Betty is an older woman who lives alone far from her adult children. She is lonely, envious of her friends long marriage when she has long been widowed and dealing with a difficult neighbor who seems to be tearing apart his house and devaluing the neighborhood.
One day a dog wanders into her yard and she thinks it's her neighbors but the dog won't leave her alone. Even though she feeds it and buys it some bedding, she somehow expects it to back to his owner. When her troubled granddaughter shows up on her doorstep and falls in love with the dog, Betty finds it even harder to get rid of.
I really enjoyed this sweet Christmas story. I think that Melody Carlson really captures what people are like, Betty felt very true to life! Her struggles with her neighborhood sounded like what my parents went through in their old neighborhood. Also, I just love animals and their incredible ability to bring us together and disarm us, so I was happy to read about a sweet dog like the dog in this story. And is the cover not just absolutely lovely?
Melody Carlson's Christmas books are always a treat and perfect for that wonderful holiday feeling! If you are interested, you can read an excerpt of The Christmas Dog.
Additionally, you can read an excerpt from the book Finding Christmas by James Calvin Schaap.
I read this a few years ago when it was published under the delightful title Startling Joy. It's a nice collection of short stories perfect for Christmas Eve reading!
Rating: 4/5
Things You Might Want to Know: Christian fiction complete with sermon that brings revelation!
Source of Book: Publisher provided this for review
Publisher: Revell a division of Baker Books
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Review: The Christmas Dog by Melody Carlson
Posted by Amy at 9:17 PM
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4 comments:
It sounds like a sappy, predictable story, but I'm sure I would melt into a puddle while reading it. I love animals. I'm hopeless if one wanders up and wants to stay.
I liked this book, even though I tend not to read much Christian fiction.
This sounds good -- I love authors who create true to life characters.
Everyone seems to be loving The Christmas Dog. It does sound like a sweet story.
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