Life is too short to read a bad book.
Thursday, November 23, 2006,11:47 PM
The Christmas Basket
Just Finished:

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Why I Read It: Because it’s Debbie Macomber and Christmas.

From the Back Cover: That summer -- more than ten years ago, while they were still in high school -- Noelle McDowell and Thomas Sutton fell secretly in love. Secretly because their mothers had been locked in a bitter feud for decades. But despite the animosity between Sarah McDowell and Mary Sutton, Noelle planned to elope with Thom. Until he jilted her.

This Christmas Noelle McDowell is home to celebrate the holidays with her family. (After all, December 25 is also her birthday.) Unfortunately, Noelle's feelings about home -- or rather, her hometown of Rose, Oregon -- were changed forever the day Thomas Sutton broke her heart.

This Christmas the feuding mothers find themselves working together to fill Christmas baskets for charity. What irony! And what an opportunity for reconciliation . . . if only they could see it.

This Christmas Noelle and Thom discover they're still in love. Regardless of their mothers' reactions, they want to be together. Is that possible? Can old rivalries be set aside? Will Sarah's Christmas daughter have a second chance with Mary's charming son?

Maybe she will . . . this Christmas!


My Thoughts: Well, if you haven’t read a Debbie Macomber Christmas story, don’t start with this one. I was disappointed with this story. There are two conflicts to the story ~ essentially Thom and Noelle were supposed to elope. She thinks he stood her up. He thinks she stood her up. He thought the time they were supposed to meet was 3pm. She thought it was 8pm. Guess what ~ it was a misunderstanding. So, they haven’t spoken in 10 years. They figure out it’s a misunderstanding and the 10 years are erased with a snap of the finger. Suddenly, it’s “I’ve always loved you.” And “I’ve always loved you.” “Marry me.” “I want your babies.”………Um ~ where’s the conflict? Where’s the story? Seemed to be taken care of and wrapped in a pretty red bow way too soon.

Then there’s their mothers. They used to be best friends. Sarah (Noelle’s mother) borrowed a tea set from Mary (Thom’s mother). The tea set was stolen. So, they haven’t spoken in over 10 years. They get thrown together to make Christmas baskets for the Salvation Army. Yes, a few funny things happened when these two got together. But, one night Mary’s car breaks down ~ Sarah goes to help her. Sarah’s car breaks down. Conveniently, there is a flask of scotch in the trunk. They drink, they get drunk, they confess they miss each other and “Let’s be best friends again”. Okay …….. huh? Again, conflict solved way too soon and wrapped up in a pretty red bow.

This story was somewhere between Okay and Disappointing. Debbie Macomber writes much better stories than this one ~ although the idea of the story was cute, the story fell flat. The conclusion was rushed and the conflict solved way too quickly.

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6 Comments:


  • At 4:52 AM, Blogger CindyS

    Okay, that sounds really familiar. Is this a reprint? I used to love Macomber but then she went to the 'too sweet' side of romance (read no sex).

    Still I remember her Angel books making me tear up and then there was the mail order bride contemporary that had me choking up also.

    CindyS

     
  • At 8:59 AM, Blogger Dev

    Cindy ~ I'm not sure if this is a reprint or not. I don't remember seeing before, but that doesn't mean anything :-)

    I think the mail-order bride story might be Morning Comes Softly. I bought that book years ago and still haven't read it. I need to break it out of the TBR pile soon, I think.

     
  • At 9:01 AM, Blogger nath

    This one is very short right Devonna? because I think it was part of an anthology that came out last year... cos it does sound very familiar...

    All in all, this one really wasn't the best for a x-mas book.

     
  • At 9:10 AM, Blogger Dev

    Nath ~ It was about 237 pages ~ but it just felt rushed and the conflicts were resolved too quickly ~ it just wasn't as good as I'd thought it would be.

     
  • At 1:31 PM, Blogger Rowena

    Hmmm, I've never this author before but I'll be sure to stay away from this one as a first read by her. Thanks, that was a good review sweetie, even if you were disappointed in it!

     
  • At 2:19 PM, Blogger Dev

    Dylan ~ she really does write better stories than this one. This one just wasn't one of her good ones.