The Christmas Tree Farm by Melody Carlson (2024)

As a longtime reader of Melody Carlson’s Christmas novels and YA works like her Secrets series, I approached The Christmas Tree Farm with high hopes. While Carlson’s signature storytelling charm shines in moments, this 2024 release ultimately left me wanting more.

What Didn’t Click

Character Development: The sisters’ constant bickering felt more juvenile than sibling-rivalry authentic, making their 30-something ages hard to reconcile.

Plot Pacing: The story’s abrupt shifts between the tree farm’s challenges and the neighboring dirt bike park subplot created a disjointed rhythm.

Relatability: Though the noisy neighbor premise holds potential for cozy conflict, the execution leaned heavily on situational tension over heartfelt connection.

Silver Linings

Carlson’s knack for creating festive small-town atmospheres remains intact, and the Christmas tree farm setting itself brims with untapped hygge potential. Longtime fans of her quick-read holiday style may still find moments to enjoy.

Final Thoughts

While this novella didn’t resonate with me personally—I’ll be passing my copy to a local Christian bookstore for others to discover—it reinforces how even beloved authors occasionally miss the mark. Here’s hoping Carlson’s next Christmas tale recaptures the warmth of her earlier works!

Here's my page of Christmas Reads reviews.

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Christian Christmas Reads Haul!

 

It's that time of year again!

Well, technically I'm a little bit late, but better late than never when it comes to buying some new Christmas Reads, which I did and am waiting to arrive in the mail!

If you're looking for an amazing source of Christian (or clean) Christmas fiction then I highly recommend browsing through the Christmas Fiction section of Christianbook.com. I love that website so much for Christian fiction and even for stocking stuffer ideas, so keep it in mind for that too!

I tried reading Christmas Bells by Jennifer Chiaverini a few years ago and just couldn't finish it. But I'm a little bit different now as a person than I was a few years ago so I'm actually really looking forward to this book. And I love Longfellow's poem so I am excited that Longfellow is the primary theme of this book!

This is one I would consider to be more clean than Christian fiction just based on my memory.

I haven't read Lynn Austin books in many years but I like postwar and 1950s fiction, so I think I will enjoy The Wish Book Christmas. I also fell for the cover, not gonna lie. It's super cute. 

Waiting for Christmas, also by Lynn Austin, is another book where I just loved the cover, but I also enjoy Victorian fiction a lot so I thought I would give this one a try. Literature is full of people who married for love, not station, so I wanted to see Lynn Austin's take on the subject.

I haven't had good luck with Julie Klassen in the past, BUT sometimes Christmas fiction brings out the best in an author. So I'll give An Ivy Hill Christmas a try. Regency fiction is some of my favorite to read so I'm hoping that this novella is as charming as it appears.

I absolutely adore Melody Carlson's Christmas fiction! She's one author whose work I look forward to reading every year, but I don't own all her Christmas books and this one is a 2024 release so I am eagerly bouncing up and down waiting for it to arrive. I can't wait to read The Christmas Tree Farm!

Again, here's another author that can be hit or miss with me. I've very much enjoyed some of Roseanna M. White's fiction in the past and really disliked others, but I'm more than willing to give her 2024 Christmas release of Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor a try.

I totally missed last year's Melody Carlson Christmas novella so I had to leap at the chance to buy it, even buying it at full price, which I totally did. I appreciate that romance doesn't seem to be at the front and center of A Quilt for Christmas, but instead is about a widow befriending a child in need of a Christmas miracle for her mother.

While my ancestry is mostly Finnish and Swedish, I do have a small amount of Norwegian blood in me and I happen to love eating lefse, a delicious Norwegian alternative to a tortilla or a crepe that is made out of potatoes. So finding an author, Larry Woiwode, who wrote a story involving lefse, well, I knew I had to purchase The Invention of Lefse: A Christmas Story.

And there you have it! My 2024 Christmas Reads Haul from Christianbook.com! I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of my package so I can get reading!

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Book Review: Joy to the World: A Regency Christmas Collection (2020)

Joy to the World: A Regency Christmas Collection by Carolyn Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Go to my Christmas Fiction page to read more of my reviews!

Heaven and Nature Sing by Carolyn Miller

This novella is my least favorite of the collection. I've read about Regency house parties before and in ways that made them unique from each other. This one is merely the stereotypical house party. Throw into the mix two people suffering from the "he/she loves me, loves me not" syndrome, and I just completely lost interest. I can't stand that much miscommunication between romantic leads. It was almost like the stereotype of a stereotype. I would give this one 2 stars. They should have hired Camille Elliot to contribute instead.

