Once Upon a Christmas Carol by Melody Carlson

 

Every year I look forward to Melody Carlson's Christmas novella. Once Upon a Christmas Carol is her latest one and I found it to be another heartwarming book full of Christmas charm.

Once Upon a Christmas starts out with Carol Langstrom heading to the Bahamas for the holidays. Carol shares her birthday with Jesus--and so do I, so I could relate to that aspect of the book with Carol's mixed feelings about the holiday and her birthday. Between her birthday and growing up in her dysfunctional family, as the book begins, she feels rather Scroogish about the holidays so she decides to escape on a vacation. However, due to some big storms, Carol gets detoured to Michigan from her home in Seattle. While stuck in Michigan, she meets her Aunt and spends time getting to know her--and some other local folks. 

Victor is back at his parents' farm helping his mother take care of his father who has Alzheimer's disease. Victor is a wonderful cook and owned a flourishing restaurant before he moved home. He picks Carol up from the airport since he is Carol's Aunt's neighbor.

I enjoyed Once Upon a Christmas and read the book quickly in one day. I enjoyed the growing attraction between Victor and Carol. However, I especially enjoyed how Carol got to know her Aunt and how they grew closer. I especially liked how she took the time to help her Aunt as her Aunt had an injury. She may have felt Scroogish but she had a heart full of kindness that was there throughout the story. There was a story of love and redemption in Carol's family that shows promise of getting even better as Carol worked to help her mom see some changes she needed to make. There isn't an overt Christian message but there are Christian themes running through the story. I also liked how the ending left Victor and Carol as it felt realistic to me.

I received a copy of this book from Revell Publishing through Interviews and Reviews. All opinions are my own.