Review: Enjoyable Christmas Novel
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 26, 2013
Maggie Delane’s husband was hit and killed by a drunk driver two years ago at Christmastime, so the holidays are bittersweet to her and her five-year-old son, Rickey. When animals keep escaping from a near-by church’s live nativity scene, it brings police office, John Dutch, to their rescue. He even comes back to help repair the damage. Maggie keeps telling herself she’s not ready to let go of Shane and have another man in her life, but she can’t help but admire many qualities in the handsome police officer.John Dutch has had a very rocky marriage, which ended in hurt and divorce, when his wife cheated on him. He has been living in self-pity until Maggie comes into his life. When he compares what he sees in her with his ex-wife, he realizes how immature and self-centered Kim was. What had he ever seen in her to start with?This is a clean read with a few minor errors. “Look” was used when “looks” was needed, “Jon” for “John,” “know” for “knows, and “money” for “monkey.” There were a few awkward sentences, like “I wasn’t the only one to strayed, was I?” I wondered how Maggie knew Gloria gave an impish grin over the telephone, and Maggie was downright fanatical about cleanliness. I also doubted if a pastor and church congregation would have repaired the sod in her yard on a Sunday afternoon, even if she and John would have, while professing to be Christians. I also got tired of reading about a “shoring breath,” “shoring nod,” or “shoring sigh.” Overall, however, I enjoyed the story. The dialogue was a little stilted at times, but not bad. It was interesting to see the story unfold, and I wanted to know what happened to the characters. I wish the ending had been a little stronger, but the epilogue did help some. In the end, I gave it 4.5 stars, which rounded up to a five, because I thought it was better than a four.