Far as the Curse is Found by Amanda Barratt

Brilliant. This novella is brilliant, especially for fans of either The Phantom of the Opera, The Man in the Iron Mask or Beauty and the Beast. It's radiant from start to finish, the story of two inexorably broken souls who are yearning for wholeness. I found the faith elements in this one to be very genuine, especially when the hero, Dwight, surrenders all of his anguish and fear to the Lord. This one I rate 5 stars, hands down, and I intend to read it faithfully every year.

Wonders of His Love by Erica Vetsch

We have another winner! I haven't read many books about artists so it was interesting having the hero be an artist struggling to make his place in the world. Ms. Vetsch's imagery is strong. I could see the fabric, smell the pain, see the colors the way that Hamish did. Overbearing parents are a reality of any era, so I completely bought that Cilla would be overwhelmed by her deceased husband's mother. My one niggling complaint is that, in some ways, it felt more Edwardian than Regency, but since I also love the Edwardian era, it didn't really matter in the long run. This one is 4 stars.

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Book Review: A Christmas by the Sea by Melody Carlson (2018)

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. 

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Book Review: A Winter Dream by Richard Paul Evans (2012)

A Winter Dream
Richard Paul Evans
Simon & Schuster
2012
✯✯

Official Synopsis

From wonderful storyteller and author of the bestselling phenomenon The Christmas Box, a new holiday novel based on the story of Joseph and the coat of many colors.

Joe is forced out of the family business by his jealous siblings. Moving on to another company, he soon becomes chief advisor to the CEO. But when the economy turns, Joe’s siblings need his help to save the family business.
Based on the Old Testament story about Joseph and the coat of many colors and including a love story, A Winter Dream can be embraced for its message of forgiveness by believers and nonbelievers alike.

My Thoughts

I've already determined that I like Richard Paul Evans' writing style. He has a fluid and relaxed way of engaging the reader's interest that makes his books so easy to comprehend and digest, perfect for the holiday season.

That being said, his use of the Old Testament story of Joseph in a modern setting just didn't work for me. Other readers have complained that it feels rushed, and I agree with them. Combining the rushed feel with the absurdity of circumstances and it just didn't work. The characters are nice enough, Joe especially. He really is a nice guy, pretty much a guarantee in one of Evans' Christmas stories, at least from what I've noticed so far.

If Joseph's brothers wanted to throw him out of the family, why set him up with a halfway decent job doing what he does best, even if it is halfway around the country? What was up with the character of April being an escapee from a bigamist cult? Joe handled that part of the story surprisingly well considering its absurdity. And how about the ease with which Joe rose up through the ranks of the marketing firm? Nope, none of these elements worked for me. The story felt entirely too slipshod and erratic.

Plus, it's really not a Christmas story. The book, being all of 260 pages, took place over 3 years time. In other words, poor use of planning and timeline. There are a few Christmases within A Winter Dream, but nothing to actually make it a "Christmas story" despite Joe's dream about himself being a Christmas tree and other trees bowing to it. While the concept of dreams worked for Joseph, dreams from God I might add, they didn't work here simply because I never sensed Joe had any semblence of faith. Why in the world would he be blessed with prophetic dreams when he doesn't really have any faith?

So this one was a miss for me.

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Book Review: Finding Noel by Richard Paul Evans (2006)

Finding Noel
Richard Paul Evans
Simon and Schuster
2006
✯✯✯✯

Official Synopsis

"There are stories, Christmas stories that are stored away like boxes of garlands and frosted glass ornaments, to be brought out and cherished each year. I've come to believe that my story is a Christmas story. For it has forever changed the way I see Christmas."
 
The Christmas season is supposed to be full of joy, but not for Mark Smart. Life had dealt him one blow after another until one snowy November night, when he finds a beautiful young woman who will change his life forever. Macy Wood has little memory of her birth parents, and memories she'd rather forget of her adopted home. A Christmas ornament inscribed with the word "Noel" is the only clue to the little sister she only vaguely remembers, a clue that will send her and Mark on a journey to reclaim her past, and her family.

My Thoughts

As you can tell by now, I love Christmas books. They inspire and uplift me spiritually. And I really loved The Mistletoe Promise, another of Richard Paul Evans' works. But Finding Noel just didn't fully click with me. Oh, don't get me wrong, I liked the heroine fine. Macy is a survivor, in and out of foster care, a terrible adoption experience, and she's still a compassionate soul.

