All is Calm/All is Bright

All is Calm/All is Bright

Colleen Coble. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2015. 199 pp. (Paperback).

Some Christmas books are all sparkly and glittery. I love Christmas and I love those Christmas-y books. This is not one of them. Or, actually, these. 

The book is two novellas billed as “holiday romance and mystery.” There’s a bit of a problem with that: the novellas are too short to really develop either a romance or a mystery. Try to squeeze a little Christmas joy into the mix and we have a problem. In the interest of full disclosure I never liked short stories either. 

On the plus side the author has written quite a few successful books and knows how to tell a good story. These books are well-written and squeaky lean. If you don’t have a lot of time for reading, then they might be just what you are looking for.