Book Review: A Cedar Cove Christmas by Debbie Macomber

Mary Jo Wyse arrives in Cedar Cove on Christmas Eve hoping to find, David Rhodes, the father of her unborn baby. Problem is he lied to her once again: he's not there. Now she's pregnant, stranded, and alone. She wouldn't even be here right now if her three overprotective brothers--Linc, Mel, and Ned--hadn't said they were going to find David and force him to make an honest woman out of her.

Cedar Cover resident, Grace Harding, brings Mary Jo to her ranch for the night. When Mary Jo goes into labor two weeks early, paramedic Mack McAfee comes to her rescue.

Thanks to the Cedar Cove series on Hallmark Channel, I have fallen in love with the characters of this little town on the coast of Washington state. I decided to pick up the first book in the series and this Christmas story--since Cedar Cove's two-part season finale, which is a Christmas episode, aired last weekend and will conclude this weekend (2013).

It's interesting to see how Hallmark brings a book to life for its viewers. Last year, after watching Season for Miracles on Hallmark, I read the book by Marilyn Pappano. The sweeter TV version appealed more to me. If one were to compare Macomber's A Cedar Cove Christmas novel to its TV counterpart, one would find Hallmark's version a bit more romantic with a small dose of passion, and a lot less sappy.

I love Christmas stories, but this one went a little too far into the saccharin zone for me. A pregnant Mary Jo journeys to Cedar Cove, but her baby's father is nowhere to be found and all the hotels and the inn have no room for her. She goes home with Grace Harding, where she stays in a room in the barn above the animals--which just happens to include the animals for the live nativity that just wrapped up. How convenient. Mary Jo's brothers--the three Wyse men--wake up on Christmas Eve morning to discover she's gone, so they hop in their truck and have a long, terrible journey that involves tons of traffic, snow, fog, and  faulty directions from a grumpy guy at King's, until they finally spot a great light that leads them to the Harding ranch. I'm not even sure how this qualifies as a romance novel because Mac and Mary Jo meet early on when she comes to town after she gets dizzy at the library and a member of Grace's staff calls 9-1-1, and then they don't really see each other again until Mary Jo goes into labor.

That said, I can see where the television show got its inspiration from, and in the end, we have our happy ending. I still want to read more books in this series.


File Size: 204 KB
Print Length: 285 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0778325911
Publisher: Mira; 1st, 1st Ed edition (October 1, 2008)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B001ANST8Q

This post first appeared at The Book Connection. I borrowed this book from the library. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.