A Christmas by the Sea
Author: Melody Carlson
Genre: Christian Fiction
Length: 176 pages
Year: 2018
My Rating: ★★★★
Goodreads - Amazon (Kindle Unlimited)
When widow Wendy Harper inherits a cottage by the sea from her grandfather, a cottage she had visited and loved many times when she was a child, the boon is an unanticipated godsend. Wendy and her twelve-year-old son Jackson travel to Seaside, Maine the week of Thanksgiving, intending to do as many minor upgrades as possible before Christmas. Wendy's intention is to put the cottage on the market to help assuage their financial burden, but Jackson is just as determined to stay in Seaside, Maine with his mother and make a new life for themselves. Fortunately for Jackson, he gets local wood handicraft artisan and business owner Caleb Colton on his side, a man who finds himself falling hard and fast for Wendy. As Jackson constantly reminds his mom, the important thing is trusting that God will provide for them, a truth that she's found herself wandering from in the years since her husband's losing bout with cancer.
Sometimes you just want to sit back and read a Christmas book, and when that mood strikes, Melody Carlson is the author who fills the bill in Christian fiction. A Christmas by the Sea is a simple and easy read, filled with the warmth of family and new friends and the possibility of making new memories. I lived on the Oregon coast for 6 years growing up and I loved much of it, although we didn't suffer from the same bouts of cold and snow as they do in Maine.
Having Wendy and Jackson comb the beach for shells and sand dollars made me smile, and I loved their determination and pluck to paint the cottage and freshen it up. One thing I would have changed is that the book ends before Christmas even gets started. So that was disappointing since it is called A Christmas by the Sea and we don't get to experience that. But the reader does experience all of the lead-up to Christmas so that was nice. I'm also not a huge fan of convenience. But in Christian fiction, usually convenience is God's way of blessing his children.
So while I don't actually believe that someone could find 100 sand dollars on the beach in two days' time, or that you just happen to meet a man who's willing to try selling your shell artwork in his shop in addition to falling head-over-heels in love with you, it's still sort of sweet. And very in keeping with the warm fuzzies most of us want to feel when reading Christmas stories, particularly from a faith-based author.
On the whole, I enjoyed A Christmas by the Sea very, very much. I read it in pretty much a day, after all, so that's a good indicator that I find a book to be mesmerizing. ♥
Nice review. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you! :)
Delete