Irish Christmas, An (Hardcover)

by Melody Carlson (Author)
Key Phrases: Air Force, Liam O'Neil, Pearl Harbor (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
For Colleen, life is spinning out of control. She just lost her husband, and her relationship with her young adult son Jamie is crumbling. Should she confess to him the secret that has been haunting her for twenty years? Jamie has a few secrets of his own. When he announces his plans to join the military, Colleen decides it's time for the two of them to take a trip together--to Ireland. The truth they discover there could fulfill both their dreams in a way neither ever thought possible. An Irish Christmas is a captivating story of love, deception, and secret passions, from popular and prolific author Melody Carlson.

From the Inside Flap
"I still faulted myself with the fact that I had never been over the moon for Hal.... I'd been the best wife I knew how to be, and yet, in my mind, it was never enough. Never equal to what Hal poured out over me.... And with him gone now, I felt even more like a failure--a phony. And I feared this shroud of guilt would follow me to my grave and perhaps even haunt me thereafter."

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Revell (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0800718801
• ISBN-13: 978-0800718800
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #411,535 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4 stars, November 11, 2007

By	Amanda Killgore (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

In the early sixties, a small family, recently shattered by the loss of a father and undergoing the transitional period of the son into adulthood, takes a journey to Ireland at Christmas time. Both the mother and son, Colleen and Jamie, take turns telling the story as they wrestle with inner demons and secrets they have kept from each other and that have kept them apart. Those secrets can either tear them apart forever, or bring them a touch of God's grace and hope, if they will allow His plan to unfold and not be hard hearted.

**** Although slow moving and complex, this is a touching story about imperfect people who are very real. Jamie and Colleen offer the readers hope, because they wear masks with those they love, as so many of us tend to do, unknowingly at times. The grace and love that shines through make it worth the struggle to get through the overly leisurely paced narrative. ****

Amanda Killgore

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nice quick read for the season, November 19, 2007

By	armchairinterviews.com (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

Reviewed by Carrie Padgett

Certain elements are expected in a holiday movie or book. It shall have a happy ending. There will be stormy weather, families, and faith. It will be entertainment light; undemanding and as comfortable as a grilled cheese sandwich.

Melody Carlson's An Irish Christmas meets all those expectations.

Colleen Frederick is a new widow with a secret she needs to tell her young adult son. Jamie Frederick has his own burdens to confess to his mother.

Set in the early 1960s, Carlson's novel moves from Pasadena, California to Ireland, a trip Colleen hopes will help her and Jamie reconnect and will make the perfect setting for her confession. Mother and son each tell their secrets, confounding the other. When Jamie, angry and defensive, leaves for a day trip and is detained with no way to let his mom know he's fine, Colleen is forced to rely on the God she has had little time for lately.

Jamie's world is rocked by Colleen's news and he reacts by becoming defensive and ignoring his own deceit. Jamie must confront himself and his shortcomings in Connemara, including why he deceived his parents back home. The people he meets in Ireland, especially a stranger in a local restaurant, help lead him back to his mother and to his own new relationship with God.

The book is written in first person with Colleen and Jamie alternating chapters. Jamie's voice in his sections is too similar to Colleen's; sometimes I missed who I was supposed to be listening to. Jamie often didn't sound like a young adult, much less one in the early 1960s.

Carlson does a good job making Ireland real and the Irish characters come alive in the pages of her story.

An Irish Christmas will leave you with a light heart and a comforted spirit, much like a comfort food on a rainy day.

Armchair Interviews says: Well-written, this is a quick read for the busy holiday season.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Nearly As Good As The Christmas Bus, November 4, 2007

By	L. D Herbert "lesgolf" (Duluth, GA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

An Irish Christmas by Melody Carlson is a nice idea for a story, but the plot is too predictable and not the least bit captivating. I enjoy a good love story, but this novel lacks interest and surprise. No drama in a love story equals boring. Colleen takes her adult son, Jamie, and a deep dark family secret to Ireland for an extended Christmas vacation. While there, she confesses that Jamie's father, who recently passed away, was really not his dad after all. Lots of brooding and pouting ensue, and then lo and behold, Colleen's first true and only love meets up with "their" son in Ireland. Jamie convinces his mother to see the man, and well...........the rest is history and very predictable.
If you want to read a good Christian fiction novel, then stick with The Christmas Bus, Carlson's 2006 creation. It humorously captures the essence of Christmas by pointing out the things at which all of us need to become better at being and doing. Carlson's skillful use of characters and personalities to tell a unique Christmas story is superb.