Customer Reviews

Some Kind of Wonderful

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Carol Foster left Los Angeles to relocate in Christmas, California after a visit to the town as she has never tasted the holiday even as a child. Former LAPD cop Jack Reilly grew up in Christmas and hated the year long gimmick of a town. Though retired from law enforcement after a tragedy, he has returned to serve as a temporary sheriff as a favor to his friend.

During her early morning run, Carol notices an infant abandoned by the town's year round Nativity Scene. She takes the baby with her and calls the law. Jack arrives and it is arranged for Carol to watch the child until the state can make arrangements. Meanwhile Jack rents a room from Carol so he can move out of his mother's home. As Carol lights up Jack's life, he still has doubts about relationships after the betrayal of his former spouse. However, he also worries as Carol has fallen in love with him and her little charge.

This is an upbeat inspirational contemporary romance starring a bah humbug hero and a Mary Poppins heroine. The story line is perfect for the post holiday season as the Yuletide spirit should continue even after Christmas has been celebrated. Fans of a moving tale will cherish this "It's a Wonderful Life" tale.

Harriet Klausner

It's the yuletide season year around in Christmas, California. And that does not bode well for Jack Reilly, who fled the town for college and a stint on the LAPD. Now retired, he is back to fill in as sheriff temporarily when he gets a call about an abandoned baby.

Carol Baker finds a baby in the town's manger and gets to be foster mom until other arrangements can be made. Being an orphan herself, she does not want the baby to have to go to a "home." Jack helps her get settled, and then notes that she notes a vacant apartment for rent. Wanting to get out of his family's home, he takes the apartment, and soon they are in a romance, while the birthmother continues to see the baby and Carol wonders if she will attempt to regain custody.

Jack's hatred of the holiday season is constantly hinted at, as well as his need to be away from Christmas. As he gets further involved with Carol, he questions his motivations.

For the romance aspect and the relationship of the two lead characters, the story is well developed. Any reader of suspense novels will be able to guess the identity of the birth mother within the first chapters, so there are no surprises in this predictable romance.

In Christmas, California , the winter Holiday is in full-swing 365 days a year, even though there's never any snow. Christmas is a small town that makes its living from the tourists who flock to the Reindeer Cafe and shops on North Pole Lane and Jingle Bell Lane .

It's just the type of town that Carol Baker has always wished for, in that she's made a life for herself among the town's inhabitants. After her parents died when she was ten, she was shuffled to one foster home to the next, eventually remaining in a group home until she turned eighteen. With no family ties, the shop she opened in Christmas, along with her greyhound, Quinn, and her friends, is enough of a life.

Until one night, during her daily midnight walk with the dog, Carol finds an abandoned newborn baby girl in the life-size Nativity in the town square, taking the place of the baby Jesus statue that usually resides in the manger. When the baby needs a temporary home, Carol volunteers--professing to one and all that she won't fall in love with the baby, whom she names Liz, because she knows it's only a temporary solution.

During her transition into temporary instant motherhood comes Jack Reilly, a local boy who left Christmas long ago to become a policeman in Los Angeles . But tragedy struck this good-looking man and forever changed his life on Christmas Eve nearly two years ago. Unable to let go of the past, being Carol Baker's new tenant isn't turning out the way he'd planned. He's way too attracted to his new landlord, and the Lizardbaby she loves is way too darn cute.

SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL is an uplifting romance, a book that will make you feel good reading it. The extended Reilly clan are interesting characters, and Carol, Liz, Quinn, and Reilly are a great family in the making.

**The only thing that irritated me about this book was the numerous references to the heroine as Carol Foster, even though the first sentence of the book refers to her as Carol Baker. No doubt an editing oversight, it made me want to get out my red pen every time I saw it!!