lilysreviews

Blurb: Christmas Eve 1894

All Margaret Campbell wants for Christmas is a safe journey home. When her plans for a festive holiday with her family in Stirling crumble beneath the weight of her brother’s bitterness, the young schoolteacher wants nothing more than to return to the students she loves and the town house she calls home.

Then an unexpected detour places her in the path of Gordon Shaw, a handsome newspaperman from Glasgow, who struggles under a burden of remorse and shame.

When the secret of their shared history is revealed, will it leave them tangled in a knot of regret? Or might their past hold the threads that will bind their future together?

As warm as a woolen scarf on a cold winter’s eve, A Wreath of Snow is a tender story of love and forgiveness, wrapped in a celebration of all things Scottish, all things Victorian, and, especially, all things Christmas.

Review:  On the face of it, A Wreath of Snow is a very heart-warming story and a wonderful holiday read. It is a story of two people meeting each other after twelve years and an incident that affected both of their lives in different ways.

Gordon Shaw was responsible for paralyzing Margaret Campbell's brother with a curling stone and the Campbells were never able to forgive him. Neither has Gordon been able to forgive himself.

Meg also suffers for her brother always feels it necessary to needle her about how she is better off on the few visits home she does. Gordon and Meg meet by chance on the train out of their hometown, although neither realizes at first who the other is.

As they wind up snowbound in Stirling, they work through the past and both would like a future together. This may prove to be impossible as Meg's family could be unable to see past the, well, past.

But this is Christmas after all and anything can happen.

I liked the message of A Wreath of Snow: forgiveness of past deeds, finding love, and moving on.

I liked the characters: their past, their present, and the promise of their future.

I also liked the setting, but then I am a long-time fan of Scotland and things Scottish.

Having said that, I must say that the story felt a tad too pat. To me, in spite of really liking the story, it felt like reading Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Step 4, the end. I like to have cogs thrown into the works. Sidesteps too.

Yes, there was tension. Yes, there was a blow up when the rest of Meg's family found out who Gordon was, but even that felt scripted.

Good solid read, but nothing altogether spectacular.

(Blurb and Cover Image found on Amazon.com)