I really didn't care much for Mark until the very end and a good portion of the book is written in the 1st person from his perspective. He has some good insights, yes, but overall he seemed whiny and, well, young and foolish. Which he was, but my patience with that type of character minimizes the older I become. Honestly, since the title of the book is really about Macy's life, it should have focused more on her. If it had been solely from her perspective, I probably would have loved it.

After all, the book is called Finding Noel, but that really wasn't the entire focus of the story. And it should have been. Instead it sort of wanders here and there, touching a life, having an experience, falling in love, to the point where the character of Noel felt almost like an after-thought. It just didn't work.

However, the final few chapters of the book are very inspirational and uplifting, which is why I give it four stars. Mark does grow through encountering Macy, just as she grows, and he admits that the season when they looked for Noel taught him perspective, about himself, about others, about resentments he had once held, and about forgiveness he needed to extend. That was an important lesson he needed to learn, and it was a very satisfying moment in the book when he reconciles with his estranged father.

Even though I wasn't 100% sold on Finding Noel, I still recommend it to people who might have experience as a foster child, an adopted child, or perhaps you find yourself struggling to forgive someone who has wronged you in the past and you're holding onto resentment. My not loving this story simply means that it wasn't meant for me. Maybe it's meant for you.

The following quote is by Mark, the last paragraph of the book.

And perhaps, after all the songs and poems and stories of the season, Christmas is really no more than that - humanity's search for the familiar. Every year we bring out the same songs, partake of the same foods and traditions, and share the things that make us feel that there's someplace we belong. And in the end all any of us are looking for is home.

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Book Review: Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball by Donita K. Paul (2010)

Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball
Donita K. Paul
Waterbrook Multnomah
2010
✯✯✯✯

Official Synopsis

Can mysterious matchmaking booksellers bring two lonely hearts together in time for Christmas?

In a sleepy, snow-covered city, Cora Crowder is busy preparing for the holiday season. Searching for a perfect gift, a fortuitous trip to Warner, Werner, and Wizbotterdad’s (a most unusual bookshop) leads to an unexpected encounter with co-worker Simon Derrick. And the surprise discovery of a ticket for a truly one-of-a-kind Christmas Ball.

Every year, the matchmaking booksellers of the Sage Street bookshop host an enchanting, old-fashioned Christmas Ball for the romantic matches they’ve decided to bring together.

This year, will Simon and Cora discover a perfect chemistry in their opposite personalities and shared faith? Or will the matchmakers’ best laid plans end up ruining everything this holiday?

My Thoughts

Did you read the synopsis? Assuming that you did, let me give you fair warning that the "enchanting, old-fashioned Christmas Ball" is actually termed a "Wizard's Christmas Ball" in the book. Which doesn't bother me a bit. In fact with all the fantasy I enjoy reading, some that involve wizards, I thought it was a fun bit of genius. But not every reader feels the same way about magic and wizards, so just be aware this book has some of both. As for me the addition of the magical street that's only there sometimes along with the the special Christmas Ball with only the vaguest information on how to attend or where to find it really made Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball shine.

It's funny how a decidedly magical book also has a decidedly Christian flavor. The magical elements were so much fun! I loved the old booksellers and the costume sellers who were working so hard at bringing Cora and Simon together. The mysterious element of Sage Street where sometimes it's there and other times, POOF, it's gone. The Wizard's Ball and all of the elements that come together to get Simon and Cora to attend. Even the dress Cora purchased to wear that literally disintegrated off someone else who was not intended to wear it. It was all so magical! Like reading a mellower version of Harry Potter.

And then you have Christian faith. Every character in this book except for Cora's family is a Christian. Cora's family ostracized her for getting uppity when she became a Christian so now she's trying to find her way, make her own traditions, celebrate Christmas the way Christ would have her celebrate it. That's all well and good, but I know many unsaved people who know how to love their families and celebrate Christmas. Being a Christian does not necessarily make one nice, just as not being a Christian doesn't make one underhanded and mean. The typecasting in Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball did bother me, as did the excessive amount of preaching. I don't like too much preaching in my Christian novels anymore because you're literally preaching to the choir, and so this was too much.

