Review: Twelve Days of Christmas by Debbie Macomber

06 October of 2016 by ButtonsMom2003

Reviewer's Rating: 4

4.0Overall score

Just what I'd expect from a Debbie Macomber Christmas book.

Twelve Days of Christmas By Debbie Macomber

Genre: Romance

Released: October 4, 2016

Publisher: Random House

Synopsis

Friendly and bubbly, Julia Padden likes nearly everyone, but her standoffish neighbor, Cain Maddox, presents a particular challenge. No matter how hard she’s tried to be nice, Cain rudely rebuffs her at every turn, preferring to keep to himself. But when Julia catches Cain stealing her newspaper from the lobby of their apartment building, that’s the last straw. She’s going to break through Cain’s Scrooge-like exterior the only way she knows how: by killing him with kindness.

To track her progress, Julia starts a blog called Twelve Days of Christmas. Her first attempts to humanize Cain are far from successful. Julia brings him homemade Christmas treats and the disagreeable Grinch won’t even accept them. Meanwhile, Julie’s blog becomes an online sensation, as an astonishing number of people start following her adventures. Julia continues to find ways to express kindness and, little by little, chips away at Cain’s gruff façade to reveal the caring man underneath. Unbelievably, Julia feels herself falling for Cain—and she suspects that he may be falling for her as well. But as the popularity of her blog continues to grow, Julia must decide if telling Cain the truth about having chronicled their relationship to the rest of the world is worth risking their chance at love.

Review

Reviewed by ButtonsMom2003

Just what I’d expect from a Debbie Macomber Christmas book.

First let me say that I did enjoy this book. I’ve been reading stories by Debbie Macomber for ages but this is the first Christmas book by her that I’ve read in several years. While my tastes have lately leaned toward spicier books it was a nice change to read something sweet.Julia’s neighbor is grumpy and rude. When she catches him stealing her paper she loses it. Julia tells her best friend what happened and the friend suggests that Julia kill him with kindness and write about it her blog.

Cain Maddox doesn’t trust women. His last long-term relationship ended badly when he found out that the women was using him to get a promotion.

Julia’s mission to kill Cain with kindness quickly shows a positive return and she and Cain begin a friendship that turns into more – until he learns about her blog.

This story is classic Debbie Macomber. While I found it completely predictable that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes I like reading a book that I don’t have to work or think too hard about while I’m reading. This was a really quick read for me; less than 2.5 hours.

Amazon shows that this book has 288 pages in the hardcover edition. I read an ARC of the digital edition and Adobe Digital Editions shows that the book has 140 pages with 8 of those pages being an excerpt from another Christmas story. Since I read this in less than 2.5 hours I’m inclined to go with the 140 pages that ADE shows this at. Perhaps the hardcover edition has really large print.

I’m commenting on the number of pages because I’m astonished at the price of this book for the Kindle edition. Yes, it’s Debbie Macomber, but in my mind the length of this book just doesn’t justify the price tag (currently showing as $10.99 on pre-order). If you’ve read any of my previous reviews you know that price is something I rarely comment on (unless the book was available for an incredibly low cost), but I just couldn’t do this review without commenting on it. Even the most devoted Macomber fans might want to wait until this book becomes available at their local library.

In conclusion, if you’ve read and enjoyed other Debbie Macomber Christmas stories you should enjoy this one. It’s predictable and sweet but perfect for getting away from it all for couple of hours.