Twelve Days of Christmas: A Christmas Novel (Christmas)

by Debbie Macomber

A festive story from Debbie Macomber, international bestselling author of the Cedar Cove and Rose Harbor series.

Julia is infuriated by her grumpy neighbour, Cain, who can’t even be pleasant when they bump into each other.

So on the suggestion of her best friend, Cammie, Julia concocts a plan. She starts a blog in order to clinch her perfect job, and now she has a subject. Over the next twelve days, she is going to kill Cain with kindness – and Christmas cheer – and document it for all to read about.

But as the experiment goes on, Julia realises she underestimated the effect it would have on Cain, and on their relationship, and things take an unexpected turn…

• ISBN10: 0099595052
• ISBN13: 9780099595052
• Publish Date: 3 November 2016 (first published 4 October 2016)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Cornerstone
• Imprint: Arrow Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[kimbacaffeinate]

Julia Padden is the friendly bubbly sort. She plays piano for her local church, blogs, works in retail and dream of landing the perfect job to launch her career. Julia greets everyone, knows her barista's name and loves Christmas. Her next door neighbor Cain Maddox perplexes her. The man is downright grumpy, a real Ebenezer Scrooge. When he infuriates her, she shares her frustrations with her best friend who suggests she kill him with kindness. Their conversation sparks an idea for her blog which just might help her land that dream job. Soon Julia is blogging about her efforts with Ebenezer (Cain).

The tale that unfolds shared all that I love about Macomber's holiday stories. The more Julia tried to do nice things, the more Cain pushed back. The banter and snark were great. We slowly witness a friendship emerge. Macomber weaves in back history and introduced family members. We quickly learned why Cain acts like Scrooge. I wasn't sure I would like him, despite his charming looks but the more we learned the harder I fell. Of course, he wasn't perfect but maybe just maybe his heart grew two sizes.

Secondary characters added to the tale and will steal your heart. As these two fell for one another, the blog and Julia's project loomed over them. Will they find happiness or spend the holidays grumpy? You'll have to listen to find out.

Suzanne Elise Freeman is a new to me narrator, but she did a delightful job of capturing the emotions of the characters and added warmth to the tale. She made it easy to curl up by the fire and listen to the story unfold.
Copy provided by Publisher, This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer