Forever Under the Mistletoe: A Novel, by Debbie Macomber

 

I impulsively grabbed this one off the shelf in the grocery store the other day. It won't come as a shock to most but while I'm a Macomber fan, it was the cute dogs on the cover, I think, more than her name that fueled that impulse. I've been reading it in spurts between other reviews. It suddenly dawned on me the other night that while I was enjoying it, I wasn't loving it. I wasn't compelled to pick it up the moment I had a free moment, in other words. Probably just me. I mean, this is Debbie Macomber, who I usually read in one sitting.

Why? Honestly, I'm fuzzy on the why. While the two stories were cute (I liked the second best), they were both a trifle formula driven, so to speak. Even worse, I found it difficult to keep track of which character was which after even a couple days away from the book. For instance, in When Christmas Comes, the first story, the motor cycle riding boyfriend of, gotta check, Emily's daughter, seemed stereotyped. As for Charles, he switched gears from "No. No Christmas!" to partaking in it gleefully almost without any real prodding. I do think I tuned into The second story, The Christmas Letters easier because the female character, Katherine, writes. True, the story focuses on the letters she writes for others about their lives in, well, Christmas letters, but she's a writer. Predictably, she finds conflict with a scholarly type, Wynn, who shows disdain for her letters, simply calling them lies. I bet you know how all that turns out. 

So, while I certainly didn't love the book, I didn't dislike it, either. It was a pleasant, easy read, just not what I'd expected from Debbie Macomber. Oh, and the cute dogs on the cover....well, you'll see if you read the book and, honestly, I'm not discouraging that. It's a good Christmas feel for those simply wanting to be entertained during the often hectic holiday season. Btw, there are some cute kids and even a hamster.