What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out? – Alfred Hitchcock
Most of the time, Amy Lane’s books make me feel like my stomach and my heart are being pinched into a tiny little fluttering mass of anxiety that then makes my brain wonder if it should engage the failsafe stop-the-madness-drama-mama kill switch before it’s too late and I develop a permanent tic and a bad drinking habit. It’s pretty much what I live for, that feeling.
Well, Turkey in the Snow didn’t make me feel that way at all. It did make me feel fluttery, though, and a little punch-drunk happy, because it’s a Christmas story and that’s what Christmas stories are supposed to do; they’re supposed to be goodness and light, and they’re supposed to remind us of all the small gifts we see every day but that seem to just shine a wee bit brighter when we see them through the hopeful eyes of earthbound miracles.
Hank Calder’s life is a rich one, composed of all the acts that are part and parcel to the human play. But like so many of us who have a hard time seeing our small miracles for what they are when we’re buried deep in the drama of family and relationships, not to mention instant fatherhood, Hank just needed a little faith and trust, and to be on the receiving end of kindness and a smile that begins to feel a lot like the pole star that his entire sky moves around. And that star is called Justin, and he is not the twinkling star Hank wants to orbit, but Justin becomes the one who marks Hank’s way through the dramas the man so desperately tries to steer clear of, even though Justin himself is a little bit of drama all by his onesies.
Turkey in the Snow is fairy lights and a fire on the hearth and a cup of yuletide warmth, Amy Lane style. It came without ribbons; it came without tags; it came without packages, boxes, or bags, but my heart may very well have grown three sizes in the reading of it. It’s the story of a man who will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. And with his North Star pointing the way, he will dream each day to its fullest, all the good, the bad, and the somewhere in between.
Buy Turkey in the Snow from Dreamspinner Press.