Debbie Macomber – A gift to last

Two Christmas stories by Debbie Macomber, published November 1, 2002.
Genre: contemporary romance
Cover: bland



The best gifts are the ones that don't come wrapped! Gifts of home, of family and friends, of love . . .

Can this be Christmas?

On December 24, a crowded train is taking holiday travellers home for Christmas. But because of a snowstorm, this group of strangers ends up spending Christmas Eve together, stranded in a small New Hampshire station. Despite the cold and discomfort, they create an impromptu celebration that reminds them all what Christmas really means. A story that's destined to become a Christmas classic!

Thanks to a huge snowstorm, the airport is closed, and passengers are put on a train to Boston, to try to catch a flight to their destination there. But the storm is worsening, and the train cannot go on. They are stranded in the trainstation of a small town in New Hampshire. When the rails will be repaired is unknown. They can choose of finding a hotel room nearby with the chance of missing the train when it can travel on, or wait at the train station. Strangers, all with their own stories, and their own reasons to travel on Christmas Eve.
A young soldier, who wants to propose to his girlfriend back home.
A new widow, who cannot face Christmas alone, without her husband, on her way to her daughter.
A young couple with their new adopted baby girl, travelling to meet her (grand) parents, still not used to caring for a difficult baby.
A salesman, who is thinking about a divorce as his marriage is falling apart, but who still loves his wife. He hates his job, and his new boss. Some decisions will have to be made.

Strangers, stranded together, and for the sake of the few children present, they have to make the best of it. With the help of the townspeople, they manage to do just that.


I loved this story, cried buckets over it. So many people, with different backgrounds, of all ages and races, celebrating Christmas Eve together.


Shirley, Goodness and Mercy
Greg Bennett hates Christmas. Divorced, virtually friendless and about to lose his business, he has no time for what he considers sentimental nonsense. It takes three wacky angels to show him the truth. Shirley, Goodness and Mercy shall follow him . . . until he learns what Christmas is all about!
A return engagement by these popular angelic characters.


I have read more stories about those three angels, Shirley, Goodness and Mercy. They want to come down to earth, and help someone find their way back to god and faith. Yes, these stories are religious with the message: god loves you. So be warned if you don’t like those.
Greg Bennett has always been a hard man, making though choices that benefit himself. He alienated his family and friends by the things he has done. And now his vineyard is on the brink of ruin, and he has no choice but to ask his brother, the bank manager, for a loan. His brother hates him for the way he treated their mother, going to court for his second divorce instead of his mother’s death bed. Denying his mentor and cousin money for his wife’s cancer treatment when he needed to invest it in advertising for the vineyard. Divorcing his third wife, something only the lawyers enjoy at 300 dollars an hour. And in all those years, he never has forgotten his college sweetheart, whom he coldly abandoned when she was pregnant. He never did see that all his wives looked exactly like her.

And now, he suddenly meets Catherine again. She is very happily married, and has two children. One of them is his son, a famous cancer doctor. Greg wants to meet him, but his son refuses. Still, Greg just walks into the hospital to get a chance to meet him without his son knowing who he is. And gets drafted in some blood tests at the same time, something he never willingly would do. And when he is a bonemarrow match for the young child the doctor is treating, who will die before Christmas without the transplant, he cannot refuse.
Without Greg’s knowledge, a lot of good comes from this. Everything is connected, and in the end, he does celebrate Christmas.


Again, I cried a lot. Debbie Macomber sure knows how to pull my heartstrings. Those silly angels did not really do very much; Greg had to make his own choices. And those choices influenced other people. He wasn’t really bad, he made some selfish choices in his past, he came to regret. The best part was, he did not know the effects of his actions now. I so love a sappy Christmas story all year long.

7 stars

© 2012 Reviews by Aurian