From the writer of the Netflix sensation, A Christmas Prince, and Christmas Camp, the Hallmark movie and novel, comes a heartwarming new Christmas story, Finding Christmas, showing how sometimes the detour in your journey is the path to true love.With all the glittering decorations, twinkling lights, snow angels, gingerbread men and mistletoe, Christmas is Emmie’s first love. This year, she can’t … mistletoe, Christmas is Emmie’s first love.
This year, she can’t wait to share her favorite Christmas traditions with her boyfriend, Grant. She thinks he’s “the one.” So when Grant’s hectic work schedule has him more “Bah Humbug” than “Ho, Ho, Ho,” Emmie creates a holiday-themed scavenger hunt to help him find his Christmas spirit. At the end of the journey, Grant will arrive at the charming town of Christmas Point where she’s planned a romantic weekend filled with holiday activities.
But Emmie’s plan backfires when a mix-up has the wrong guy following her clues! Sam, a best-selling mystery writer, thinks Emmie’s clever Christmas riddles are from his agent, who is trying to help him get over his epic writer’s block.
When he arrives at Christmas Point and finds the stunned Emmie, he immediately feels she’s someone special, but she can’t see beyond the fact that the wrong guy has shown up. Inspired by the small, charming town, Sam decides to stay and convinces Emmie to join him in a little holiday fun while she waits for Grant.
When Grant finally shows up, Emmie is disappointed to discover he’s not enjoying the activities she planned and can’t help wonder if he’s really the one for her. She also can’t get Sam out of her mind and all the great times they had together. With Christmas coming fast, Emmie will need the magic of the season to help steer her in the direction of true love…
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I picked up Karen Schaler’s “Finding Christmas” based mostly on its gorgeous cover, so I have to admit that my expectations for the story were pretty low. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, for the most part, I enjoyed this book. The story was somewhat predictable and had its share of cheesy moments, but I could easily see it unfolding as a Christmas movie on Netflix or the Hallmark Channel.
As an experienced screenwriter, Ms. Schaler is very good at the visual and other sensory aspects of storytelling. She did a great job of setting the scene, and I often felt as if I were in the story along with the characters, seeing, hearing, and smelling the exact same things they did. That said, while the descriptions were very vivid, I was not impressed with the quality of the writing itself. I found there to be a lot of repetition and awkwardly constructed sentences, among other issues. For example, the main characters, Sam and Emmie, were “impressed” by just about everything they heard or saw, even when some other description would have fit the situation a lot better.
In addition, there were a number of things about the plot that didn’t entirely make sense to me:
1. Why would Sam’s agent, Candace, drive 6 hours round-trip to read the outline of his new book when he could have just emailed it to her?
2. Why was Emmie so fixated on getting a Christmas tree for her and her boyfriend, Grant, to decorate while they were visiting Christmas Point? Where were they supposed to put it (there was already a tree in their room at the inn), how were they supposed to decorate it (buy an entire tree’s worth of brand new ornaments?), and what were they going to do with it when they went home to Seattle? It’s not easy to transport a fully decorated Christmas tree!
3. Was Betty the baker really so desperate for help that she had no choice but to enlist two tourists to help her finish decorating her cookies? Yes, Christmas Point was a small town, but surely she had friends or family who could have helped. Also, shouldn’t she have offered Sam and Emmie some kind of compensation for giving up their vacation time to help her? She didn’t have to pay them, but an offer to refund their class fees seems reasonable.
4. Sam and Emmie consumed almost nothing but sugar for something like two straight days. How did neither of them end up in a diabetic coma or, at the very least, with an upset stomach?
At any rate, the story was overall a cute one, and reading it was a pleasant enough way to spend a few hours on a rainy afternoon. If you are a fan of movies like “The Christmas Prince” (also written by Ms. Schaler), you will enjoy this book.
*ARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss. All opinions expressed are my own.
This book is Christmas indulgence! It’s a snowy destination. It’s festive activities. It’s holiday baking. It’s pure escapism! It’s the most magical time of the year and a young woman, in love with everything Christmas, plans a scavenger hunt for her boyfriend that will instruct him to follow clues to a cozy and romantic bed and breakfast where she will be waiting for him. You can imagine her surprise when the wrong guy unknowingly follows her clues. The story is simply adorable. This is one book that will be a classic for the whimsical Christmas purist. It is so perfectly atmospheric, I feel I have visited Christmas Point, and want to return. Oh, and I hope Dasher is there to greet me. He is just too cute! Another highlight is the outstanding narration in the audio version. Simply fantastic!
I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a quintessential Feel-Good Christmas Romance.
Emmie sets up a scavenger hunt to help her fiancee get into the Christmas Spirit but an overworked doorman mixes up her gift with someone else’s gift. Now instead of her boyfriend it’s Sam a writer in need of inspiration and help finding his Christmas spirit.
A Heartwarming story a sweet romance and a great read for the christmas season.
If you love the Hallmark Christmas movies you will love this book too! I love the cover of this book, it’s why I bought it.
I enjoyed the story and Christmas Point sounds like a perfect little town! At times the character of Emmi was a bit annoying. Overall it was a good story
I Love the story, the characters, the settings and the cover especially.
The story was so well written that I felt like I was right there experiencing everything with Emmie.
I love reading holiday/Christmas stories and this is one of the Best that I have read in a long time!
If you love Hallmark Christmas, romance, and happy endings, this book is for you.
An adorable Christmas romance by the writer behind the Netflix cult hit, A Christmas Prince. It is just as cheesy and holiday-spirit-filled as you could possibly hope!
Perfect light Christmas book. Relatable characters that were easy to care about. And, of course, HEA
A nice light romance!
This book is about a woman called Miss Christmas by her friends, but I think that belongs to Karen Schaler! My favorite Christmas books are all about Christmas from start to finish so I just loved this one. Its a feel good story about two people who love Christmas coming together. Make your favorite Christmas drink, make yourself cozy and settle in with this wonderful book!
I found myself reading this book as part of a family bookclub read. Because I don’t normally read sweet romance, I worry that my review is off. But…coming from my perspective, I found the pace too slow for my taste. That being said, it’s a cute story, and I can see it as a Hallmark Christmas movie in the future.