Donna Alward

Swerve Publishing

October 3, 2017

Blurb: With shades of It’s a Wonderful Life, one man must face his past to find his future this Christmas.

In the last year, George’s life has drastically changed. The formerly homeless veteran now has a job he likes, a family in the residents of Darling, VT, and for the first time in years, a home. But while his present is good, he’s still haunted by the past, a past that appears shortly before Christmas when the older sister of his brother-in-arms hunts him down and finds him in Darling, working at the Ladybug Garden Center.Amy’s looking for closure for her family after her brother’s death in the Middle East, but the serious man she finds working in Vermont doesn’t resemble the soldier she remembers from years before. This man is hardened and yet somehow fragile, too, and in her desire to find out what really happened to her brother, she learns more about George than she ever expected.

With a little Christmas magic and the whole town supporting them, can these two bruised hearts make a future together?

SASCHA DARLINGTON’S REVIEW

Disclaimer: Folks, I’ve still got a head cold and the reason they call it a head cold is because it messes with your head…and brain…maybe it’s a brain cold. I’m going to try to make the following review as coherent as possible, because this novella deserves it but please understand if I somewhat miss the mark. 🙂

While I was immersed in Deck the Halls by Donna Alward, I kept thinking that this was a brave topic for a romance and that alone made me applaud Alward because most of us take the easy way out when finding a subject for romances. Given the fact that the male main character was a homeless vet just months prior to the novella’s beginning, the story could have easily gone maudlin, a trap that Alward avoided. And, both George and Amy are older characters 40 and 37, which isn’t in the typical age range either, so the story was far more mature with characters showing more depth, even in the confines of a novella.

At the end, I mentally uttered a “wow” because the story was wonderful. My heartstrings were pulled numerous times. When George and Amy reconnect, there is swoon and tenderness.

If you want a story that makes you think and feel and read about good people behaving decently, qualities which feel very rare in our current climate, read this novella. It’s short and sweet, but it will stick with you long after the final word.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

From Amazon: Deck the Halls

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