Twelve Days Of Christmas: A novel (Christmas)

by Debbie Macomber

Suzanne Elise Freeman (Narrator)

"Continuing in a festive annual tradition, #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber returns with a new original holiday novel full of romance and cheer--and the magical prospect of finding love in even the most guarded hearts. Friendly and bubbly, Julia Padden likes nearly everyone, but her standoffish neighbor, Cain Maddox, presents a particular challenge. No matter how hard she's tried to be nice, Cain rudely rebuffs her at every turn, preferring to keep to himself. But when Julia catches Cain stealing her newspaper from the lobby of their apartment building, that's the last straw. She's going to break through Cain's Scrooge-like exterior the only way she knows how: by killing him with kindness. To track her progress, Julia starts a blog called The Twelve Days of Christmas. Her first attempts to humanize Cain are far from successful. Julia brings him homemade Christmas treats and the disagreeable grinch won't even accept them. Meanwhile, Julie's blog becomes an online sensation, as an astonishing number of people start following her adventures. Julia continues to find ways to express kindness and, little by little, chips away at Cain's gruff façade to reveal the caring man underneath. Unbelievably, Julia feels herself falling for Cain--and she suspects that he may be falling for her as well. But as the popularity of her blog continues to grow, Julia must decide if telling Cain the truth about having chronicled their relationship to the rest of the world is worth risking their chance at love"--

• ISBN10: 0735209901
• ISBN13: 9780735209909
• Publish Date: 28 January 2017 (first published 4 October 2016)
• Publish Status: Withdrawn
• Imprint: Books on Tape
• Format: Audiobook (CD)
• Duration: 5 hours and 23 minutes
• 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