Overall, I'm combining my rating, which would be a 3, with my mother's rating, which would be a 5. Mom read this book and absolutely loved it. She'd never read anything like it before, found it unique and utterly enchanting, and I think wants to own it. Really, it comes down to a matter of taste. I think Ms. Paul could have done slightly more with the magical element of the story and less with the Christian preaching, and my mom thought it perfect the way it was written. Two different opinions, neither of them wrong. What I will say is that you won't find a more unique Christmas book out there. It is enthralling and engaging, and if you enjoy fantasy and magic and don't mind being overdosed on Christian preaching, then you're pretty much guaranteed to love it!

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Book Review: Christmas at Harrington's by Melody Carlson (2010)

Christmas at Harrington's
Melody Carlson
Revell
2010
✯✯✯

Official Synopsis

Christmas is approaching, and Lena Markham finds herself penniless, friendless, and nearly hopeless. She is trying to restart her life after false accusations landed her in prison, but job opportunities are practically nonexistent. When a secondhand red coat unexpectedly lands her a job as Mrs. Santa at a department store, Lena finally thinks her luck is changing. But can she keep her past a secret? This tender story about fresh starts will charm readers as all of Melody Carlson's Christmas offerings do. Full of redemption and true holiday spirit, Christmas at Harrington's will be readers' newest Christmas tradition.

My Thoughts

I actually had high hopes for this novel simply because the cover was so pretty, so it was a bit of a letdown that I didn't love it. I think it felt toooooo predictable. Most of these stories are naturally predictable, you expect that, but Christmas at Harrington's was just too much. A wonderful gal with an abusive father who happened to be a pastor and then she marries another pastor who turns out to be a skeeze, she ends up in jail, released before Christmas, heads to this small town where a kindly person has lined up a job for her and she ends up playing Mrs. Santa Claus. It was all just entirely too unbelievable for me to get fully involved in the story.

One the plus side, a scene where I was sincerely about to role my eyes turned out all right in the end. When Lena reads as Mrs. Santa at storytime at the small library in town, she chooses the story of baby Jesus' birth. Not politically correct at all, but the end of the chapter made it seem there wouldn't be any repercussions. I worked in a library. I know when you share anything religious, there can be repercussions. The next chapter had her defending her storybook choice and being verbally attacked by some of the parents. Now that is realism in a library setting. That was the one moment where the story felt real.


Don't get me wrong. I liked Lena fine. This one isn't a romance, so that was nice, and I loved the three little girls in the story: Beth, Cassidy, and Jemima. The characters themselves were quite nice and loveable, but I just never fully bought the story. Oh well, maybe next time.

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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.

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Book Review: The Christmas Candle by Max Lucado (2006)

The Christmas Candle
Max Lucado
Thomas Nelson Publishers
2006
✯✯✯✯✯

Official Synopsis

Journey back to a simpler time, to a small English village where nothing out of the ordinary ever happens. Except at Christmastime.

When a mysterious angel suddenly appears in a lowly candlemaker's shop, the holy and the human collide in a way that only God could imagine.

Glowing bright with a timeless message, "The Christmas Candle" will warm your heart with a surprising reminder of God's bountiful love.

My Thoughts

Christmas miracles warm the heart in so many ways, and none better than The Christmas Candle by Max Lucado.

Every 25 years, the same angel comes to the elderly candlemaker's shop in the little village of Gladstone, touching one candle, which the candlemaker then gives away to someone in need, instructing that person to pray to God for a miracle after having lit the candle. The miracle always happens. Only now the new minister isn't necessarily a believer in the supernatural workings of God, more of a mind that God created the earth and then left it alone. The candlemaker and his wife battle against the new minister's cynicism and even against their own mistakes, praying that God can and will continue to use them for His glory, this, the final candle they will receive during their lifetime.

I'm a staunch believer in the supernatural, in the activities of angels and demons, and in God's daily working in our lives. There is no such thing as coincidence and this book proclaims that truth loudly and firmly. I've never read any of Max Lucado's work, not even storybooks when I was a child, so I wasn't sure what to expect. His writing style is minimalist, but that means you're not distracted by too much information. The story shines on its own and doesn't need a lot of adverbs or adjectives bogging it down.

If you're looking for a solid Christmas read with a lot of faith elements that don't necessarily preach, then don't look any farther than The Christmas Candle. It's a simple little book, only takes a few hours to read, if that. It warmed my heart and I pray that it will warm yours.

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Book Review: The Mistletoe Promise by Richard Paul Evans (2014)

The Mistletoe Promise
Richard Paul Evans
Simon and Schuster
2014
✯✯✯✯✯

Official Synopsis

Elise Dutton dreads the arrival of another holiday season. Three years earlier, her husband cheated on her with her best friend, resulting in a bitter divorce that left her alone, broken, and distrustful.

