One Week In December
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3.7 • 7 Ratings
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
A woman upends her family’s Christmas gathering in Maine when she reveals a stunning family secret . . .
In this compelling, heartfelt novel from the bestselling author of Tuscan Holiday and The Friends We Keep, a family reunited for the holidays explores the price of secrets, the power of regret, and the choices that can change everything . . .
The Rowans’ rambling Maine farmhouse is just big enough to contain the family members gathered there in the week before Christmas. Becca Rowan has driven north from Boston with one thought in mind—reclaiming the daughter she gave up when she was a frightened teenager. Raised by Becca’s older brother and his wife, Rain Rowan, now sixteen, has no idea she was adopted. And though Becca agreed not to reveal the truth until Rain turned twenty-one, lately that promise, along with all her career success, counts for little in the face of her loneliness and longing.
But while Becca anticipates shock at her announcement, she’s unprepared for the depth of her family’s reactions. Her brother is angry and fearful of losing the daughter he adores; her sister Olivia, oblivious to her crumbling marriage, reveals long-buried resentments, while Becca’s parents are torn between concern and guilt. And as the Rowans’ neighbor, Alex, draws her deeper into an unexpected friendship, Becca begins to challenge her own preconceptions about family, about love, and about the courage needed to live with—and sometimes change—the decisions we make . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chamberlin (Tuscan Holiday) misses the mark with this repetitive chronicle of driven career-gal Becca Rowan's quest to tell her 16-year-old niece, Rain, that Becca is actually her birth mother. Raised by Becca's older brother, David, and his wife, Naomi, Rain was conceived by a teenaged Becca who barely knew Rain's father. The deal was they'd wait until Rain was 21 to tell her the truth, but Becca's been feeling very lonely, and so she determines to reclaim Rain during the annual family get-together the week before Christmas. And woe be the reader who tags along for this celebration of characters about as sturdy as wet cardboard, lazy writing ("James put his hand gently on Olivia's arm, as if to calm or comfort her") and plodding narrative. Without at least engaging characters, none of the goings-on matter much.
