Can This Be Christmas? Debbie Macomber. 1998. 91 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: A robust version of "Little Drummer Boy" played in the background as Len Dawber glanced at his watch--for at least the tenth time in five minutes.
Premise/plot: Can This Be Christmas is a short holiday-themed novella by Debbie Macomber. A group of [restless] passengers are stranded at a depot [train, I believe] on Christmas Eve. No one is where they want to be. Most--though not all--are separated from family and loved ones. All are in different stages in life.
Can these strangers find the 'true' meaning of Christmas?
My thoughts: It was short and sweet. It is not a romance. [Though a few passengers are in relationships.] Because Can This Be Christmas is packaged as a bonus story in longer collections that are romances, your expectations might be different. In fact, I believe GoodReads has MIXED all reviews of Can This Be Christmas with the reviews of her new novel A Perfect Christmas which has Can This Be Christmas as a bonus story. This is probably doing neither book any favors. But it is especially unfair to readers who are confused and trying to make up their minds whether to read it!
This is a general "feel-good" comfy-cozy Christmas novella. There are MANY characters and MANY stories. It is set over the course of one day and night--Christmas Eve/Christmas. It reminded me of a L.M. Montgomery short story I read once.
© 2022 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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