Then, one November day, a stranger approaches Elise in the mall food court. Though she recognizes the man from her building, Elise has never formally met him. Tired of spending the holidays alone, the man offers her a proposition. For the next eight weeks—until the evening of December 24—he suggests that they pretend to be a couple. He draws up a contract with four rules:

1. No deep, probing personal questions
2. No drama
3. No telling anyone the truth about the relationship
4. The contract is void on Christmas Day

The lonely Elise surprises herself by agreeing to the idea. As the charade progresses, the safety of her fake relationship begins to mend her badly broken heart. But just as she begins to find joy again, her long-held secret threatens to unravel the emerging relationship. But she might not be the only one with secrets.

My Thoughts

I barely read 4 sentences of the synopsis before I knew that I would love this book, providing of course that there wasn't a lot of sexual content (which there isn't, can I get a witness!) Okay, so yes, the sufficient and pleasing lack of sexual content makes me very happy, so happy that I figured I might as well mention it at the beginning of my thoughts rather than at the end.

Oh my, how I love The Mistletoe Promise! I know that a lot of stories have been written around this concept, movies where a guy hires a girlfriend to accompany him to a wedding or vice versa, and it always sinks into depravity. Not so with this novel. My knowledge of Richard Paul Evans began and ended with The Christmas Box movie that I both loved and hated because it was such an emotional roller-coaster ride.

In keeping with tradition, this novel is also a roller-coaster ride. Both Elise and Nicholas have committed serious mistakes in their lives, enough to keep them running from serious relationships. At least until they meet each other. The novel is entirely written from Elise's perspective, but you also get to know her through Nicholas' eyes, and he sees someone beautiful, charming, worth caring for and treating well, things she has never experienced from anyone before. 

Literally, this book is a fairy tale come true for a lot of women readers. Alright, yes, the idea of a contractual relationship with a start and end point is strange. But Nicholas takes such impeccable care of Elise. He's a lawyer (WEALTHY) so he sends her expensive gifts every day, takes her to dinner and to the theater on his dime, flies her to New York with him so she can see the sights at Christmastime, and he constantly reminds her that she is someone of value and of worth, not just to him, but to others, and she needs to start acting like it. He asks her for nothing in return, just her platonic company because he respects her, even when their attraction starts growing. WOW! What a guy!

As for Elise, poor thing, she's a bit traumatized, which just made me sympathize with her plight. Bad parents, bad marriage, bad mistakes, and she's left lonely and afraid to trust anyone with her heart. Yeah, I can see why she would think Nicholas was too good to be true, and then fall in love with him. I fell in love with at about the same point as Elise.

I literally read this book in just a few hours because I could not put it down. It captures the Christmas spirit, and also captures the sense of isolation a lot of people can and do feel around the holidays. I'm fortunate. I have my parents and my sister and some friends. I'm not alone, and so I love Christmas. But if you were alone, the holiday would be hard. Richard Paul Evans captured that reality very vividly.

The Mistletoe Promise is an inspiration and I am going to add it to my personal collection because I intend to read it every year.

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Book Review: Where Treetops Glisten by Tricia Goyer, Cara Putman, and Sarah Sundin (2014)

Where Treetops Glisten

Tricia Goyer, Cara Putnam, Sarah Sundin

Waterbrook Press

2014

✯✯✯✯

(Part of the Official Synopsis)

The crunch of newly fallen snow, the weight of wartime

Three siblings forging new paths and finding love in three stories, filled with the wonder of Christmas

Turn back the clock to a different time, listen to Bing Crosby sing of sleigh bells in the snow, as the realities of America’s involvement in the Second World War change the lives of the Turner family in Lafayette, Indiana.  

The Turner family believes in God’s providence during such a tumultuous time. Can they absorb the miracle of Christ’s birth and God’s plan for a future? 

 White Christmas by Cara Putnam

✯✯✯

Official Synopsis

In White Christmas by Cara Putman, Abigail Turner is holding down the Home Front as a college student and a part-time employee at a one-of-a-kind candy shop. Loss of a beau to the war has Abigail skittish about romantic entanglements—until a hard-working young man with a serious problem needs her help. 

My Thoughts

The first story in this collection is fairly endearing and follows the life of Abigail Turner, the first of the 3 Turner siblings whose stories are included in this collection. Abigail is a young woman who's had her heart broken by loss and is afraid to love, and then you meet a young man, Jackson Lucas, who's burdened with financial troubles and kind of considers himself unlovable. I appreciated Jackson's depth of compassion for wounded and hurting children, and applauded his efforts at helping Abigail reach out and love others again, regardless of the fears that weigh her down from her past.

