I received a complimentary copy of this book from Blogging For Books and was under no obligation to post a review. No compensation was received for sharing this review and all opinions are my own.
Series: A Dog Named Christmas #3
Published by Crown Publishing Group on 2017
Source: Blogging For Books
Genres: Family Life, Fiction, Holidays, Small Town & Rural
Pages: 288
From the New York Times bestselling author of A Dog Named Christmas comes this heartwarming Christmas story about the power of family and the strength and love that comes from our pets.
In this fourth installment of the poignant stories of the McCray family and their lovable canines in rural Kansas, matriarch Mary Ann McCray is determined to shake up Christmas by accepting the role as Crossing Trail's first woman Santa Claus. Mary Ann, always a bit of a rebel, is looking to offer a more progressive voice in the staunchly conservative town at Christmastime and has a few ideas up her red velvet sleeves.
I’ve not read any books in the A Dog Named Christmas series by Greg Kincaid prior to Noelle. Still, I was able to follow the story perfectly without confusion. The premise of this book is absolutely adorable. I loved Mrs. Claus and the values she had to teach.
But, this book just didn’t do a thing for me. This is surprising because if you listen to my heartbeat, it beats to the tune of Jingle Bells. I’m serious, y’all…my Christmas obsession runs deep!
So, why did I have such a hard time with this book? Quite simply? There were entirely too many character hops. The story starts out with Lester, Samantha, and her dad. They are brief cameos in this story—never appearing beyond the introduction. Even though my heart was immediately drawn to Samantha and I wanted to know what happened to her.
Then the story shuffled between Dr. Welch and his wife, Todd, and Laura, Haley, Mary Anne and her husband, Hank, Link and Abbey, and then their children. This was quite a lot of characters for a 280-page book.
Overall, this book had promise. But, I wasn’t able to adequately bond with any of the characters due to too many jumps. The story is a sweet feel-good Christmas tale. It just didn’t deliver.
Note: Kristin reads and reviews both Christian and secular fiction on A Simply Enchanted Life. Out of respect for my readers, I am including a content review. This content review will help you decide whether this book is suitable for you.
Content Review:
Christian or Secular: Secular
Profanity: None
Sex&Violence: None (see disclosure)
Trigger Warnings: None (see disclosure)
Disclosure: A couple moves in together before marriage. Then they become pregnant. However, there are no love scenes in this book. A couple divorces because a man is arrested for a DUI with his children in the car-non-descriptive.
About Greg Kincaid
GREG KINCAID, author of A Dog Named Christmas and Christmas with Tucker, is a practicing lawyer in Kansas who helped to start the Changing Lives Through Literature Program and has served as the chairman of the Optimist Oratory Contest for the past seven years. The father of five children, he lives on a farm in western Johnson County, Kansas, with his wife and two dogs.
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