The 13th Gift A True Story of a Christmas Miracle

The 13th Gift: A True Story of a Christmas Miracle by Joanne Huist Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I first picked up this book, a friend was currently reading it. I didn't realize until we talked that it was based on the author's true loss of her husband several months before Christmas. The Smith family was falling apart and becoming disconnected from grief, when an anonymous donor dropped the first gift of Christmas, a poinsettia, on their front stoop. At first the author is irritated with the gift, thinking it as an intrusion, but then the next day a second gift arrives and the mystery of the gift giver is questioned - Joanne and her children begin to look forward to each day and what it brings.

A book of anguish and grief that takes a 180 turn for hope...

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All I Have to Give

All I Have to Give: A Christmas Love Story by Melody Carlson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Although Carlson's book is predictable, it's nice to see the Gift of the Magi, rewritten and updated. It's centered around lovely Christmastide when we try to outdo ourselves with giving the perfect gift, especially to our spouse - and that's exactly what Anna wants for Michael, because she feels like this will be her last Christmas ever.



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Remembering Christmas

Remembering Christmas: A Novel by Dan Walsh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Such a wonderful little warm your heart type of book - great to read as Christmas draws near...

Rick Denton has been on his own since he left home many years before - now living, playing, and working in Charlotte, NC for a CPA firm - and he has no intention on heading home for the holidays until his mother calls saying his stepfather, Art, has collapsed and is not responding. Could Rick please come home to help run their small bookstore? Putting his own playboy life on hold, Rick drives down to Florida, where he meets an amazing cast of characters that frequent the bookstore, including a homeless man named J.D. who hangs out waiting on his daily coffee and Egg McMuffin. Can Rick's hardened heart be softened by the turn of events of a mystery unfolding?



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One Summer

One Summer by David Baldacci

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


David Baldacci does a 180 and writes the story of the Armstrong family - Jack, who is dying of a rare form of cancer and only wants to live through Christmas, his devoted wife Lizzie, who is caring for him at home, teenage daughter Mikki, who can't deal with Jack's illness, 12 year old son Cory, and Jack Jr. - still a toddler and unaware of his dad's impending death. As Jack's body continues to weaken, Christmas Eve arrives - but with more tragedy. Lizzie, on a last minute trip in her van to the pharmacy for Jack's meds, is hit and killed when she runs a red light - broadsided by a snowplow. In despair, Jack prepares to die and allows Bonnie, Lizzie's mom, to take his three children and farm them out to different family members. Alone in a hospice unit all Jack has left is his memories, but then the unthinkable happens - a miracle for Jack. He begins to slowly regain his strength. Although the doctors advise Jack that it's just temporary - no one recovers from the unnamed illness - Jack struggles to recover his life and begins by reclaiming his children and moving back to the beloved childhood home of Lizzie's on the ocean.


Labeled sappy by some readers, One Summer is still a good read - an emotional roller coaster and you will cheer for Jack, a veteran of Afghanistan an Iraq. Fans of Nicholas Sparks and Richard Paul Evans will enjoy this novel. Devoted, die hard fans of his Camel Club mystery thrillers may not be so thrilled....



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Henry's Sisters

Henry's Sisters by Cathy Lamb

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What does a mom do, left with 3 young daughters and a special-needs son, when her beloved husband walks away after waking up to his hands strangling her neck. (Vietnam flashbacks) No education, no training, and too proud to take a handout, she dances and turns tricks to unsuccessfully feed her children. Meet the dysfunctional Bommarito family - you will fall in love, laugh, and cry with these crazy, quirky, gritty, characters who try to forget their traumatic childhood.



Characters:

Sweet, lovable, Henry, you will want to claim as your own.

Fraternal twins, Isabelle - nymphomaniac and Cecelia - self-destructive.

Janie - obsessive/compulsive recluse, taps and counts to cope.

River - Mother Bommarito, unable to give and share love, except to her son, Henry.

Grandma - believes she is Amelia Earhart.



Heavy use of profanity and violence.



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The Wishing Trees

The Wishing Trees by John Shors

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A lovely, moving book about a father and daughter who are struggling at moving on after the death of the woman they both love. Years ago an Australian boy, Ian falls in love with an American girl, Kate, while working in Japan. Tramping around Asia, the couple decide to marry and move back to America, where they produce a daughter, Mattie, who has her mother's artistic skills. As Ian and Kate's 15th anniversary draws nearer, they plan another romp around Asia, but cancer interrupts their plans. However, 10 months after Kate's death, Ian opens a box, with a letter from Kate imploring him to continue with the trip to Asia in hopes that he and Mattie will learn to be happy and laugh again. Needed: plenty of tissues.



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Belong to Me

Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A wonderful, funny, emotional, amazing book of fiction - I'm not sure how to even begin the review. Can you tell that I really enjoyed this book? At 388 pages, it is not a small book or a quick read, but for me, it was so hard to put down and I found myself reading into the wee hours of the morning - and yes, I had to be up early that same day. Of course every life touches another and in ways sometimes we never see. Cornelia and Teo move from their beloved city to life in suburbia, where Cornelia hopes to find close friendship with her neighbors. It was that same kind of idyllic life that her and Teo had grown up with as children together. Her hopes are dashed as her neighbors live to judge others and Cornelia feels a horrible loneliness set in upon her. Her saving grace comes into play when she bumps into a vibrant woman named Lake in the grocery store, who introduces her to Dev, her gifted teenage son. Cornelia and Teo come to adore Dev, but as bewildering events unfold, can they continue to be true to themselves and each other?



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The Beach House

The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This would be a wonderful summer read - however I read it in the dead of winter! Maybe I needed to feel a hot summer breeze and pretend I was at the ocean after all the cold and snow we have had here in Western MD. Did you know that a loggerhead is called Caretta caretta in Latin? I've always been interested in those big old sea turtles and how they travel what seems like millions of miles to lay their eggs. This wonderful book of fiction about a lovely older woman nicknamed Lovie, who loves loggerheads and who is hiding the fact that she is dying from cancer from her two adult children, is mixed with factual tidbits about the Caretta caretta. Lovie wants her last summer in South Carolina to be one to remember.



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Promise Me

Promise Me by Richard Paul Evans

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I always look forward to a new novel by Richard Paul Evans. Small and compact, they are like wrapped packages of candy - ready to be unwrapped & devoured! Past, present, and future all collide in the form of a mysterious man recently widowed Beth Cardall meets on Christmas Day at the local 7-Eleven. The secret he carries and the promise he makes will change Beth and her daughter's life forever.



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