finds that it has to in order to survive. Who puts a Christmas tree in the middle of an intersection? That's a tradition? Um, no, that's crazy, and begging for a lawsuit. So the town realizes that it's not so much the way the they celebrate Christmas that matters, just that they do celebrate it. The town adapts, and in so doing, they save themselves. Tradition is all well and good, but not when it clings to the archaic and outmoded ways that will actually drag you down rather than lift you up.

To be honest, The Christmas Lamp was bland for me. It has some good Christmas messages, but it also flounders a bit with the plot and some loose threads are tied up way too soon, and sometimes even off-scene which I never like. The most I can really say is that it was an easy read and did have quite a bit of Christmas spirit, just not the pizzazz or sparkle of what I was expecting. I won't be reading it again.