Sandra Harper (1)

Vanessa Channing is ready for things to be different. After traveling every Christmas with her husband JT and twin boys from Los Angeles to the snowy suburbs of Massachusetts, Vanessa has elected to stay home in L.A. and enjoy more of a secluded holiday. This drastically changes plans for the Boston-based Channings, however, and JT’s brother Richard — along with his wife, Patience, and teenage daughter Libby — decide that rather than spend their holiday without their family in show more Massachusetts, they’ll just bring the holiday to Vanessa’s family.

That’s all well and good — except that Patience, Vanessa’s sister-in-law, is totally Type A and crazy about Christmas. Though they’re now on the West Coast and there’s nary a snowflake to be found, Patience brings her conventional ideas of a “traditional” holiday with her, and Vanessa wants little to do with it. After JT comes down with the flu, leaving Vanessa to entertain and prepare for the big day alone, the life vest she’d been wearing to get her through the season begins to deflate.

Sandra Harper’s Over The Holidays is a tongue-in-cheek look at those traditions that both bind and break us, and the maniacal way in which we all flutter around this time of year — trying to be everyone to everybody. I loved that the book was based in Los Angeles, giving us a glimpse of a warm-weather Christmas — something I find fascinating! And Harper did a solid job discussing the Channing traditions and their meaning to each individual member.

While the novel was definitely a fast, entertaining read, I had a hard time getting past my annoyance with several of the characters. The Boston-based Channings — Richard, Patience and Libby — came across as such stereotypical, uptight New Englanders, and they felt more like caricatures of WASPs than real people. Like Vanessa, Patience’s OCD began to really grate on me. And if it was supposed to? Harper did an excellent job! I came dangerously close to wishing I could grab her by her skinny, twinset-wearing neck and give her a good slap. And Libby, their teenage daughter, was so incessantly whiny, ungrateful and selfish that I would have been tempted to ditch her in L.A. on my way back to Massachusetts.

Through our all-knowing, third-person narrator, we’re able to dart in and out of the minds of every character in Over The Holidays – a fact I found jarring. Vanessa seemed to be the story’s anchor and principle player, and I think I would have enjoyed the book better if I’d seen everything through her filter — and gotten her “side” of things more clearly. Thea fascinated me, too, and was my favorite person in the novel; I could have enjoyed the story as told by her perspective, too. Her examination of what the holidays “mean,” as explored through her art, was an interesting concept. Seeing even more of that would have been fun.

Overall, a fast and simple read which satisfied my desire to read something with a Christmas bent. A little more substance in the story would have rounded out my holiday feast, but I’m happy to have spent some time with the Channings in their pursuit of something lasting — and something real. show less

"It was only December first but Vanessa Channing felt like it had been Christmas forever..." So begins Sandra Harper's latest fun and light holiday read full of family drama.

Vanessa Clayton,her gaffer husband JT, and the young twins, Ethan and Alex, usually spend the holidays in New England with her sister-in-law, but the tough economic times give her the excuse to celebrate at home in Los Angeles. Vanessa is far from a domestic goddess - her own family tradition is "store bought," her young show more boys are a handful, and her writing job is keeping her crazy busy. Vanessa's sister Thea has a very different life. An artist and single, Thea's life centers around her art. Her latest project involves compiling holiday memories and this starts her reminiscing about Cal, her boyfriend from fifteen years ago. Though Thea's reasonably happy with her gorgeous young lover, once Thea starts thinking about what may have been with Cal, Thea can't resist hunting him down.

Patience Clayton's life appears to be the opposite of that of her sister-in-law Vanessa Clayton. Patience lives for the holidays and devotes herself to maintaining their family's traditions from the cranberry tarts to the carefully orchestrated themed Open House on Christmas Eve. When her sister-in-law declines the annual invitation to a New England Christmas, Patience decides to bring her husband Richard and their teenage daughter Libby to Los Angeles in the hope that this will bring the family closer together. But with Libby acting curt and cold and Vanessa's ill disguised irritation, this is shaping up to be Patience's worst holiday ever.

