I have written about Debbie Macomber before on my blog; unfortunately, the "search" box on my blog seems to have disappeared, and I have unsuccessfully tried to get it back. Blogger keeps giving me server error messages this morning, so I can not link to my previous Debbie Macomber book reviews.
EDIT: By using the "search" option on my own "posts" page, I found my previous review of a book by the same author here.
"Falling for Christmas" contains two novels: "A Cedar Cove Christmas" and "Call Me Mrs. Miracle". Both are nice, cosy reads, just as you would expect from this author. I liked "Call Me Mrs. Miracle" more, maybe because "A Cedar Cove Christmas" was limited to only two days (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day) and one place (mainly one house in Cedar Cove), whereas the second story is set in New York and spans a slightly longer period.
Also, by starting "A Cedar Cove Christmas" with the main character looking back from a year's distance to the events of those two days spoils the fun a little, since you as the reader are told from the very first page who the main character, Mary Jo, is going to end up with.
Mary Jo is a young woman about to become a single mother. The father is an irresponsible man who has no interest whatsoever in settling down, and Mary Jo knows that when she sets out on Christmas Eve to find him and his family in Cedar Cove.
Her three brothers, worried about her, follow on the next day on what they think is going to be a rescue mission. But by the time they locate their little sister, she is in very good hands.
For me, it is a bit too loaden with Christmas clichées, but then again, I wasn't to expect anything else, and I did enjoy it in that it was very cosy and relaxing to read this tucked up in bed at night after a demanding day at the office.
The second story is also rather foreseeable, but not quite so much. Also, I can relate a bit more to its main character. Holly is a hard-working woman who has recently taken in her 8-year-old nephew to live with her while his father, her widowed brother, is in Afghanistan with the army. She has to adjust to living with a little boy, and troubles at work as well as a just finished relationship to a man.
All ends well, of course, and for Holly as well as for all the other characters in the book, this Christmas turns out to be "the best ever", and one none of those involved will forget.
I have never been to New York, but for me, the author has managed to convey the atmosphere of New York at Christmas time really well.
Read this if you want some light, unupsetting and cosy entertainment in theme with the upcoming season. Do not read this if you dislike happy endings and cheesy clichées.
Meike, I think that I would react to this book as you did. If my library has it, I will read it. I certainly love happy endings!
ReplyDeleteI replied to your comment on my blog this morning and am reposting it here because otherwise you might miss it as I don't often reply to comments. (I've been thinking I should because I love it when other bloggers do, as you do.)......."I was not clear enough. The word birthday is a little ambiguous. But the age – 121 years- shows that he was born in 1892. So he was the support of mother, wife, daughter during WWI. And WWI was the war the called “the war to end all wars.” .
Ooops, stupid me, I never made the calculation - of course I read that he would have been 121 years old, but somehow did not take that into account. Well, that's me and numbers for you!
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