3D book image of Once Upon a Christmas Carol with strands of Christmas lights

Once Upon a Christmas Carol by Melody Carlson

October 31, 2025October 29, 2025Leave a comment

I received a complimentary copy of this book for an honest review.

Once Upon a Christmas Carol
by
Melody Carlson

| Description

• Romantic Christian Fiction

Because Carol grew up in a dysfunctional home with too many dashed childhood expectations, including at Christmastime—the holiday season is now something she’d rather avoid. So, this year her goal is to flee to the Bahamas and to vacation by herself until Christmas is over. Bah humbug! But bad weather redirects her flight to blustery Michigan, where she gets stuck on her aunt’s farm and discovers a different kind of Christmas: one wrapped in love, family, and holiday spirit.

| My Thoughts

I heard about this ChristFic Christmas novella in an announcement from the publisher, saying the book is for fans of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and describing the heroine as “a modern-day Scrooge.” Because I so enjoyed reading that classic before, and because Scrooge (1951) is one of my all-time favorite films, I decided to give Once Upon a Christmas Carol a try.

In case you suddenly need an iconic scene from the middle of 1951’s Scrooge—here ya’ go!

Bah…Humbug?

Despite Once Upon’s title, though, I didn’t really find the story to have much in common with Dickens’s classic, plot wise. And simply preferring to avoid Christmas because of some bad holiday experiences in the past doesn’t make someone a selfish, miserly, cold-hearted Ebenezer Scrooge, character wise. Carol isn’t like that.

Once Upon just seems more like a regular Hallmark-Christmassy tale, which would have been fine on its own. But admittedly, certain aspects of this specific read didn’t work for me.

The Single. The Married. And the Divorced.

The older I get, the more I believe that it’s perfectly possible to appreciate and to celebrate romance and marriage without putting down singleness.

Whether or not it’s intentional, I think some of the characters’ dialogue in this book sends a message that if someone has decided they’d rather be single at a certain time in their life (or for however long), something must be wrong with them, in one way or another. Or that the adults who are staying single these days must all be “afraid” of the alternative. That certainly isn’t the case across the board.

I didn’t exactly care for the way this story touches on the issue of divorce either—particularly, divorced people—but that’d be a lot to address further right now.

Triangle Trouble

I’ll also admit that when it comes to the prospective couple in a romantic read, it usually puts a damper on the story for me if one of those characters is currently involved with someone else. I tend not to relax into a story’s romantic development when one of the characters hasn’t ended (and had some quality time away from) their other romantic relationship.

It’s an added turn-off for me if that character starts showing signs of being unassertive and indecisive about the person they’re already involved with.

Then if the story starts to sink into rather teenage-ish love-triangle friction, that’s pretty much it for me.

More from This Author?

While this story didn’t turn out to be my cup of cocoa, I have enjoyed around five other Christmas novellas by this author before, including A Quilt for Christmas and A Royal Christmas.

A Time to Heal: Moondust Lake by Davis Bunn

October 3, 2025November 8, 2025Leave a comment

Moondust Lake
by
Davis Bunn

| Description

• Romantic Contemporary Fiction

A top executive in the family business, Buddy Helms lives and works under the thumb of his controlling, angry father. After too many years of waiting to hear that he’s worthy of his father’s love and respect, Buddy plans on cutting ties with the business. He forms a friendship with Kimberly Sturgiss, a psychotherapist who’s now embarking on a new career move after her tragic past. But the most intriguing challenge for Kimberly now is…Buddy.

| My Thoughts

I’ve been reading fiction from this prolific and versatile author for decades, from his historical suspense to his legal thrillers and speculative fiction and more.

More than Moons and Lakes

Now I’ve come to this third book in the Miramar Bay series of standalones. Notwithstanding this one’s gentle title and cover art, the novel is actually a corporate workplace and family drama with dashes of danger and a side of romance. While I didn’t wind up really connecting with the characters, the overall situation kept me interested.

As for the Romance

Admittedly, the romance wasn’t my favorite aspect of the story. That’s largely because the two involved characters’ hearts are in such downbeat or critically broken places.

Sure, no person is ever in a 100% perfect state with no need for any learning, growing, healing, or anything. But in this instance, one downbeat party is reluctant about the insta-love kind of experience happening, and the broken party is so lost that they admit they don’t even know who they are. I don’t see a secure or compelling basis there for striking up a new romantic relationship already.

Concerning Diversity

On a different note, the older I get as a Black American woman, the more that I feel it’s important to mention matters like the following one, since not everyone is used to noticing or considering them.

