251 pages
Don Locke

This story opens with David Connors sitting in the driveway of his home. He has just disappointed his wife and children again by losing track of time at his office Christmas party and arriving too late to help decorate the Christmas tree. He is in a trial separation and it isn’t going well. His wife doesn’t really miss having him around because he has never really been engaged in their life anyway and she tells him so in a brutally honest way.

Distraught, he goes to his office and begins drinking. He makes his way up to the roof of the building and decides to end it all by jumping. Just as he is about to jump, he discovers a carpet bag halfway buried in the snow. The bag has an uncanny ability to give odd gifts to people at just the right time.

Freaked out by all of this, David makes his way to a restaurant and eventually to the bar. There he encounters Maggie, an independent and feisty woman who winds up entangled in the journey that the bag is about to take them on.

I was in the mood for a Christmas book and this fit the bill. In many ways, it reminded me of It’s a Wonderful Life but it had enough differences to make it unique.

David is flawed and so is Maggie but they are both likable characters. They carry baggage from previous events in their lives but as they move through the journey that is set before them they are able to become close(in a platonic way) and help each other overcome the pain so that they can move on. The book has a clearly Christian message but I didn’t find it preachy at all. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a clean Christmas story.(3.5/5) ( )