The atmosphere of this novella felt reassuringly accurate to the 1940s, and it gave a refreshing glimpse into the limitations and fears of the era. However, I will say that it felt a little too . . . convenient, with a harried rush to the romance (which is always a hazard with novellas). And without much of a climax. Novellas have their limitations, but there still should have been a plot to engage me, and White Christmas is lacking that type of plot. It's simply sweet, and of course, Christmas plays a huge part in the love story.

I'll Be Home for Christmas by Sarah Sundin

✯✯✯✯✯

Official Synopsis

Abigail’s brother Pete is a fighter pilot hero returned from the European Theatre in Sarah Sundin’s I’ll Be Home for Christmas, trying to recapture the hope and peace his time at war has eroded. But when he encounters a precocious little girl in need of Pete’s friendship, can he convince her widowed mother that he’s no longer the bully she once knew?

My Thoughts

I've never read any of Sarah Sundin's work before, and honestly, her inclusion in this collection is what first piqued my interest. She didn't let me down.

The morose and emotionless character of Pete Turner snagged my attention right away, especially because I knew that wasn't his real self.  Grace Kessler works desperately hard just to keep food on the table since her husband died leaving her and her little girl, Linnie, in debt. Pete has to learn to let himself feel again, and Grace has to learn to trust again, especially since she and Pete had history from when they were children and he was a bully. Grace must overcome her fear of loving another pilot since her first husband died in the war, and Pete learns that he cannot plug the God-shaped hole in his heart with anyone other than God. 

Truly, this is an inspiring and uplifting story. Irrationality strikes people at the strangest times, leaving chaos and drama in its wake, and that, naturally, happens here. But all ends well, and Christmas is saved. Sarah Sundin incorporated all of the elements of a superior novella, developing an intriguing plot, captivating characters, and a dynamic climax that had me unwilling to put the book down.

Even though I wasn't in love with Cara Putnam's story, the collection is worth tracking down simply because of Sarah Sundin's exquisite novella.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Tricia Goyer

✯✯✯

Official Synopsis

In Tricia Goyer’s Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Meredith Turner, “Merry” to those who know her best, is using her skills as a combat nurse on the frontline in the Netherlands. Halfway around the world from home, Merry never expects to face her deepest betrayal head on, but that’s precisely what God has in mind to redeem her broken heart.

My Thoughts

The third, and youngest, Turner sibling is in the Netherlands, serving as a nurse on the frontlines as the US forces prepares to move into Germany. Tormented by memories of how her true love left her to return to Germany to serve as a Nazi (or so she supposes), Meredith struggles to remain upbeat and positive. Especially when one of the young men in the small village who she spots for only the briefest moment, reminds her of David. Being born on Christmas, being so far away from home, missing her brother Pete's wedding to Grace, all of these weigh heavily upon Meredith's heart, but none so heavy as still loving David and wishing desperately that she didn't.

While I wanted to like Tricia Goyer's story, I really never lost myself in it. Like Cara Putnam's story, there isn't much of a climax, and most of it felt very much the same, with the same emotions and doubts and fears presenting themselves over and over again, and one day looking much like another. The Christmas element actually felt very contrived, and I never could understand Meredith's determination to keep her nickname of Merry a secret. Plus, it was terribly preachy and cliched, and I never like that in my Christian fiction. This one just didn't click with me, but I'm sure it will with others.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the collection is merely average, but Sarah Sundin's story makes it definitely worth the read. And just because I didn't fall wholeheartedly in love with each story doesn't mean others won't, and so I encourage any fan of World War II fiction to give Where Treetops Glisten a try.

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Christmas Fiction Extravaganza!

Now that I have a book review blog, I figured why not!

There are literally no rules for this since it's not even a blogathon or a blog party, just an excuse for me to read and review Christmas fiction, a lot of which, I'm giving fair warning, will be Christian fiction. If you want to post my button on your page, I would be delighted, just so people can find my blog and hopefully some new Christmas books to read!

I've already begun reading and reviewing, but I won't begin publishing the reviews until the day after Thanksgiving. By that point, I'll likely have a review every day or every other day, which should give you plenty of time to find the books before Christmas.

If anyone wants to join in, I'd love to have you! Just, if you do write a Christmas book review, let me know in the comments of this post so I can compile a list here for others to easily find!

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