Forget serial killers and missing spouses; dark novels are banned at Christmas. For readers of Christian and inspirational fiction, some gifty picks from this year’s stocking-full:
For cat lovers: The Christmas Cat by Melody Carlson (Revell, Sept.): Popular and prolific novelist Carlson does a feline edition of her annual Christmas tales with this story of a young man who inherits six cats when his grandmother dies. A handsome Maine coon cat on the cover will sell the book to cat fanciers.
For WWII buffs: Where Treetops Glisten (WaterBrook, Sept.) combines novelists Cara Putman, Sarah Sundin, and Tricia Goyer, spinning novellas around siblings Abigail, Pete, and Merry Turner, who hail from heartland Lafayette, Ind., and face different challenges during the war era. The novella titles are borrowed from popular Christmas songs (“White Christmas,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”), and the collection should fit nicely under the tree for nostalgia fans.
For Duck dudes: A Robertson Family Christmas by Kay Robertson with Travis Thrasher (Tyndale, Oct.) is a novella in which a troubled fictional teen wins a contest and is plunked down into the Duck Dynasty Robertson clan to celebrate Christmas and learn acceptance.
For African-American romance readers: A Christmas Prayer by Kimberla Lawson Roby (Grand Central, Oct.) brings in Roby’s recurring character Pastor Curtis Black to wrestle with family dynamics that threaten to undermine an engaged couple’s relationship.
For gut Amish romance fans: Horse-drawn buggy in the snow alert: several books feature variations on this theme as cover art. Christmas at Rose Hill Farm by popular Amish romance novelist Suzanne Woods Fisher (Revell, Sept.) brings back characters Bess Reihl and Billy Lapp from The Search to resolve their relationship as Billy seeks to identify a “lost” rose.
For quilters: Quilted by Christmas by Jodie Bailey (Abingdon, Oct.) stitches romance and quilting together in a tale of reconciliation as family secrets come to light and relationships are restored.
