My review: Where Treetops Glisten, plus giveaway!

 

Where Treetops Glisten is a collection of novellas set during WWII! I just love the cover on this one! And even though it's September, it takes me right to the snowy cold days of Christmas. I'm giving away a copy, so keep reading for the details! :)

 

 

Description:



The crunch of newly fallen snow, the weight of wartime

Siblings forging new paths and finding love in three stories,
filled with the wonder of Christmas
Turn back the clock to a different time, listen to Bing Crosby sing of sleigh bells in the snow, as the realities of America’s involvement in the Second World War change the lives of the Turner family in Lafayette, Indiana.

In Cara Putman’s White Christmas, Abigail Turner is holding down the Home Front as a college student and a part-time employee at a one-of-a-kind candy shop. Loss of a beau to the war has Abigail skittish about romantic entanglements—until a hard-working young man with a serious problem needs her help.

Abigail’s brother Pete is a fighter pilot hero returned from the European Theater in Sarah Sundin’s I’ll Be Home for Christmas, trying to recapture the hope and peace his time at war has eroded. But when he encounters a precocious little girl in need of Pete’s friendship, can he convince her widowed mother that he’s no longer the bully she once knew?

In Tricia Goyer’s Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Meredith Turner, "Merry" to those who know her best, is using her skills as a combat nurse on the frontline in the Netherlands. Halfway around the world from home, Merry never expects to face her deepest betrayal head on, but that’s precisely what God has in mind to redeem her broken heart.

The Turner family believes in God’s providence during such a tumultuous time. Can they absorb the miracle of Christ’s birth and His plan for a future?

About the authors:
Cara Putman is the author of twenty books including Shadowed by Grace. She is the winner of the 2008 Carol Award for historical fiction. Sarah Sundin is the critically-acclaimed author of the Wings of the Nightingale series, the Wings of Glory series, and the forthcoming Waves of Freedom novels. Tricia Goyer is a prolific author of nearly forty books, including Chasing Mona Lisa, and a speaker and blogger.
(Description, about the authors, and cover photo from Christian Book.  All rights reserved.) 

My review: 4 stars
Great Christmas collection!
Where Treetops Glisten is a novella collection set around Christmases during WWII. I’m not typically a big fan of novellas, simply because they always feel too short to me, but I really enjoyed these. They are closely linked, as the main characters in each are siblings. There are 3 in this collection, which allowed the authors to make them a little longer than the typical novella, without having a huge book as the result.

White Christmas by Cara Putman I really enjoyed this novella! Abigail Turner is the middle child of the family now, though not by choice. She lost 2 siblings when she was a child and after losing her boyfriend to the war, is very skittish of new relationships. I found Abigail to be a realistic character and enjoyed getting to know her. I could easily relate to what she was going through and quickly fell in love with her character. Her fear of losing someone else is pretty much the crux of the story. Her desire to get to know Jackson Lucas and perhaps have a relationship with him hangs on whether or not she can let go of the past and allow herself to love again.
I enjoyed Jackson’s character as well. He is strong, kind, and very patient with Abigail. At the beginning of the story he has his own issues to deal with, including a bit of a mystery, so that kept everything moving forward, as he and Abigail got to know each other. 
My only complaint is that I felt the ending was a little rushed and a bit unrealistic.

I’ll be Home for Christmas by Sarah SundinIn this novella, we get to follow Pete Turner’s love story. I try really hard not to play favorites, but I think this one was mine. Pete comes home from war struggling to escape the horrors he witnessed and the weight of losing friends. I appreciated the realism in that, though it was glossed over a bit. He feels empty and the pastor tells him to give, which makes no sense at all to Pete. But he learns the truth in the pastor’s words when he comes across Linnie, an adorable little girl who is out wandering. Now we get to why this story was my favorite . . . I adored Linnie! She was so cute and sweet! I loved her relationship with Pete and how she often taught him something, instead of the other way around.
Grace Kessler is the heroine and Linnie’s mother. She and Pete have a history and she doesn’t regard him fondly at their first reunion. She remembers him as the bully from her childhood years and isn’t all that excited when he offers to watch Linnie for her. I can’t pinpoint one thing in particular that I liked about Grace, I just really enjoyed her character. Maybe it was the banter between them, or her willingness to forgive past hurts, or how she cared for Linnie, whatever it was, Ms. Sundin did a great job!
The romance didn’t feel rushed, which surprised me. I think it may have been because Grace and Pete had known each other before and started from there. They also spent a lot of time talking and getting to know one another better, rather than just jumping into being in love. Also, Linnie was often the focus, which kept it off their relationship a bit.
I also especially appreciated the spiritual aspect of this novella. It is a bit more prevalent here and focuses on allowing God to fill the empty spaces in your heart, rather than trying to use people to make you whole.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Tricia GoyerIn this story, we get to know Meredith (Merry) Turner, the last Turned sibling still single. I must confess I didn’t like this one as well as the others. Merry had her heart broken at the beginning of the war and is still struggling to move past the sense of betrayal and abandonment she feels as a result. I found it rather difficult to relate to Merry and didn’t connect with her at all. I really wanted to like her, but she seemed a little childish, focusing on something that happened 3 years ago and constantly contemplating the fact she couldn’t be home for Christmas. Also, a couple of her reactions didn’t make any sense to me and made me want to shake her.
There was actually very little dialogue between the protagonists, which was kind of annoying. I wanted them to talk, spend time together, something. But Merry spent most of her time with Nancy, one of her fellow nurses. Also, we rarely see anything from the hero’s point of view, which I suppose makes sense on some level, but I would have liked to know what he was thinking a little more often.

Overall, the novellas were all good in their own right. I really enjoyed the epilogue, which pulled everything together and allowed us one last glimpse into the Turner family. The thing that most impressed me about this book how well each of the stories flows with the others. It being written by three different authors, I had anticipated some discord between the novellas, but each character’s personality and the important aspects of who they are stayed the same throughout the book.
I liked the premise of the series and if I would have liked a few things to be different, then that’s just my personal preference.

I received a complementary copy of this book from the publisher, through The Christian Manifesto for my honest review, which I have given. I was not required to write a positive review and have not been compensated for it in any way. All opinions expressed are my own.

 

As noted above, I'm giving away a copy of this book to celebrate the release!  To be entered in the giveaway, please answer one of the questions that follows and leave your email address in a similar spam protected format, user[at]suchandsuch[dot]com so I can contact the winner.  If you do not leave an email address, I will not be able to enter you.  The drawing will be open until midnight EST on September 16th.  
You can receive extra entries by following my blog (follow by email option is available in the bar on the right hand side of the screen) and sharing the link for this giveaway on social media.  If you do either of these, be sure to leave a comment and let me know!



Questions:

What is your favorite Christmas carol and why?

What is your favorite Christmas tradition?

Is there a special book or story that you always read during Christmastime (other than the story of Jesus' birth)?