Contents of blog copyright Book Dragon's Lair 2009-2023
I've been gone a while. I started reading fanfiction to escape and I got sucked in an abyss.

I have no idea if someone else is hosting similar challenges. I just grabbed some of what I have hosted before.

Here's to a happy year of great reading
Jan2023: Not much has changed. Writing a fanfiction now O_o as well as reading but I bought 7 new books in December and hope to get those read soon. Crossing fingers about adding challenges (late!)

Saturday, January 8, 2011

The Christmas Clock by Kat Martin


The Christmas Clock
Kat Martin

Publisher: Vanguard Press
format: mass market paperback
Release Date: Oct 2010
pages: 172 plus extras

from my personal shelves




from the back cover:
Teddy Sparks was eight years old that Christmas, too young to understand all the undercurrents swirling around him in the tiny Michigan town of Dreyerville.

He wasn't able to value that Christmas for the miracle it truly was.

Teddy only knew he wanted to buy the beautiful Victorian clock in the window of Tremont's Antiques as a gift for his grandmother, Lottie Sparks, a woman desperate to find him a home before her rapidly progressing Alzheimer's left him an orphan.

Teddy didn't know that in trying to buy the clock he would meet Sylvia Winters and Joe Dixon, a couple, once in love, desperate to overcome the past. He didn't know he would form a friendship with his neighbors, Floyd and Doris Culver, two people struggling to revive their long-dead marriage.

He didn't know that these people would fill his Christmas with magic and hope; that the love of his friends would change his world, and that he would forever change theirs.


spoiler alert about the ending





My thoughts
I'll admit that I only picked it up because of the cover but the back was why I purchased. I'm a sucker for a feel-good Christmas story and The Christmas Clock did not disappoint. I even cried. Beware, if you're buying because of the author. There is a Q&A in the back and one of the questions starts with "...is a departure from your usual writing".

This is a sweet story, heart wrenching at times, but the characters grow on you and you end up cheering them on as if they're your own neighbors. Ms. Martin has brought us a glimpse of what could happen to a loved one in our own lives but the ending leaves you feeling that all is right with the world.

Jill Marie Landis, bestselling author herself, said it best. "...A lovely tale of finding family, love, joy and forgiveness all in one sweet package."




copyright Book Dragon's Lair 2009-2011
Disclaimer

In accordance to the FTC guidelines, I must state that I make no monetary gains from my reviews or endorsements here on Book Dragon's Lair. All books I review are either borrowed, purchased by me, given as a gift, won in some kind of contest, or received in exchange for an honest review.