The Christmas Tree Keeper

Angela Donovan, the heroine of Passey’s innocuous debut contemporary, is a single mother, down on her luck but anxious to make Christmas memorable for her eight-year-old daughter, Caroline. When Angela and her daughter visit a local Christmas tree farm, they meet the elderly owner, who promises that each of his trees comes with a miracle; this delights Caroline but annoys her skeptical mother. Angela is mortified when someone pays for her tree and suspects Mark Shafer, the heir to the tree farm. But Mark has problems of his own: he is interested in a music career, and he and his lovely girlfriend do not want the burden of inheriting the farm, but negotiating with a developer distresses his family and makes him feel guilty. When things get worse for both Angela and Mark, their unexpected friendship helps them find their faith and weather some challenging times. Readers can do better in the annual pilgrimage for holiday stories: the family tree farm provides a piquant setting, but the main characters come across as self-centered and one dimensional, and even a Christmas miracle doesn’t render them very appealing. [em](BookLife) [/em]