Dinca’s review of Twelve Days Of Christmas by Debbie Macomber
Contemporary Holiday Romance published by Ballantine Books 4 Oct 16
Julia and Cain connect during the Twelve Days of Christmas kindness project. What better time to practice the gifts of peace, kindness, and everlasting love. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did. Ms. Macomber is never a disappointment.
Julia Padden has the misfortune of starting her day with a grouchy neighbor. He is a maddening, disagreeable person to the point of even stealing her newspaper.
She’s trying to come up with a topic for a blog to win a new job. The job is in a multimedia company, and the winner of the blog contest gets the position. At her friend’s suggestion and seeing how there’s only twelve days left ’til Christmas, she decides to kill her neighbor, Cain Maddox, AKA Ebenezer, with kindness. Julie reports the progress in her daily blog, which turns out to be a huge success with thousands of followers in a short period of time.
Kane doesn’t want to have anything to do with Julia Padden, his way-too-jolly neighbor. He has his own set of problems and his own heartache. When he keeps running into her outside the apartment building, in his cynical view, he suspects Julia is stalking him. When he finds out what she’s really doing at his grandfather’s nursing home, he feels really bad about accusing her of such activity. As he apologizes, he finds talking with her is not that difficult.
Of course, there is a happily ever after, but the story unveils in interesting ways to keep the pages turning.
I was sent an uncorrected proof to review. Once again, Ms. Macomber’s uncorrected proof is better than a lot of finished products. I am never disappointed and I always look forward to her heartwarming, the world’s a better place, and let’s have the best Christmas ever stories. I hope they decide to make this one into the movie. I can’t wait.
Grade: A
Summary:
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.