I found Over the Holidays to be a light and engaging read. I would occasionally find Vanessa to be self centered and irritating and would sympathize with Patience - Vanessa's zingers would make me cringe. On the other hand, I suspect that many readers would be more inclined to regard Patience's insistence on doing things "right" annoying and identify with the younger, more creative Vanessa. Regardless of whether you prefer Vanessa to Patience, I believe that most readers would find both of them sympathetic. If you're looking for a fun book to read for the holidays and have a taste for chicklit or mommylit, you may well enjoy Over the Holidays.

Publisher: Pocket (October 6, 2009), 336 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher. show less

I began reading this book in December, the height of the holiday season, expecting a light holiday read. The story is built around around three women: Vanessa, her sister Thea and Vanessa's sister-in-law Patience. Each woman was struggling with what their idea of the holdays "should be like".

-Patience is a traditionalist, the priveleged wife of a doctor who has the time to plan and execute Christmas decorations, traditions and meals that would make Martha Stewart proud.
-Vanessa is a show more stressed out mom that is constantly struggling to keep up with the family schedule, and make ends meet on a somewhat unstable income. she wants everyone to be happy, but mostly she just wants to get it all done...and maybe a little time to herself.
-Thea is a single artist and free spirit. She isn't sure what she wants from the holidays.

I could identify with a lot of the issues that Vanessa and Patience struggled with. The expectation that certain things should "always" be part of the holidays, wanting everything to be perfect, not having the time to make it that way, the blending of different family traditions. I found Thea's story line meandering and I didn't think she added much to the story.

While I enjoyed parts of the book very much, I felt like some portions dragged on. The ending also felt somewhat unfinished. show less

I am a Christmas fanatic and the thought of merging chick lit with a Christmas setting was an appealing one. I found Over the Holidays to be a fun read, as light and fluffy as cotton candy with a peppermint twist. I could relate to the main character, Vanessa, insofar as her desire to give her family a traditional, old-fashioned Christmas but running into the reality of job stress, energetic children, a husband unable to help and the very best of intentions going awry.

If you read author show more Sandra Harper’s guest post last week, you will recognize that all three holiday archetypes Ms. Harper discussed are present in Over the Holidays - - the Norman Rockwell-esque traditionalist and perfectionist Patience, the Hannah of Good Intentions Vanessa and the Rebel Without a Claus Thea. Patience cannot imagine a Christmas without cold temperatures, snow, a beautifully decorated house that would make Martha Stewart weep and homemade cooking from scratch. Vanessa wishes she could be like Patience, while at the same time resenting Patience’s perfection at all things domestic. Thea believes Christmas has turned into more of a showcase of greed and time of depression than a true celebration and wishes to set an example. Add in Vanessa’s husband JT, who gets an out of town job during the holidays, Patience’s husband Richard, who doesn’t want to rock the boat but finds playing golf in January appealing, Vanessa and JT’s twin 9 year old sons who have more energy than they know what to do with, Patience and Richard’s seventeen year old daughter, Libby, who is desperate to escape from the confines of their Wenham, Massachusetts home and Neil, a moody playwright who resents Vanessa’s help with his play but comes to need her.

As much as I could generally relate to Vanessa, I also had some issues with her. At times, she was downright abrasive and rude to Patience. While I could understand the frustration of having a “perfect” sister-in-law, I began to sympathize with Patience and get irritated with Vanessa. There was also a time or two during the story that I wished Vanessa wouldn’t give in to her children as much and be a little more of a disciplinarian.

I also had to remind myself during the book that Thea was her older sister and not younger sister because I continued feeling that Thea was represented more as a younger sister.

However, these are relatively minor gripes when taking the book as a whole. I felt drawn into the story from the first page and the characters were well fleshed out. Whatever your thoughts on the holiday season - - love it, dread it, tolerate it or are indifferent to it - - you can find something to relate to here. Not each individual storyline resolved itself as I thought it might, which left me guessing to a degree and provided me with a pleasant surprise instead of a shrug and sigh.

If you enjoy chick lit, if you have strong feelings about the holidays or just want some light, entertaining reading, you simply can’t go wrong with Over the Holidays. show less