Thursday, December 6, 2007

Home For The Holidays--Day Six of Twenty Five Reviews of Christmas: An Irish Christmas by Melody Carlson

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Here we are at day six of our Home For The Holidays Festival--Twenty Five Reviews of Christmas!! This is a new release from one of my favorite authors--Melody Carlson!

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Something I love most about Christmas is all of the novellas that come out this time of year. Not long before Thanksgiving, I go digging through my boxes of stored books and pull them all out, line them up on my to be read again shelf, and at just the right moment, I begin to read these holiday tales.

A new one going on my Christmas shelf is "An Irish Christmas" by Melody Carlson, a holiday tale of a mother and son on a journey to the truth. While there isn't much Christmas in the tale, there is a lot of beauty. And it is a story I can relate to on a personal level.

Colleen Frederick has kept her secret for over twenty years. Her beloved husband, Hal, has passed away, and her son is nearly grown and ready to graduate from college. Feeling a bit lost and overwhelmed, she decides to sell the family shoe store and make some much needed changes in her life...will telling the truth be one of them?

Jamie Frederick has a secret of his own...one he meant to share before his father passed away, but now it's too late. While he struggles with his own feelings of remorse and regret, he lashes out at his mother for making decisions without consulting him.

Finally Colleen has had enough, and she plans a two week Christmas vacation to Ireland of all places. Once mother and son are in the Emerald Isle, maybe then she will finally feel the freedom to bear her heart and let him know what has been buried within her heart his entire life.

This is a wonderful story about love, truth, and what really matters when it comes to family. It is filled with lush description and gorgeous scenery, as well as a few surprises. As I said earlier, not much about Christmas, but a lot about family and relationships.

I give "An Irish Christmas" four out of five bookmarks, and will be keeping this in my collection of holiday novellas to read again and again during the Christmas season.

Happy Reading!

Deena

1 comment:

Ausjenny said...

Oh i really liked this book too. I too look for christmas books and i have most of them still on my selves. many others i dontate to the local library but not my christmas books.