Christmas Past
When the Power of Love Reaches Across Time
-
- $15.99
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
John and Madison Carmichael's success in their careers has come at a high price at home: they are on the brink of divorce. To soften the blow for their two children, they decide to spend one final Christmas together as a family. Responding to a travel brochure, they set off to "Celebrate Christmas Past" in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee with a group of historical re-enactors.
Tensions worsen when their car breaks down, but a horse-drawn carriage arrives and delivers them to the home of Judge Andrew Norton and family, where their Victorian Christmas begins. With none of the comforts or distractions of contemporary life, John and Madison rediscover each other and the love they once felt. But upon their return to "modern civilization," the Carmichaels learn that the nineteenth-century house has been empty and boarded up for more than thirty-five years. Could it be that a miracle from "Christmas Past" has brought their family together again?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this cloying novella, T.J. and Madison Carmichael, both high-powered entertainment brokers in Nashville, take their children to a remote bed-and-breakfast for Christmas, trying to hide the fact that their marriage is on the skids. But the innkeepers are not just dressed in period costume; their world is that of 1893, and the Carmichaels begin to suspect that they have bypassed a cozy historical re-enactment for the actual 19th century. (The outdoor privies are a big hint.) The novella's Victorian details are historically accurate, but the era is painted in an entirely romantic fashion, with cardboard characters who seem to have stepped directly from a Currier and Ives print quoting scripture. T.J. and Madison are better drawn, with sharp edges and a suggestion of smoldering marital resentment though their children are implausibly mature and pious. Overall, there's a little too much sugar in this batch of nog.
