Christmas Mercies

A music teacher determined never to celebrate Christmas again…
…the ninety-year-old woman weighed down with guilt and remorse…
…and the man who wants nothing more than to bring the light of the holiday back into both hearts…
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For Janice Michaels, the bane of her career as a music teacher is preparing students for the annual winter holiday program. Christmas has brought nothing but grief and loneliness for the past decade, after she lost her beloved husband to a fatal car accident. Hearing holiday music day after day during the first few months of the school year is like constantly ripping the scab off an unhealed wound.
Determined to keep her husband in her heart, she has kept a fortress around it, allowing only one woman in as a true friend, and avoiding anything more than a passing acquaintance with any man.
Until Timothy Fielding, the maintenance man at the apartment complex where she lives, comes along. He happens to love the Christmas season. When circumstances – and Janice's best friend, Kayla – draw them together, he struggles to keep his growing feelings for Janice at bay. He has his own secret past that he's sure would repel any woman, once she found out about it.
But his desire for love and companionship win out, and he does his best to knock down the walls around Janice's heart. But even when she finally relents and agrees to spend more time with him, she continues to resist opening her heart back up to Christmas.
Because the death of her husband is only the beginning of the tragedy surrounding the day.
In the meantime, Lucille Masterson, the great-grandmother of Janice's star pupil, makes a shocking discovery that almost causes her to ruin Christmas for her family. Again. But then she realizes that if she would face her fear, she could finally release the burden she's been carrying for the past ten years. What she doesn't know is that it would release a horrible burden for the very person she's afraid to face…
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"Christmas Mercies" is the first novel in Emily Josephine's Christian holiday romance series, "Little River Village Christmas Romance." A clean and wholesome romance novel, it will warm your heart, build your faith, and leave you feeling refreshed and hopeful.