The Christmas Company by Alys Murray

Kate Buckner lives and breathes Christmas, so it’s a good thing she lives in Miller’s Point Texas. Each year, the tiny town hosts a massive Dickensian Christmas festival, culminating in a town-wide recreation of A Christmas Carol. This year, though, there’s one problem. Clark Woodward, the new CEO of Woodward Enterprises, has no taste for Christmas and, as the primary source of the festival’s funding, calls for its immediate cancellation. However, Kate’s not about to watch her town’s spirit be destroyed without showing Clark the beauty of the holiday.

This book is bursting with Christmas cheer and really highlights everything that can be great about the season. Author Alys Murray has crafted Kate Buckner as a bursting-with-optimism heroine whose world is dominated by Christmas. This could easily slam the novel firmly into sappy and melodramatic, but Murray manages to drive wonderful realism into the story. Kate Buckner is fighting for her home, something so easily relatable, and it’s completely believable how far she’s willing to go to make Clark change his mind.

And Clark is the perfect foil. He’s easy to dislike. After all, he’s quite literally painted a Scrooge attempting to cancel Christmas. But it’s also apparent that he’s much deeper than what’s on the surface.

A Christmas Carol plays heavily into the plot, but Alys Murray hasn’t created just a rehash of the classic tropes. The supernatural elements have been replaced by more emphasis on romance, but the classic ideas of a second chance and finding the best in people are all present with an updated twist. It’s all aided nicely with a quick pace, fun dialogue, a great cast of characters, and unapologetic sentimentality.

If you’re looking for a great holiday read, I cannot recommend this book enough.

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Title: The Christmas Company
Author: Alys Murray
Publisher: Hallmark Publishing
Publication Date: October 16, 2018
Classification: Romance

Murray’s Website | Publisher’s Page | Goodreads

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Note: I received a free ARC of this book through NetGalley.