One Christmas Morning
A Novel
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
For fans of The Midnight Library and One Day in December who love a dash of Dickensian magic, One Christmas Morning is a heartwarming debut novel about a woman’s self-discovery, the strength found in friendship, and the promise of second chances.
Eva has spent the past three years burying herself in her work, trying to forget the heartbreaking events of the Christmas that ripped her world apart. This year, the last thing she wants is to attend her friend’s weekend-long Christmas party. But at her husband James’ insistence, here they are.
When Eva—overwhelmed by bittersweet memories—tries to sneak back to London in the middle of the night, she is visited by the ghost of her beloved grandmother. Gran tells Eva that if she doesn’t face her fears head-on and stop shutting out her loved ones, she risks losing them all forever.
When Eva wakes on Christmas morning, she finds herself living not her own life, but that of her hardworking assistant, Diana, whose overflowing inbox isn’t the only secret she’s been keeping. The next day, she wakes on Christmas morning again, this time in the body of her best friend’s little sister. As Eva lives the same day again and again through the perspectives of her friends, she is offered a glimpse into the lives of those she has been pushing away. With each Christmas Day comes a new lesson—and an insight into the secrets and struggles her loved ones have been hiding. To move forward, Eva must let go of the past. But is it too late to fix her future?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A woman gets a chance to change her life in Greenlaw's nuanced debut, a twist on A Christmas Carol. Workaholic Eva begrudgingly travels from London to the moors of Cornwall with her assistant, Diana, and husband, James, to attend Christmas hosted by her friend Hallie at Penhallow, the former home of Eva's grandmother, who died three years before the start of the book, around the same time Eva experienced a devastating miscarriage. Despite James's ultimatum that if she leaves, they're finished, Eva tries to return to London on Christmas Eve to ensure all is ready for the opening of her new home goods shop. But her grandmother's ghost stops her on the road and sends her on a very different journey. With Gran's supernatural intervention, Eva inhabits the bodies of Diana and Hallie, among others. As she views life through the perspectives of those around her, she begins to understand how her obsession with success has affected her friendships and her marriage. When Eva gets a chance at a do-over for the events of Christmas Eve, she sets out to repair her fractured relationships before it's too late. Greenlaw's modern take on a classic is enhanced by multidimensional characters and their realistically complex relationships. The result is a heartwarming tale about prioritizing the things that matter most in life.
