Customer Reviews

Glad Tidings: Here Comes Trouble\There's Something About Christmas

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Glad Tidings" is my first taste of Debbie Macomber's work, and it definitely won't be my last. The two holiday themed stories included here, are both extremely enjoyable. Macomber's writing style, is no-frills and the romance is decidedly G Rated. But that isn't a bad thing. With only one exception (which i will get to in a moment), Macomber makes you care about these characters, and the over-done, falseness that seems to hamper many modern romance novels, is not present here.

Of the two stories, i will say, i much prefered the first, "There's Something About Christmas". A light-hearted, funny, genuinely sweet story of rookie reporter Emma & cocky pilot Oliver, who deal with fear of flying, sneezing dogs,& fruitcake.

The second story, "Here Comes Trouble" really only has a passing reference to Christmas, and while i really enjoyed it as well, i felt it was lacking some of the charm of the first. My main problem was with the character of Nolan. He was just such a grouchy, gruff, stubburn pain in the butt, that i found it hard to believe that the plucky Maryanne would not only fall for him, but basically beg him to love her, the way she did. My reservations regarding this point, is the only reason i'm not giving the book 5 stars.

All in all though, "Glad Tidings" was an enjoyable experience, and i can't wait to dive into Macomber's other work.

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT CHRISTMAS - Emma Collins has wanted to be a serious journalist ever since she can remember. However, after attending school, the best writing job she can find for herself is a position with the "Puyallup Examiner" in small-town Puyallup, Washington, where she spends the hours between nine and five attempting to sell ad space to reluctant business-owners, and writing obituaries that no one but the deceased's own relatives will take notice of. However, when her first real journalism assignment comes rolling in, Emma is disappointed in what the subject will be - writing about the three Washington-based finalists in a national fruitcake recipe contest. Not only does Emma dislike fruitcake, but she also dislikes Christmas since her mother passed on, and feels that she's not cut out to accept a subject that she's so dead-set against. Not only that, Emma's boss has arranged for her to be flown to each contestants home in a rickety, small aircraft with none other than Oliver Hamilton behind the wheel, along with his dog, Oscar. As if having to contend with a fear of flying wasn't hard enough for the Scrooge-like Emma, trying to ward off the advances of the irresistible and charming Oliver proves just as impossible. Now, as Emma begins her journey to meet each of the three women, she begins to fall in love with the idea of their different recipes, from using all of your deceased husband's favorite ingredients, to sprinkling a little extra liquor into the concoction, and trying out a no-bake graham cracker fruitcake. But, not only does she fall for the recipes, she falls in love with each woman's story of how they were created, soon making her realize that Christmas isn't truly as bad as one would think, and sometimes life is full of fruitcake. 5 stars.

HERE COMES TROUBLE - Twenty-three-year-old Maryanne "Annie" Simpson has led a life of privilege since the day she was born. Being the daughter of a prominent business-owner who's practically in charge of the publishing world can do that for you. So, upon college graduation, Maryanne decides to do something great: land a job in journalism. Now, for the average person, this could be a tremendous feat, but for Annie, well...in the flash of an eye she has uprooted herself from her cushy New York penthouse apartment, and traveled to the drizzly city of Seattle, where she's keeping herself warm in a lavish building known as The Seattle. It is here that her father has arranged a wonderful job as a columnist for one of his papers: the "Seattle Review." Maryanne is happy with her job, and attempts to show her co-workers just how hard she is willing to work to keep it. But when Nolan Adams, a columnist for the "Seattle Sun" - a rival newspaper - begins writing his columns about Maryanne, referring to her as "the deb" - short for debutante - leaving his legion of fans salivating over the new information he feels he is obligated to share with the city, Maryanne gets upset. For suddenly she realizes that Nolan's columns, as hurtful as they are, are absolutely true. Without her father pulling various strings, she would never have made it through the front door of the "Seattle Review." Now, she's decided to change her life for the better, with a little help from the reluctant Nolan, who blames himself for the mess he's created. And within due time, Maryanne finds herself falling for the rumpled reporter, and hoping more than anything that he shares her feelings. 5 stars.

I have been anticipating the release of GLAD TIDINGS for the last couple of months, and was absolutely ecstatic to find it sitting upon the shelf at Barnes & Noble this past weekend. I was hoping for two novels that would convey the spirit of Christmas, and be enjoyable; however, I feel as if I was given much more. Both THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT CHRISTMAS and HERE COMES TROUBLE convey such magical feelings regarding the holidays, and truly bring each and every character involved in these two tales to life. The romances between Emma Collins and Oliver Hamilton; and Maryanne Simpson and Nolan Adams are absolutely perfect, and illustrate marvelously just how easily dislike can turn to love. Out of the two tales, I found myself more enamored with THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT CHRISTMAS, as it situated itself more around the holidays, and truly gives the reader a new view of fruitcake. Hey, even I want to try a piece after indulging in this romance. However, HERE COMES TROUBLE is also a wonderful tale of romance that will ultimately appeal very much to budding writers. A dynamic duo you'll be glad to take home and savor over the holidays.

Erika Sorocco
Freelance Reviewer

Glad Tidings continues Debbie Macomber's annual two-for-one Christmas book special. Both of these stories feature heroines who work for newspapers, albeit in very different roles.