I appreciate stories having characters of different ethnicities, which is the case in this and other books I’ve read by this author. However, the reading here got a little weird to me because the narrator refers to a supporting Black character as “the old black man” multiple times, and once as “an old dark man.” After all, no one in the story is called “the white man” or “the light woman” again and again as if their race or skin color were anything but perfectly normal.

I’m not mentioning this on account of this author specifically but more for other writers, especially aspiring ones, who may read this or other book reviews of mine. If you’re wondering about normalizing ethnic diversity in fiction, you’re welcome to ask for more of my take on the subject.

Continuing the Series?

Despite a crucial character’s total one-eighty that takes place off-page too quickly and easily toward the end, I remained intrigued by the story’s general events and wanted to see how everything would wrap up. I plan on continuing this series sometime.

| Content Note

some violent scenes and discussions of past violence
no profanity
no explicit sexual content

Here’s my review of the first book in the series, Miramar Bay.

The Blossom and the Firefly by Sherri L. Smith

June 14, 2024November 9, 2025Leave a comment

The Blossom and the Firefly
by
Sherri L. Smith

| Description

• Young Adult Historical Fiction

Japan 1945. Taro is a talented violinist and a kamikaze pilot in the days before his first and only mission. He’s ready to die for his country…then he meets Hana. Hana hasn’t been the same since the day she was buried alive in a collapsed trench during a bomb raid. She wonders if it would have been better to have died that day…until she meets Taro. Is it possible to live an entire lifetime in eight short days? A World War II romance between two Japanese teens caught in the cogs of an unwinnable war.

| My Thoughts

In the end, this novel moved me.

Granted, despite the publisher’s description, I wouldn’t call the book a romance. Taro and Hana don’t meet each other until about halfway through the novel, and even from there, they don’t have the most interaction.

While I liked the nonchronological unfolding of the story, much of the book ambles along through the separate lives of two young people, unknown to each other, who’ll cross paths…eventually. I appreciate the story’s sense of setting and culture, but perhaps some scenes could have been edited down or omitted to keep the plot moving forward. I think it stalls the progress in a fiction read when, for instance, the narrative spends multiple paragraphs describing how a certain lunch is prepared. The reading was on the slow side for me until some point during the second half.

Still, the novel has moments of aching exquisiteness. Moments of ethereal brilliance, even when they’re bittersweet. Those moments were enough to keep me reading until the story truly came alive for me.

Besides, having enjoyed historical fiction from this author before—and after seeing the poignant blend of war, understated emotion, and quiet beauty displayed on the book cover—I wouldn’t have been able to resist seeing just how the title and the plot would come together.

The Healing Summer by Heather B. Moore

April 22, 2024December 23, 2024Leave a comment

The Healing Summer by Heather B. Moore

Gentle Read

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Description: Widow Maggie Howard wishes to return to San Francisco to find out what happened to the man who saved her life over seventy years ago. She invites her newly divorced neighbor, Jo Sampson, to travel with her, and the two women begin to form a strong bond.

My thoughts: After passing by and admiring the lovely, tranquil book cover of this women’s fiction novel several times over the past year or two, I finally picked it up.

As I got into the reading, I enjoyed watching Maggie and Jo’s friendship grow. I also liked seeing how Jo gradually comes to grips with what happened in her marriage and how she has to reevaluate the way she deals with her former husband.

Now, while I was definitely into Maggie’s journey, there’s a key “twist” I found to be unsurprising but also not that convincing for her character. Especially considering that Maggie is well-traveled and into serious art, it seems that somewhere over the course of seventy years, she would have thought of at least the possibility of that type of “twist” on her own.

As for Jo, though I see why there’s romance in her storyline, I’ll admit it isn’t the kind that really moves me. For me to find a developing romantic relationship compelling, I need to find both parties to be compelling as romantic characters, and not just concerning their physical looks or inward feelings. I like both parties to be outwardly interesting contributors to the relationship—with both sides of their conversations, what each one does for the other, etc. showing that they’re an equal match. Personally, I didn’t get a good sense of that kind of chemistry in this case.

Style wise, I think the novel could have used fewer descriptions that are clichéd or rather on the nose. And the narrative details and characters’ comments are sometimes repetitive.

Even so, the plot in general kept me reading. And the story handles some tough and even tragic parts of Maggie’s and Jo’s lives in a way that tugged on my heart without dragging me down. I think the book’s length is a good match for the story it tells, and overall, its essence is one of hope.