Romancing the Holidays

by Amanda Tru

[phyllish]

Secret Santa - 4 Stars - This was a fun Christmas novella. I enjoyed the secret identity aspect of the story, and the fact that Hailey didn't have a clue who "Santa" was.

It was really fun to try to picture Santa and two of his reindeer rappelling down the side of the building. Amanda Tru has a great way of making her stories combine humor and serious aspects such as trusting God when things are tough.

I did just read the book through a second time (the first time was 3 years ago), and I'm not sure if I wasn't surprised about the identity of Santa because I actually remembered what happened from before, or if it was because of the clues in the story.

The Romance of the Sugar Plum Fairy - 5 stars - I love books about ballerinas and dancing. And though I should have expected it because of the title, I didn't catch on based on the chapter titles that this story was a play on The Nutcracker Suite. Oops!

It was fun to follow Calyssa as she was swept away into a world of danger, dancing and romance. The mix of romance and mystery was light-hearted and fun.

The story loosely followed along the theme of the ballet without forcing things or making it seem contrived

The Christmas Card - 4 stars - This was a very clever concept for a story, and the author did a great job in executing it as well.

I have to confess that I started out not liking Sarah too much. There was a touch of pride or something in the way she ditched Cole at the restaurant when on a date that he obviously went to great effort to arrange. As I read on, I warmed up to her a little, but at the end, my opinion of her changed completely.

Cole was another story altogether. His sweet love for Sarah and the way he was willing to humble himself and to work to figure out something, anything, that would show her that he understood her passions and dreams was so wonderful.

Amanda Tru brought me on a journey through this story and revealed one life touching another in such a sweet way. Each person's heartfelt need and the way God filled it through His people, and then the struggles they had in fulfilling the directive to serve others as if serving Christ was lovely.

Though in some ways the tale resembled the movie "Pay it Forward", it improved on the idea and was, in my opinion, a much better story.

These reviews were originally posted on Among the Reads