by Elin HilderbrandThe island of Nantucket is looking forward to the annual Christmas party at Winter Street Inn, but plans change when Mitzi, the wife of Inn owner Kelly Quinn, runs off with Santa Claus.
The story centers around Winter Street Inn where owner Kelly Quinn and his family reside. We meet his three children from a previous marriage to successful journalist Margaret Quinn. Their daughter Ava is a school teacher with a boyfriend that pays her little attention, but a fellow co-worker, Scott, would love to spend more time getting to know her. Son, Kevin works as a bartender and is secretly dating Isabelle, the Inn's manager and cook. And then there is Patrick, who has recently pushed the limits in his investment job and now the feds are involved. Adding to the family drama is Bart, Kelly and Mitzi’s only child, who grew up spoiled and led a carefree life until he surprised everyone by joining the Marines. He is currently stationed in Afghanistan and lack of communication with him has everyone a little bit on edge. Christmas Eve starts off with a shock when Mitzi announces that she is in love with the Inn's Santa Claus, with whom she has been secretly having an affair for the past twelve years. This story offers lots of seasonal sights and sounds, and is quite the page turner, however at times the chapters jump a little too quickly from one person to the next, and not a lot of character development takes place. You want to root for each member of the family, and hope that they will enjoy a peaceful Christmas together, but the story ends abruptly and your left thinking, "what just happened?"
This Christmas tale offers a lot of festive holiday spirit and family drama, in a somewhat choppy predictable read.
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ReplyDeleteI thought that this could easily fit in the pages of a Kirkus review journal - the format is very nicely done. It seems like you are doing the book fair justice and letting the reader know what they may or may not like about the book, so that a selector could decide whether or not to add to the collection. In our case, the author is an automatic selection, as she's very popular where I work, but this review would be one I feel I could rely on if I were trying to decide.
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