My rating: 5 stars / It was amazing
Three siblings forging new paths and finding love in three stories, filled with the wonder of Christmas.
Turn back the clock to a different time, listen to Bing Crosby sing of sleigh bells in the snow, as the realities of America’s involvement in the Second World War change the lives of the Turner family in Lafayette, Indiana.
In White Christmas by Cara Putman, Abigail Turner is holding down the Home Front as a college student and a part-time employee at a one-of-a-kind candy shop. Loss of a beau to the war has Abigail skittish about romantic entanglements—until a hard-working young man with a serious problem needs her help.
Abigail’s brother Pete is a fighter pilot hero returned from the European Theatre in Sarah Sundin’s I’ll Be Home for Christmas, trying to recapture the hope and peace his time at war has eroded. But when he encounters a precocious little girl in need of Pete’s friendship, can he convince her widowed mother that he’s no longer the bully she once knew?
In Tricia Goyer’s Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Meredith Turner, “Merry” to those who know her best, is using her skills as a combat nurse on the frontline in the Netherlands. Halfway around the world from home, Merry never expects to face her deepest betrayal head on, but that’s precisely what God has in mind to redeem her broken heart.
The Turner family believes in God’s providence during such a tumultuous time. Can they absorb the miracle of Christ’s birth and God’s plan for a future?
My Review
This collection of stories was a pleasure to read and will make a great Christmas gift! Each story is very different yet connected by familial ties and common themes of service and giving. The first by Cara Putman was the sweetest with Abigail overcoming her fears and reaching out to someone with burdens greater than her own. The second by Sarah Sundin was the most dynamic since the relationship between Pete and Grace is turbulent and undergoing a change from resentment to love. The last story by Tricia Goyer brought the atmosphere of service on the front lines and the compassion that Merry has for the soldiers she nurses. Although they are not full-length novels, the stories don't feel rushed, but fully formed and well-resolved at the endings.
(Thank you to WaterBrook Press and LitFuse Publicity for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review)
