A Christmas by the Sea

by Melody Carlson

When Wendy Harper inherits her family's beachside cottage in Seaside, Maine, she sees it as a way to finally pay off the debts that have mounted since her husband died. But before it can be sold, the neglected property must be renovated. She and her 12-year-old son Jackson move in--temporarily, she reminds him--in order to do the work themselves, even though Christmas is coming. The charming town, along with local craftsman Caleb Colton, pulls on both Wendy and Jackson, who even registers himself for school in a bid to get his mom to move them there permanently. Wendy knows that the most responsible thing to do is to sell the cottage and return to Ohio, but the lure of the sea is hard to resist.

Join award-winning author Melody Carlson for a Christmas story that will warm your heart and have you dreaming of your own enchanted seaside holiday.

• ISBN10: 080072271X
• ISBN13: 9780800722715
• Publish Date: 4 September 2018
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 4 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Imprint: Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 176
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

See reviews first on my blog

A Christmas by the Sea is a book about a mother and son who have gone back to a place where the mom summered with her grandparents and has now inherited after the death of her grandfather.

Wendy and her son Jackson are going from Ohio to Maine in order to get to the cottage and fix it up for it to be sold, or at least that's what Wendy has planned. Jackson, on the other hand, wants this to become their new home and for them to have a fresh start after everything that happened.




Overall enjoyed this book. As soon as I saw the cover of this book I immediately wanted to read it. I really enjoyed the mom and son relationship in this book as it's not something we get to see a lot, especially where they are close. Wendy and Jackson are two characters that I absolutely loved, Jackson was so full of hope and energy and it was infectious after a while. Wendy while being stuck in a hard place for most of the book with financial responsibilities really started to enjoy what Jackson was doing and saying and started to realize that maybe things weren't so hopeless which I really liked. It was nice to see a kid change the opinion of a parent in a positive way about something.

The side characters I really enjoyed as well and for this being such a short book we do get to know some of them fairly well.



The last 2 pages though absolutely ruined the whole book for me in a way. I could have done without that personally. I am also starting to feel like Carlson doesn't know how to end certain books without two people rushing into something that's extremely serious.