The Christmas Shoppe

Title: THE CHRISTMAS SHOPPE
Author: Melody Carlson
Publisher: Revell
September 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8007-1926-5
Genre: Inspirational/Contemporary/Christmas

Matilda Honeycutt is a strange woman with scraggly hair and jewelry that jangles. She reminds some of hippies in the sixties. And the small town of Parrish Springs is not ready for someone like Matilda.

When Matilda buys a prominent business location, people are curious about what kind of shop she’s opening. But the curiosity quickly turns nasty when they discover her Christmas Shoppe is nothing more of a collection of dusty, dirty thrift store rejects.

But Matilda Honeycutt has something for everyone on her cluttered shelves—just waiting to be discovered.

THE CHRISTMAS SHOPPE wasn’t quite what I expected— I suppose with Melody Carlson, one could say to expect the unexpected. The story is short, easily read in a day, and was a nice escape. There was even a chill in the air today, which made the chilliness in the book that much more real. However, this wasn’t my favorite Melody Carlson Christmas themed book. It just seemed that some of the people in this book were so much nastier, out to find the worse in people, and unwilling to recognize the good. Okay, that might be normal. But it bothered me.

There was also a lot of telling in the book, not so much showing. That kept me as the reader distanced from the characters and what was happening in their life. The woman I related to most, oddly enough was Helen, the receptionist/secretary at the newspaper office. She seemed the most real to me. But—this is a nice Christmas read. There are happy endings. It was just—different. 170 pages. $15.99 hardcover.