Author: Carmel Harrington
Publisher: HarperImpulse
Year: 2015
Genre(s): romance, contemporary fiction, fantasy, Christmas
Part of a Series: No
Rating:
Why I read it: It was a Once Upon a Book Club special holiday box.
Summary: Belle Bailey had a difficult start in life, being taken from her neglectful mother at a young age and being put in the foster care system. She manages to find a family of her own in Tess, the foster mother who ends up caring for Belle the longest and in Jim Looney, a young boy who ends up at Tess’. He and Belle become best friends before he is able to return to his mother. They are reunited years later as adults and marry, eventually becoming foster parents themselves.
Belle and Jim foster a young girl named Lauren that Belle starts to believe will be theirs permanently. She is then thrown for a loop when she is told that the goal is to reunite Lauren with her mother around Christmastime. Belle starts to question if she can continue being a foster mother when she and Jim get into an accident. She makes it out with cuts and bruises while Jim suffers serious injuries. Her old demons get to her and she runs to the Ha’Penny Bridge, wishing she had never been born.
When her wish is granted, will she realize just how much of an impact she’s made on the people in her life after all?
Review: This was a lovely Christmas read that paid great homage to It’s a Wonderful Life.
I’m going to get my only complaint out of the way first. I felt it took too long to really get to the main action. While I get that the author wanted to really set up Belle’s life before she wished she had never been born, I feel like we could’ve gotten there sooner and a lot of what we saw earlier could’ve been woven into the story as flashbacks as Belle explores the world without her. However, that’s just my opinion. Moving on…
Belle is an intriguing character and I was more than happy to go on the journey with her. She went from a shy young girl who didn’t talk to a strong and loving woman thanks to the people in her life—Tess and Jim especially. However, she still had her own pains and insecurities that she wasn’t really dealing with. She felt like a well rounded character who had a clearly defined character arc, though I think the final lesson was a bit too narrow. It still worked in the end, though.
The romance is pretty awesome. Of course, I’m a sucker for childhood friends become lovers, which happens here. It’s a bit rushed, but that was the purpose. However, we get to see Jim and Belle working on their relationship and as a happily married couple still in love with each other after several years together. We also see it tested when Belle starts to feel depressed over children—both biological and the ones they foster. It’s a great conflict and the way Harrington handles it is wonderful—neither side is made to be the bad guy and neither is the good one. They both have their feelings and reasons—they just need to talk about them.
When the main plot kicks in, it’s amazing—which is probably one of the reasons I wish it had started earlier. The reader feels Belle’s confusion, despair and anger at her situation. She then slowly starts to accept it and realizes the lesson sweet yet sassy Nora is trying to teach her. It’s a great journey that I wish was longer.
Bottom line: A poignant Christmas story with a timeless message
Sex: Mentions.
Moonlight Musing
Have you ever wondered what kind of impact you have on the people in your life?
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