Twelve Days of Christmas
The sweet holiday romance, Twelve Days of Christmas by Debbie Macomber, is very much in line with the author’s pattern of writing darling stories that are sometimes turned into Hallmark movies. This one also fits the bill.
A friendly young lady, Julia Patton, works at Macy’s but desperately wants to move up the ladder into a communications position. Though she’s in the running, she’s challenged to a candidate’s tiebreaker position—create a blog that outshines the other in likes, views, and comments.
Stumped for ideas and uncertain about her future, her cheery disposition is dampened further when she runs into her handsome, but incredibly cranky, neighbor, Kane Maddox. Not only is he ruder than usual the next morning, but she catches him stealing her newspaper right out of her mailbox. Julia confronts him, which leads to an unwanted altercation, leaving Julia more frustrated with her circumstances.
Julia relays this encounter to Cammie, her best friend, who suggests, “killing him…with kindness.” Julia likes the idea so much that she turns this challenge into her blog, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” where she plans to share her journey with the world as she transforms ‘Ebeneezer’s’ temperament. As you can imagine, dear reader, this story relays Julia’s adventures. As she goes along, she meets Kane’s grandfather and learns more about his backstory, which explains why he’s untrusting and grumpy. More importantly, Julia learns a lot about herself.
I especially like how much she evolves. As she shares through her blog, Julia also listens. Comments roll in, encouraging her and providing motivation to continue. Her readership grows, and so do Kane’s and Julia’s feelings for one another. They both have inspiring but realistic character arcs in this book.
I said it earlier: this is a must-read if you like light, cozy holiday romances. One thing that I would like to change is the level of Kane’s rudeness. I’m not a shrinking violet, but a couple of times I wish Julia had defended herself more. Heck, I read thrillers and mysteries, and there are some pretty hardcore exchanges, but in this genre, Kane can come off as a little immature or bratty, so much so that you want to tell Julia she’s better than that. But she musters through, and it does have a happy ending. And a shout-out is necessary to the one who does put Kane in his place, his adorable grandfather Bernie.
Still, it was hard to find fault with this book, or any of the cute holiday stories by Macomber. So, if you like Hallmark movies and sweet holiday romances, then Twelve Days of Christmas needs to be on your reading list.
Source: Purchased
Image Courtesy of Random House
