Friday, October 11, 2013

Book Review: Glad Tidings

Author: Debbie Macomber
Title: Glad Tidings
Publisher: Mira
Publish Date: Nov 20, 2012
Buy:Amazon
Book Blurb: Christmas is a time for...fruitcake. Rookie reporter Emma Collins hates fruitcake; for that matter, she hates Christmas, too. When three Washington State women are finalists in a national fruitcake contest, the story is assigned to her. That's bad enough. It gets worse when she has to fly in a small plane (scary!) with a smart-aleck pilot named Oliver Hamilton (sexy!) and his scruffy dog (cute!). In the end she meets three wise women, falls in love and learns There's Something About Christmas.

This is also a time for families, for togetherness, for memories. On Christmas Eve, Maryanne and Nolan Adams tell their kids the story they most want to hear--how Mom and Dad met and fell in love. It all started when they were reporters on rival Seattle papers...and next thing you know, Here Comes Trouble!


Review: I absolutely love Debbie Macomber's holiday books, they are something that I look forward to every year. This is a collection of two of her previous holiday novellas, There's Something About Christmas and Here Comes Trouble.

I'm glad the opening novella was There's Something About Christmas. It was the better of the two stories. Emma Collins is assigned to do a series of articles on the 3 women from Washington State that are finalists in a fruitcake competition.

Emma and Oliver's relationship grows as he flies her to each destination in his small Cessna (which scares the crap out of her). But there is more than just romance to these stories, there are the fruitcake ladies and there stories and there very different fruitcakes. (recipes are included! Yay!)

I like the differences between Emma and Oliver. Emma is a more a Scrooge in her own way, choosing to be anti-Christmas because of the loss of her mother and Oliver, who is much more carefree. Emma finds herself changing a bit as she finishes each interview and she becomes a more festive person.

This was such a fun story. I can see Hallmark turning it into a Christmas movie.

The next story is Here Comes Trouble. This one was written in the early 90s and from the start is feels more dated. Maryanne is the rich girl trying to make in on her own, and Nolan is the guy that gives her a hard time on the way.

This was probably the first Debbie Macomber story I struggled through. It was too cheesy and too unrealistic and it really didn't have a Christmas theme, so it didn't feel like a fit for this compilation.

I liked the idea of Maryanne and Nolan telling their children how they met and then married, but their story just didn't click for me.

Rating: 4 flowers




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