Richard Paul Evans

If you like sappy, predictable stories with poorly developed characters and a by-the-numbers plotline, this might be the book for you.

In it, a wannabe novelist hits the big time after appropriating his wife's story of her last days with her dying father, and their supposedly perfect union begins to dissolve under the pressures of celebrity. He goes off on a four-week book tour (which probably ought to be banned by the Geneva Convention) and finds he enjoys the perks while she stays home in show more Utah with their 6-year-old daughter and feels sorry for herself because he's away,pushing his book up the Best Seller List.

At every opportunity, they undermine each other. He doesn't seem to have the backbone to tell his publisher that he absolutely has to have a mid-tour break; she never suggests the notion of meeting him somewhere along the route for a little together-time. (Example -- he finds himself in New York for Thanksgiving week because he has an absolutely vital Monday morning meeting, and notes with what Evans tells us is regret that he will miss his daughter's Thanksgiving Pageant on Tuesday. Why? Don't westbound planes depart New York several times a day? Then, first thing Monday morning, he discovers the meeting has been cancelled. Does he hie to the airport and grab the next flight for home? No, he hangs around until Wednesday afternoon bemoaning the fact that he's missing the family holiday.)

Evans never shows when he can tell, and his choppy chapter structure prevents the narrative flow from ever gathering strength. Then, about halfway through the narrative, the story takes a hard right into woo-woo land when Our Author meets an angel who tells him he will be dead by New Year's and of course, like Ebenezer Scrooge (but with less verbiage) he is transformed by the experience.

Nope. Just not my thing. show less

Richard Paul Evans ruined Christmas for me one year. I sat in the corner of the living room, reading The Christmas Box and cried. In fact, I was in a rather obsessive mood and considered how it would look if I disappeared for a couple of hours and drove to the cemetery to see if the grave marker really existed. How much of this story was true? Then I calmed down enough to just be ticked off at him for making me cry. I hate contrived tragedies which is why I never watch Little House on the show more Prairie, anymore. By the end of it, Pa is always crying. Still, others have found his books endearing and he spends an inordinate amount of time on the New York Times Best Sellers. Fortunately, this book did not leave me in tears nor did it leave me with an uncontrollable urge to drive to Meridian, Idaho (it's a real place) or Pasadena, California. Not only that, Evans is a brilliant story teller.

I loved that Michael Vey, the protagonist has a neurological disorder. Michael has Tourette's. The kind that has him blinking and gulping in tics. I am of the mind this may come into play as to why Michael is so special but until then, Michael is an excellent example of a boy with a socially unacceptable disorder yet he does not allow it to paralyze him.

Character development for the main characters and many of the minor characters is well played. The humor, particularly in the dialogue, is unexpected under the dire conditions. Ostin, Michael's sidekick is like a astronomically smart, myopic, and slightly overweight Sam Wise. Everybody should have a friend as devoted as Ostin.

The antagonists are truly spiteful. Motivation is introduced but not clarified but there are other antagonists from other parts of the world we have not yet met. This is the first book of a series. What the antagonists are willing to do to gain control of the electric children is chilling and psychopathic. Although I will admit the psychological brilliance of it.

I completely loved it. It completely cleared the Mom-o-Meter.

Swearing - none.
Sex - none.
Drug use - some underage drinking met with surprise.
Violence - abundant.
Blood and gore - minimal, if any.

As long as we don't make this reader cry and take an unplanned trip to a cemetery, I will continue with this series.

Get this one. Really. show less

I loved this book. It might be the saddest book I have ever read. This poor Irish girl is sold to a sailor by her parents to save her life (they knew the rest of the family would not survive). The sailor is cruel and abuses her for years. She meets and falls in love with a preacher (still hurting from the death of his wife) who frees her from the cruel sailor. He is shot by the sailor and eventually dies from the wound. On his deathbed, he marries her and wills his property to her. He asks show more her to care for his daughter from his 1st marriage. She raises his daughter as her own but never marries again. I wanted to cry for her when she finally found love only to lose it. This book will break your heart but it is a good read. show less

I loved this book, but unfortunately, I read it to fast, and I wanted more!
I loved how the two main characters meet, Lee meet Leigh, and the cup of coffee!
Without realizing it, these two rather broken individuals, are very much alike, and they need each other.
Can you imagine meeting someone, and then finding out they are famous, but they are ordinary people, right? This basically happens here, but there is so much going on, and Lee is infatuated, but will Leigh, Beth, be able to come to show more terms to all the secrets?
Some of the secrets these two hold would break anyone, but they have endured so much hardship and pain.
There are surprises, and gifts that need to be opened, and at time it reads like a warm hug!
You will find love and redemption here, and hopefully the new beginnings.
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Gallery Books, and was not required to give a positive review. show less