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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just in Time for the Holidays!, November 1, 2004
This review is from: When Christmas Comes (Hardcover)
If it's close to Thanksgiving, it's also the time of year when we find holiday themed books available. And this year Debbie Macomber has written one which I predict will be a classic. When Christmas Comes is the kind of book which will find you laughing out loud,, hugging to yourself when you finish it and hate to see end. It is also a wonderful example of a madcap adventure, the kind some of us remember from the days of Frank Capra and Billy Wilder movies.
Emily is heartbroken when her daughter Heather who attends Harvard tells her she's too busy with school to come home for Christmas. Emily who lives in Leavenworth, Washington can't imagine a Christmas without Heather since its only been the two of them since her husband Pete died ten years ago. Added to this is the fact that Leavenworth is one of those towns that does Christmas up in a big way and Emily worries that everything will remind her of her loneliness. Deciding to surprise Heather in Cambridge, Emily finds an internet site and decides to swap her house in Washington for one in the Boston area for the holidays.
The man Emily swaps houses with is Charles, a stuffy professor at Harvard who hates Christmas almost as much as Ebenezer Scrooge. Working crazy hours, sometimes fogettinggn to eat or leave his office at night, Charles is often bugged by his mother who bemoans the fact that her two sons are still single. The thought of constant phone calls from his mother in Arizona asking him what he's doing for the holidays, has him searching for a place to spen Christmas elsewhere far from any festivities or social enagagements. Thinking that Leavenworth is the area of the federal prison and that Christmas won't be a be a big deal, Charles reaches Emily on the Internet and the swap is planned. But what Charles failed to realize is that this swap is for a house in Leavenworth, Washington and not Kansas.
What ensues when Emily arrives in Boston and Charles arrives in Leavenworth had me laughing out loud as Charles realizes he's in Christmas town USA and Emily's daughter if off to Florida with her new motorcycle riding boyfriend. Addd to this story are two other people who change the course of thse holdiays. First there's faith, Emily's good friend who arrives with Santa and six elves to cheer her up. And then when Charles's mother calls him and a woman answers, she insists that Charles's workaholic brother Ray travel from New York to see that Charles isn't being held captive by a gold digging woman.
Previous to reading this book, I read Between Friends by Debbie macomber and loved both the theme and writing. I promised msyself that I would continue to read this author. It was my lcuky day when I saw this book, grabbed for it and gulped it down. Now I look forward to both the holidays and other good reads from an author I highly recommend. In the tradition of John Grisham's Skipping Christmas and David Baldacci's The Christmas Train, When Christmas Comes is a wonderful holdiay read and one which I look forward to rereading before the holidays again and again.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Heart-warming Christmas tale, December 10, 2004
This review is from: When Christmas Comes (Hardcover)
When her 21-year-old daughter announces she's too busy to come home for Christmas, mother Emily Springer decides to travel across the country to spend it with her. After all, the two have always spent Christmas together. She arranges to swap houses with a Harvard professor (Charles) who wants to escape the Christmas bustle and heads for Boston. But when she gets there, her daughter has other plans--plans that definitely don't involve having a mother tagging along. Abandoned in Boston, with no way to get home, Emily looks forward to the worst Christmas of her life. But Charles's mother, learning that a woman is staying in Charles's apartment, sends her other son, Ray, to investigate.
Knowing that she hurt her best friend Emily's feelings, teacher Faith Kerrigan flies to Emily's house for the holidays. But Emily is in Boston and Grinch-like Charles Brewster has replaced her. Only her stellar cooking keeps Charles from tossing her out into the cold.
Faith, Emily, Charles, and Ray all have bad experiences with Christmas--and have learned to expect to be alone. But this Christmas is different--a second chance for them to experience the magic of the season--and of love. Or will they simply go back to their ordinary lives, once the extraordinary events of Christmas have passed?
Author Debbie Macomber tells a dependably well-written and emotionally satisfying story and WHEN CHRISTMAS COMES is no exception. It's a fast read, without the complexity of some of Macomber's recent 'big' novels, but just the thing to cosy up to around a fire as the Christmas season unfolds around us. Whether you're a grinch yourself, or a Christmas adict, there's a lot to like in this charming, if predictable, tale.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Holiday Reading Tradition, November 6, 2004
This review is from: When Christmas Comes (Hardcover)
In the last several years I have made it a habit to read author Debbie Macomber's newest Christmas book. Some people have described this years selection, WHEN CHRISTMAS COMES, as bland and sappy. I would not call this book bland by any means with all the great characters (main or otherwise) and situations that are involved. It isn't hard to picture in one's mind a Scrooge type man visiting a town (Leavenworth, WA) that he thought was a prision town (Leavenworth, KS) only to discover he's entered a Christmas village of sorts. Ms. Macomber left no detail out when describing this picturesque town.
As for sappy, this is a holiday tale. Christmas is the holiday that really brings people together and sometimes love is the result. Charles (Brewster), the Harvard professor, is an uptight man who concentrates only on his work and hates Christmas because he broke up with someone special at that time of year. His brother, Ray, is also someone who devotes all his time to work. He doesn't get into the holiday either. When they meet Faith and Emily, their lives are turned upside down. The blend of mixups (Emily going to Boston to visit (surprise) her daughter who is actually going out of town to Florida and Faith who decides to visit (surprise) Emily in Leavenworth and she not being there) and entertaining scenes (the escaped lobster that latched onto Emily on one pant leg and a small dog latched onto the other pant leg) made this a wonderful read that I can't wait to share with my daughter and others.
Thank you Debbie for a great time. I look forward to next year.
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