Empty Stockings
A Brooklyn Christmas Tale
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Christmas 1963.
A nation mourns the loss of its president.
A young boy mourns the life his Irish-Catholic,
working-class father never had.
Rory Maguire is a fourteen-year-old boy looking for a better life for himself and his family in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Harry, had a terrible accident that cost him his job, his ability to walk, and his dignity. His brother, Dermot, is hanging out with a local gang called the Shamrocks, and his two little sisters are growing hungry in the Maguires' frigid tenement apartment. Rory's dreams of becoming a writer seem hopelessly out of reach, as does winning the heart of Carol, the daughter of a prominent Brooklyn lawyer. What Rory needs most this Christmas is a miracle -- and even though he can't bring his hero John F. Kennedy back to life, he might be able to give his father, an ex-merchant marine, the recognition he deserves...and offer his family the gift of hope, health, and happiness for years to come.
In Empty Stockings, Denis Hamill captures the romance, strife, and spirit of the urban Irish-American experience. A heartwarming tale for all seasons, it is a gift to treasure and behold.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Veteran romance author Miller braids together numerous story lines in the second entry in her late 19th-century McKettrick Cowboys trilogy (after High Country Bride), yet all of them lack depth. Angus, patriarch of the McKettrick clan, sets his three sons against one another with his proclamation that the first to marry and father a child will inherit his Arizona ranch. Kade McKettrick, not to be outdone by his recently married brother, Rafe, has sent for a mail-order bride. Improbably, he gets six, none he would marry, while Mandy Sperrin, who's on the run and masquerading as a nun, tweaks his libido. Mandy's disguise fools everyone but Kade, even though she takes a job in a hotel and doesn't know a syllable of Latin when asked to offer a prayer. Though Mandy's plight will inspire sympathy she's from a broken home and yearns to belong somewhere the hot-blooded McKettrick men, who are always spoiling for a fight, are mere stereotypes. Miller compensates with an overstuffed plot involving range wars, stolen gold and murder, but these subplots often feel sketchily drawn and unresolved (a threatened range war fizzles; a posse decides to return home mid-chase). A mile wide and an inch deep, this western romp, while charming at times, lacks the rich characterizations that established Miller as a bestselling author.
