Title: Christmas Angel
Series: The Christmas Angel: Book One
Author: Eli Easton
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 121 Pages
Category: Historical, Holiday Romance
At a Glance: While there were a couple of little niggles that prevented me from becoming fully grounded in its 18th century setting, I enjoyed this sweet and emotionally effective love story as well as its happily ever after.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: When John Trent, a dedicated member of the new Bow Street Runners, finds an exquisite carved angel floating in the Thames, he can’t stop thinking about it. He tracks down its creator, a sad and quiet young sculptor. But neither the angel nor the sculptor is done with John just yet. The blasted angel refuses to leave him be, behaving not at all like an inanimate object should.
Alec Allston is resigned to the fact that his love will ever be a river that flows out and never flows in. All he wanted to do was create a special gift so that a small part of himself could be with his unattainable and noble beloved, always. But when the gift keeps showing back up at his shop in the hands of a windblown and rugged thief-taker, Alec will need to reconsider his conviction that love is destined to remain an ethereal ideal.
Review: Although it’s true that each of the books in the Christmas Angel collection can be read in any order (I’ve read three so far, out of sequence), chronologically speaking Eli Easton’s eponymous novella is the first book in the series. So, if you’re interested in the origins of the angel around which the rest of the stories are built, start here. The story of Alec Allston, his prodigious artistic talent, an encounter with a mysterious woman and how an angelic Christmas tree ornament goes on to become the catalyst for a heartwarming love story plays out on this novella’s pages.
Alec had carved the angel as a symbol of his love for a man who deserved neither the gift nor Alec’s affections. Heartbroken and sure that he has nothing left to live for, Alec comes near to giving in to his despair, but in a single miraculous moment, he finds the strength and will to move forward—even if it does mean he’ll spend the rest of his life alone and loveless. When a stranger enters Alec’s shop with the angel in his possession, which, it turned out, the man had fished from the Thames, it begins a sweet and tentative connection between them.
John Trent is a member of the Bow Street Runners, aka London’s first organized police force. He is stalwart and a man of honor, and he found the angel not once but twice—or, did the angel find him?—after which time Alec made a gift of the ornament as she clearly was meant to be John’s after mysteriously showing up in his possession the second time. I absolutely loved John for his gentle pursuit of an apprehensive Alec. The time in which the story is set dictates the danger for men such as them, and while Alec’s fears were not baseless, John’s reassurances and confidence that love is worth fighting for was just as powerful. Much of this is thanks to John’s made/chosen family, the diverse residents of his boarding house who become the safe place for Alec to open up and embrace the love John wants so much to give.
There is a magical realism in this novella that dictates readers leave disbelief behind and embrace the holiday spirit and romantic building of John and Alec’s relationship. Alec’s heartbreak is real, poignant, and I loved the origin of the angel herself. And, while there were a couple of little niggles that prevented me from becoming fully grounded in the 18th century setting, one being that I felt the language was at times a bit too contemporary for the period, I enjoyed this sweet and emotionally effective love story as well as its happily ever after.
You can buy Christmas Angel here:
[zilla_button url=”http://authl.it/B07KQN55X6?d” style=”blue” size=”large” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon/Kindle Unlimited [/zilla_button]
I am looking forward to this little series, and I am the sort that will need to read in order!!!