I Need a Little Christmas

Today's book is Just a Little Christmas by Janet Dailey.  When I was a little girl, my grandmother taught me an old Johnny Mathis song, which is a cover from a song from the musical Mame, called "We Need A Little Christmas."  Now that I'm older, I know that she taught me the worlds wrong.  My Gran taught me that the words were "We need a little Christmas, just a little Christmas," and it's not.  Regardless, it's a great song.  I linked it to it's title so you can listen.  The entire time I was reading Ms. Dailey's book, I was humming this song!

Just a Little Christmas is a new book out this year.  It's about a woman, Ellie, who left her small town life a decade before and moved to the big city.  She was in law school when she married a man named Brent (spoiler alert:  he's a jerk), but their marriage wasn't a good one.  After catching him cheating one too many times, Ellie divorced him and left, heading back to the small town of Branding Iron and her family.  She is holding her own really well, but she's understandably nervous about being a single mother.  She doesn't have plans to stay in town for too long, intending to head back to the city where she can work.

It's also the story of Jubal and his daughter Gracie.  Jubal was Ellie's love in high school.  When he proposed she wasn't ready, and she turned him down and broke his heart.  He married another girl from their town, Laura, and has a beautiful and precocious eight year old daughter, Gracie.  After his father's death two years before, Jubal has been struggling to pay off the man's debts.  now that he finally has, he has plans for the ranch.  When he goes to the bank for a loan, he discovers that his father has sold the ranch.  It was in a very quiet and underhanded manner, so Jubal had no idea.  He is bound and determined to get his ranch back!

It's Christmas, and Ellie and Jubal are working together to figure out what happened to the ranch.  Ellie and Gracie are also growing closer.  Can Jubal and Ellie convince themselves to risk their hearts and get back together?  And what will Ellie do when her ex-husband shows up again?

This was a good book.  I liked the mystery aspect, and it definitely kept my interests.  I also liked how it was a high school sweethearts getting back together story, but not a sappy one.  Jubal and Ellie don't instantly fall into each other's arms, but they are adults and talk out their issues.  They also seem very real as characters.  Here's an example.  Ellie is about to be a single mom, but she's not unrealistic about it.  She's not "I'm going to be a perfect mother," or "I don't know what my baby is going to do without a father."  She's solidly "Well, this happened.  Let's deal with it."  I really liked that. 

I think it's a delicate balance with a Christmas book, not being too sappy, or too "Christmas Miracle", but not completely disregarding the season.  Ms. Dailey has done a great job with that!!

Happy Holidays, everyone.  I'm off to the next book!