Welcome back! Oh Christmas. What more can you ask for than sitting on a comfy chair with a lovely book, with a blanket, Christmas movie in the background, snow falling on the ground and a nice hot cup of your favorite tea, coffee or hot cocoa (with LOTS of whipped cream)? I love to think of this scene, mostly because it doesn't happen often due to kids, but nonetheless I can dream, right?
When we think about Christmas novels, we jump right to the none other, Charles Dickens, Dr. Seuss (The Grinch) or J.R.R. Tolkien. I would like to throw another name into this list and that author is Ms. Debbie Macomber. She is what I like to call the Queen of Christmas Novels, starting with her first ever book, Starlight published in 1983 (yes a Christmas novel), which was part of her Silhouette Inspiration Collection. Since then, she has written another 55 Christmas novels (56 total), 1 Christmas cookbook, 2 Christmas coloring books and has published 8 anthologies with these stories combined together, and yes I counted. She has a new one that is NOW available The Christmas Spirit (https://debbiemacomber.com/books#/the-christmas-spirit).
Ms. Macomber was born in the state of Washington and majority of her books take place on the West Coast to include Washington State, Alaska and Northern California. She has some characters based on the East Coast, but the main part of her books are set on the West Coast. Truly, she gives it great justice when setting the scene and stage. I love that we get to experience the beauty and peacefulness of these areas. I can vouch that these places are beautiful in scenery.
I hope you can see why I have dubbed her the Queen of Christmas, in novels at least. Let's be honest, there are a couple others who can wear the crown, such as Candace Cameron Bure, and Lacey Chabert, depending on channel and of course medium of entertainment (novels, tv or movies). These two lovely actresses have made a name for themselves for sure with Great American Family and Hallmark. Novels and movies/TV entertainment go hand in hand. 6 of Ms. Macomber's Christmas novels were turned into Christmas movies on Hallmark and her series of Cedar Cove was turned into a TV series starring Andy MacDowell.
If you have read any of her books or have seen her movies, you know that her novels are filled with romance. They are also filled with drama where the character(s) struggle in life, faith or simply with romantic and platonic relationships. Her love for angels definitely resounds in her writing. After all, she has a whole series dedicated to our three favorite angels --- Shirley, Goodness and Mercy guided by Archangel Gabriel. These three angels sure provide a good laugh with some of their unconventional antics. Just because she has a lot of faith and wholesome aspects to her books, it does not mean she does not include some steamy aspects as well. She was a Harlequin author in one part of her career. Her main character is usually a female, but not always, which is a nice change of pace.
Grading Ms. Macomber is rather difficult. She has so many novels and series. I am sure one could read every book, but with the vast number it would be hard, yet interesting to know if anyone has read every single one. I can honestly say with the small amount of her books I have read, I love her books and yeah, sometimes the characters are redundant at times, can be annoying at times, but the need to know what happens is strong. The stories suck you into this wonderful world of a beautiful snow globe. It can be tumultuous when you really shake it, but once it calms down, the snow gracefully falls and creates the idyllic Christmas scene. This is Debbie Macomber's Christmas novels in a nutshell or any of her novels for that matter. She develops such a spellbinding story that one cannot help, but to read until the end. I understand some say her books are unrealistic, but isn't all romance fiction, and most fiction unrealistic? Yes, hence why it is called fiction. It's the same criticism of the "Hallmark" style movie....
"It is the same thing over and over, unrealistic. Girl from big city moves back to her hometown to save her family business. Girl meets up with hunky, former geeky nerd from high school. Girl has trauma of not trusting. Girl falls in love with the hometown nerd turned hunk. All is fabulous."
I have heard this for years. Thing is, if you want realism, read non-fiction or simply find a doom and gloom fiction novel that is geared on the negative, but spoiler alert, even these doom and gloom fiction novels are unrealistic. There are plenty of negative plots within fiction, but I will say that there is a basic recipe for all books in order to create intrigue and cohesiveness. Every book needs 5 components such as characters, setting, plot, conflict and resolution. These books by Ms. Macomber have these components, yet bring a sense of joy and allows the reader to leave their OWN problems on the table even if it is just for that moment they are reading.
As you can clearly see, Ms. Macomber from the start has developed a brand for herself. Her vast Christmas Collection of novels could even require a new genre and sub-genre: Christmas Fiction and Christmas Romance. She has built the arena for many other authors who have quite the collection of Christmas Novels in their arsenal, but honestly as modern authors, they do not touch Debbie Macomber regarding quantity of well penned published Christmas works. In the end, I will say that they are a shear joy to read and I have read quite a few (reviews will follow). So, if she sounds like an author you would like to get to know via her novels then head over to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, local bookstore, etc and purchase a few, especially her new one The Christmas Spirit. They also make great gifts. Happy reading!
*picture credit: Beyond the Bookends Blog (it is where I found it)