That’s the situation Krista Galloway finds herself in Melody Carlson’s latest holiday offering, “Christmas in Winter Hill.”
When single mom Krista takes a job as city manager for Winter Hill, Washington, she finds herself thrown into the middle of planning the town’s Christmasville celebration. A former foster child whose birthday is Christmas Eve, she’s always found bad things happen at Christmas time and thus isn’t a fan of the holiday. However, her 8-year-old daughter, Emily, loves Christmas and the hope it brings.
As Krista struggles to overcome her poor feelings toward Christmas, the town comes together to overcome trials that threaten to shut down Christmasville. Will she ever learn to love Christmas? And will Krista and Emily find themselves a Christmas miracle?
Carlson offers another delightful Christmas novella filled with romance, feel-good moments and just a little bit of intrigue. As always, the author also does a great job of developing great characters — readers will relate to Krista and her struggles and will fall in love with her adorable daughter. Krista’s assistant, Pauline, and her awesome family add greatly to the story.
“Christmas in Winter Hill” also shares several encouraging themes, like troubles make us more empathetic; you can only live one day at a time; dreams can come true; overcoming abandonment; and beating the thought that some dreams are impossible and some hopes too big.
“Christmas in Winter Hill” will definitely get you in the holiday spirit.
Five stars out of five.
The author and Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, provided this complimentary copy for my honest, unbiased review.