The first story, There's Something About Christmas, finds rookie reporter Emma Collins struggling with the upcoming holiday season. After all, she hates flying, hates fruitcake, and even hates Christmas. Combine the three, and a very sexy pilot, and Emma learns a valuable lesson about love.

The premise of Here Come's Trouble is that Maryanne and Nolan both write columns at competing Seattle newspapers. When Nolan begins to attack Maryanne in his newpaper articles for her debutante ways, she decides he has a point and makes drastic changes in her life shocking her publishing magnate father. Nolan is then upset that he caused problems for Maryanne and decides to try being nice to her. The battle of the sexes ensues.

Although two very different stories, they are both a joy to read. Debbie Macomber has a way with storytelling that keeps the stories moving along at a good pace. Both stories start with the female rejecting the male, but as we all know with a good love story, the male eventually wins their hand. The fun is seeing how they get there.

Once again Debbie Macomber brings Christmas joy to your reading. You can never go wrong with one of her books, whether it is a Christmas book or one of her series. The characters are well defined and easy to relate to. So, grab this book, make yourself some hot cocoa, sit by the fireplace, and relax. Enjoy!

From the back cover:

Christmas news! Read all about it!

This is 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!

Christmas is also 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.

And my review:

I never know what to expect from Debbie Macomber. I've absolutely loved some of her stories (her "angel" series of Shirley, Goodness and Mercy are on my keeper shelf) and hated others.

Unfortunately, I didn't like either of these stories. The problem was with the heros. In HERE COMES TROUBLE! I thought that the hero was really mean to the heroine. Not in a cute bantering "schoolyard" kind of way, but in just a really underhanded "I've decided that I hate you because you're rich and must be a spoiled brat" way. I like to see sparring between a hero and heroine, but he was such a jerk, and she was so reactive (granted, she had reason to be, but she was still a bit too sensitive) that I got too annoyed to finish the story.

I liked the beginning of THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT CHRISTMAS. Macomber's trademark humor shows, and the story has a nice flow to it. However, the hero's constant "you want me" comments really got under my skin. Especially when the heroine hadn't shown any kind of interest in him, and the next thing you know, he's spouting stuff like, "I know what we could do for a couple of hours" (meaning sex, of course), "just can't keep your hands off me," because she got irritated with him twirling his fork and put her hand on his to stop him, and finally "you want me." Ugh! I guess that's supposed to be sexy, but it just come across as arrogant and sleazy. I've got absolutely zero interest in guys who are full of themselves.

For an enjoyable Christmas romance by Macomber, I much preferred The Christmas Basket, or her "angel" series.

I found this book to be a book that I have not wanted to put down.
The plots of each story reflected real live to me since I live in
Pudget Sound area .

There's Something About Christmas: It was heartwarming to read about a lonely woman who hasn't "done Christmas" since her mother passed away and how she grows to discover the magic and spirit of Christmas again. The metaphors for life that were unveiled in the fruitcake recipes through the interviews with their creaters where highgly very meaningful. However, as far as the romance goes, Oliver came across as a domineering and shallow charmer, and it's hard to imagine that Emma falls in love with him. His attempts at romance didn't seem very sincere to me, and it wasn't until the very end that he seemed to a very late (ans still rather unconvincing) conversion into someone more likeable and worthy of Emma. The romance between secondary characters, Phoebe and Walt, had the potential to add depth and interest to the story, which fell short by Walt's desire to keep it a secret. To be honest, while I liked Emma a lot, and I enjoyed the holiday message the author conveyed, I was surprised that this story was written in 2005 because it read more like the less-polished books (interactions and dialogues) from very early in her career.

Here Comes Trouble: I struggled to finish this story - it's hard to believe it was written by Debbie Macomber because it was not her usual breezy and delightful style. The characters grated on my nerves with the hostile way they interacted with each other. I just wanted to shake some sense into both of them - Nolan for his arrogance and Maryanne for being so reactive. Although it began on Christmas Eve, this story was presented as a couple reflecting on their courtship and really didn't have much to do with Christmas at all. Where was the cheerful or touching holiday spirit?

I've read several of Debbie Macomber's books and enjoyed them, and I liked the first story in this book (There's Something about Christmas), perhaps mostly because I come from a flying family. The second one (Here Comes Trouble), I almost didn't finish. If Nolan Adams had grabbed Maryanne Simpson one more time around the waist, put his mouth over hers, kissed her and then left, it was going to be over for me.

Both stories were very formulaic as is the way of things with these books, but they were also very predictable. I also have trouble (spoiler!) when in the end the guy, who is poor to start with, ends up being rich so that the girl who came from a wealthy family will still get to live a life of luxury as the wife of a successful novelist. Oh, she has her own talents, but their financial struggles are over by the end of the story (end spoiler). For whatever reason, I just didn't connect with this story.

In TSAC, Oliver Hamilton is a good pilot, so things will go well with him in the Seattle area with his new air freight business. Emma Collins is working her way up the journalist ladder at the Puyallup Examiner and is new to the area. We get a glimpse of her talent in the beginnings of three articles she's writing for the paper having to do with a fruitcake contest. I did like the fruitcake aspect of the story and plan to try each one of them. With the three very different kinds of fruitcake, there's something for everyone. I found the romantic tension to be strong in TSAC, but not so strong (or even believable) in HCT.

Is the word pajamas spelled differently (pyjamas) in the Northeast? Just wondering.

Carolyn Rowe Hill