A sweet tale of kindness. I asked for recommendations for Christmas–feelings books, and this is one that came up, and it does indeed do a good job of getting those feel–good vibes going.
The story is a little sickly sweet, but that's okay. I particularly liked the first 1/4 of the story that follows Louise, an unexpected adopted mother to Hope. This part is particularly tender and gentle.
The book definitely left me with the desire to follow the Christmas traditions that's created in the story, which as the book ends, it's followed by real life stories of individuals who did just that.
I have the kindle version that, unbeknownst to me, included some twenty-odd true stories at the end, making up around 20% of the kindle edition. I read a few of these, but they did follow the same pattern, and eventually skipped over a few feeling it was similar to reading an appendix of a book (and yes, this makes me a little bit of a terrible person!!!).
Overall: does the job I had hoped it would do: get me in the mood for Christmas by reminding me of the "gift of giving (love)".
4 Highlight(s)
I cannot give her much, but this year I give her the life her daddy wouldn't. And a little bit of hope.
"We're family now," Louise said aloud. "What should we call you?"
"That girl's nuttier than Dumbo's pantry."
Lauren stifled the urge to comfort; she knew after three decades the woman had either long since healed or buried her pain far beyond the reach of comfort.