Title: The Christmas Spirit
Author: Debbie Macomber
Pages: 240
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
My Thoughts:
It has been a minute since I have read a Debbie Macomber book and this one does not disappoint! The Christmas Spirit features an insta-romance as well as a best friend's sister romance. It is a quick read with a lot of holiday cheer!
This book starts out with Nana telling her grandchildren (Lance & Lily) a different kind of story…not a “Once Upon a Time” story but a “In the Beginning” real life story about two best friends Hank & Peter.
Hank & Peter have been best friends since elementary school and still make time to catch up every month. These two are SO different - Hank tends the bar at this family’s tavern and is more of the “bad guy” type whereas, Peter is a pastor and is the “good guy” type. They both think their work is harder than the other so Hank comes up with the idea to swap jobs for a week (until Christmas Eve). While they both have challenges, they come to realize that both of their jobs are quite similar but with different types of customers.
I really enjoyed this story…although I am not entirely certain that a 6 & 8 year old really needed to be told a story about drug dealers and strippers. I love all of the secondary characters as much as the primary characters! There is a lot of emotion in this story - loss, love, happiness and laughter! My favorite books are ones where I can feel all of these emotions from the author's words. This story just shows how important it is to treat all people with kindness and not to judge someone based on their profession or their past.
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine Books, NetGalley and Debbie Macomber for this Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book for my honest review!