Christmas Joy is exactly what I expected it to be. To me, it felt like a good Hallmark Christmas movie in book form. The characters, the setting, the magical moments – it was everything that I love about Hallmark Christmas movies – be it in July or December.
Joy grew up in Crystal Falls but has since moved on and moved away to bigger and better things. She is now a market researcher and awaiting a giant promotion when she receives a call that her Aunt Ruby took a fall and is in the hospital. She quickly drops everything and returns to Crystal Falls to check in on the only family member she has left. Aunt Ruby has broken her foot and will require short term rehabilitation. But if she is there who will decorate her house for the Christmas Cookie Crawl? She is the defending champion after all!
Joy agrees to stay and help with the decorating even though she hasn’t actually celebrated Christmas in years after the death of her mother. This is where Ben enters. Ben is the small town guy with the good heart who helps everyone in town. At first, Joy and Ben don’t exactly see eye to eye and spend most of their time butting heads but, the more time they spend together the more they find in common with each other. Add in a cute little girl from the neighborhood and you have all of those magical holiday moments that I was talking about before.
Overall, I enjoyed Christmas Joy. It had that classic holiday romance feel. In fact, there is actually a Hallmark movie based on this book that I have a feeling I will be watching very soon. I just love those movies – no matter how predictable or badly acted. So, if you’re like me and love Hallmark and happy Christmas, you’ll like this book too!
Rating: 3 Stars
welcome to the zoo! 