Oh my goodness, this book...

A Family for Christmas brings together so many threads, both in this series on the whole and this book in particular. There are two main romantic relationships--Cara with Simon and Lila (finally!) with Edward--and two families coming together for Christmas, families that include parents, children, and grandchildren that have been apart for far too long. The members of those families at last come to understand that they've somehow managed to completely misunderstand the issues that have been keeping them apart all this time, and realize that maybe they can be happy after all...

So finally, finally, truths have been revealed. So much truth, and goodness, it's all heart rendering. There were tears over here--happy tears, excess of emotion tears--nearly nonstop for the last half hour of the book at least. Gah. I just want to sit for an hour or so and hug this book to myself, just until I feel like I can go deal with the real world again. :)

A Family for Christmas really should be read after book 12 in the series, For Joy's Sake , since it picks up Joy and Edward's story where it left off and brings them to a happy family Christmas at last. If you've read the rest of the series as well the book will have even more meaning, because of Lila and Brett...really, I don't think this book would have quite as much of an impact if you haven't read the other books in the series (at the very least, book 12 and book 6, Brett's book). Definitely do yourself a favor and read them first.

Once again the romances here are very slow moving, because the characters have so much more to deal with than just finding their ways to romantic HEAs and there aren't easy fixes for what they have to do--but that just means that when they do get there everything will be that much sweeter.

Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book. ( )