Monday 5 January 2015

Read in 2015 - 1: Let's Do Christmas

Another Holiday Read - started at Christmas, and the first book I've finished in 2015. "Let's Do Christmas" by Cynthia Lee Cartier was, of course, a free ebook from Amazon's Kindle store when I was looking for some seasonal reading.
It was much better written than some of my free finds; you can tell the author is an experienced writer and probably has a good agent and editor assisting her.


The book is relatively short and therefore not losing itself in too much detail. Characters are introduced with what in painting would equal to a few clear brush strokes - which is enough to get a good image of the person described in a reader's head, when it is well done, as it is here.


An elderly couple, who could not be more different from each other if they came from different planets, are hosting Christmas for their children and grandchildren, seeing the whole family reunited for the first time in 10 years. Most of them are not enthuasiastic about the idea of spending a few days back home, and at first, everybody tries hard to just grin and bear it and get over with it quickly. One of the sons even sets his watch to count down the hours until he will be "free" again.
But then, they are snowed in and can not leave as planned.
It's a classic scenario - a bunch of people who normally would not give each other the time of day, forced by circumstances to get along with each other.

As expected, this enforced additional time finally causes someone to erupt - all the stuff they always felt about each other but never dared to say comes up, and from that moment on, things could go either way: a family completely broken up, with no chance of ever healing the rift, or a family finally coming to terms with their differences, and making this in fact the best Christmas they've ever had.

I'll leave it to you to guess which way the story goes :-)
The author's website is here, if you want to learn more.

4 comments:

  1. Sounds interesting, quite a nice thing for a read on a train or something like that.

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    1. Exactly, it's nice, easy reading, just right for travelling.

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  2. I've never heard of this book (or the author) but I will check it out. Maybe I can find it in the library where I work.

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    1. Until I'd found my free copy when I was browsing the Kindle store for Christmas reads, I'd not heard from the author, either.
      I believe this is your first comment here; welcome to My Mental Library, Kathy!

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