A Christmas Home

Todd McCray and his family, especially beloved dog Christmas, have returned in Kincaid’s latest saccharine holiday tale (after A Dog Named Christmas). Todd has been working for years at the local animal shelter when he learns that it’s being shut down. With his best friend, Laura, he struggles to place the animals in homes before the shelter closes, and Todd becomes torn between a dairy job close to home and a dog-trainer job three hours away, a decision that is further complicated when he realizes that he and Laura may be more than friends. Kincaid’s retread to familiar themes of family, community, and the healing power of animals is full of ham-fisted pleas for the reader’s sympathies (“the girl was pressing a message into his hand: We’ll get through this. Together”) and dialogue that is either wooden (“ ‘I’m going to miss working here,’ Todd said. ‘I know you will, Todd. I’m going to miss volunteering and seeing you, Hayley, and Doc Pelot’ ”) or clichéd (“‘I’m putting it down, Laura,’ Todd said. ‘I’m putting it down’ ”) but fans will not be deterred. (Nov.)