Amanda Cabot's Christmas Roses ~ Reviewed

Christmas Roses

By Amanda Cabot

Published by Revell

ISBN#978-0-8007-2004-9

176 Pages

Book Cover: Celia Anderson doesn't need anything for Christmas except a few more boarders, which are hard to come by in this small mining town. She certainly doesn't have a husband on her Christmas wish list. But when a wandering carpenter finds lodging at her boarding house, she admits that she might remarry if she found the right man--the kind of man who would bring her roses for Christmas. It would take a miracle to get roses during a harsh Wyoming winter. But Christmas, after all, is the time for miracles. 

Review: Amanda Cabot pens a novel that will warm your heart and get you in the Christmas spirit! Its 1882, in the Wyoming Territory, Celia Anderson, a young widow, is busy running a boarding house and taking care of her young daughter Emma and Aaron her friend. There was no time for marriage or romance in her life. “She had no doubt her husband Josef cared for her, but caring was not the same thing as love.” She wanted to tell this to the people that were trying to play match maker.

Her friend Bertha and Emma’s friend Aaron kept bringing up the subject of marriage. Times were hard, but she’d manage some how! One more boarder would make a huge difference in her life. Until one day she suddenly spies Emma goes into a coughing fit that doesn’t stop! Ceila senses something is terribly wrong and doesn’t know what to do. She has no way of getting word to Dr.  “All the other women were in Cedarville, planning the Thanksgiving celebration. Celia was on her own with no idea how to help Emma’s suffering.”… Now she was helpless…Help me Lord. Save my baby.” She prays.

Mark Williams rides into town in search of his father. “It had been two years, three months, seventeen days, and more miles and towns than he could count.” A man asks if he can help. Mark says he’s looking for a place to stay. “We ain’t got no hotel, but you might wanna talk to widow Anderson. She opened a boarding house back 10-11 months ago, and every body knows it ain’t full. I reckon she’d let you stay for a night or two.”

Mark Williams arrives at Ceila’s house and knocks, then yells “Mrs. Anderson?” No one answers…He opens the door, it’s quite. “Then He heard it! A painful cough and an even more alarming shrill cry.” He heads toward the noise. “Mark stared out the most beautiful young woman he’d ever seen, a woman who was cradling a desperately ill child.”

Ceila is in her 20’s and looks up. She sees Mark. She pleads for his help. Mark wasn’t a Dr. but had seen this before and knew what to do. He tells Ceila the things to get. They work side by side to help Emma breathe and stop the cough. All was well. Cecila looks at Mark and says, “I don’t know how to thank you, you were the answer to prayer.”

“Mark Blinked. It was the first time anyone had called him the answer to anything, especially prayer, “

Amanda pens a tender story that will pull at your heart strings, as Mark searches for his father. Celica is thankful for the new boarder and the help he is offering around the house..

A sweet admiration develops between Mark and Cecila. Aaron’s dad sees this and asks Ceila to marry him. Cecila is stuck at what to do. She’s known Aaron and his dad for a while. She loved Aaron and knew the marriage would be for her daughter Emma and Aaron. Mark would not settle down in one place until he found his Dad! He was a drifter. No hope of a marriage there. What was she to do?

One thing you can expect in Wyoming is surprises. Nothing is what it seems. And the reader will be all aglow when they learn about the meaning of the Christmas Rose. You won’t look at roses the same! This book will help you get in the Christmas spirit and leave you with a satisfied feeling. This is the first book I’ve read by this author. It won’t be the last.

Reviewed by: Nora St.Laurent

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