Synopsis:~

On Christmas Eve twenty years earlier, Marlee and Jacob were married in a snowstorm.   This Christmas Eve, they are ready to quit, divorce is imminent. Their relationship is as icy as the road they’re traveling and as blocked with troubles as the piling snow. They take a shortcut to get to the lawyer’s office, on a slippery, no-fault path. She thinks they need to stay on the main road. He disagrees. They fight. Story of their lives and they slam into a bank of snow , spinning, drifting, falling, out of control. Just like their lives. Reluctantly, freezing cold, hungry, scared, she trudges up the hill. Paul is nowhere to be found. Her ears frozen, fingers and hands red, she comes to a house on the hillside, built like a Bed and Breakfast, a green wreath on the red door and the door-knocker is in the shape of a wedding ring.

The red door opens and the first thing she notices is the fire in the room, blazing hot, a warm, inviting, friendly place and the voice of an old man welcomes her in. There are three golden pots on the hearth, shining, glimmering things. The old man claims that they are used to restore marriages. She laughs—and begins a journey through her past, present, and future that will test how she views her lifelong love. There are two futures available. Which will she choose?

My take:~

Call me Scrooge but I have to admit I am not a huge fan of Christmas novels!  I have a number of friends who can’t wait for October to arrive so they can get their hands on books with a Christmas theme but I just don’t get the appeal.  However, when Chris Fabry’s name appears on a cover it can have the Easter bunny on it and I’d read it, so A Marriage Carol jingled its way into my reading purview.  I’m delighted it did!  Chris and Gary have created a beautiful novella of hope, forgiveness and acceptance as Marlee is thrust into a journey of rediscovery as she takes a birds eye view of her failing marriage, the choices made and the consequences lived.  Leaving readers with plenty to ponder about their own lives, A Marriage Carol is, I’m happy to say, a must read Christmas story!

With thanks to Wynn~Wynn Media for my review copy