Sunday, December 21, 2014

The Mistletoe Promise

Title: THE MISTLETOE PROMISE
Author: Richard Paul Evans
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
November 2014
ISBN:  978-1476728209
Genre: Novella / Christmas / romance

A love story for Christmas from the #1 bestselling author of The Christmas Box and The Walk.

Elise Dutton dreads the arrival of another holiday season. Three years earlier, her husband cheated on her with her best friend, resulting in a bitter divorce that left her alone, broken, and distrustful.

Then, one November day, a stranger approaches Elise in the mall food court. Though she recognizes the man from her building, Elise has never formally met him. Tired of spending the holidays alone, the man offers her a proposition. For the next eight weeks—until the evening of December 24—he suggests that they pretend to be a couple. He draws up a contract with four rules:

1. No deep, probing personal questions
2. No drama
3. No telling anyone the truth about the relationship
4. The contract is void on Christmas Day

The lonely Elise surprises herself by agreeing to the idea. As the charade progresses, the safety of her fake relationship begins to mend her badly broken heart. But just as she begins to find joy again, her long-held secret threatens to unravel the emerging relationship. But she might not be the only one with secrets.

THE MISTLETOE PROMISE is such a sweet book. I love the premise, and of course, any book written by Richard Paul Evans has to be good. I enjoyed getting to know Elise and Nick and living vicariously their eventful holiday romance, complete with all their dates, parties, and interactions with co-workers and an ex-husband.

The only things I didn’t like about this book are:  There is no faith message. Zip, ziltch, none. But then it isn’t really an inspirational romance. It is mainstream. I guess I just read so much inspirational fiction I expected this to be one. The second is also to be expected in mainstream fiction… the heroine drinks to get drunk. Again, I didn’t like that. But this is my Christian beliefs, my opinion only, and it won’t bother most of America.

Otherwise, I totally loved THE MISTLETOE PROMISE to the point where I’m going to say I checked this book out of my town’s public library. I’m under absolutely no obligation to review this book, feature it on my blog, or promote it in anyway. But I am. And not because I have a shortage of people expecting or wanting promotion on my blog. But because this was a simply great read and even though it is mainstream I loved it.

Warning: The secrets revealed in this book are tragic and may be difficult for some readers to move past.


272 pages. Available in ebook, hardcover, audio download and cd. 

1 comment:

Judy said...

Great review Laura! I'm looking forward to reading it!

Blessings!
Judy B

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