Mareen Davenport lives and breathes two things - the library, where she is the librarian, and Christmas. This Christmas season she is so excited about the opportunity to direct the town's annual Christmas pageant.
Her only struggle is that her assigned co-directer is Eddie Haven. Eddie was famous as a result of playing Jimmy Kringle in "The Christmas Caper" when he was little. But, Eddie has a long-standing hatred of Christmas born out of his childhood traditions of traveling all during the Christmas season entertaining others. His Christmas memories are of cheap hotels, no presents, tired parents, and endless performances in different places. Then he had an accident after a botched proposal, and was sentenced to help with the annual Christmas pageant.
The library was struggling under the mounting bills "exacerbated by rising costs and hard times for the entire area." Priority funding went to agencies like police, fire, and EMS, not to old libraries. People could travel 20 miles to the libraries in bigger towns. Mareen understood the dilemma, but the library closed? Avalon's library had endured over 99 years, and it seemed terrible to celebrate its centennial by announcing its closing.
How would Mareen endure the closing of the library? Is there a chance to save the library? How would she endure working alongside Eddie Haven, of all people, during her favorite holiday? Who is Jabez Cantor, and how does he play into the happenings around the town? Will Mareen allow herself to cheat in order to save the library? Will Mareen and Eddie take time to realize how different the "real them" is compared to the fronts they put on for others?
To check out other reviews about "Lakeshore Christmas" visit:
http://mothertalk-bookreviews.momcentral.com/2009/11/lakeshore-christmas.html
Or click on this link - Mothertalk
Spoiler Warning: I enjoyed this book very much except for three things: some swearing done by Eddie, the fact that Eddie and Mareen participate in premarital sex (briefly described), and then that Eddie and Mareen live together before marriage. This book could have been a great read without those negative points. Statistics say 8 out of 10 couples who live together before marriage will break up before the wedding or afterwards in divorce. To read more about this check out: http://www.rayfowler.org/2008/04/18/statistics-on-living-together-before-marriage/ or click on this link.
I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by MotherTalk on behalf of Lakeshore Christmas and received a copy of the book to facilitate my candid review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.
1 comment:
I love all your book reviews and family updates. Might you have a place on the side where all the book review could go and have a list of books reviewed with a link to the review? Then I can read all the family updates without going through the reviews and then I can find the reviews from now or the past ones more quickly without all the scrolling?? gmak
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