A Christmas to Remember

Women of Rock Creek, Book 2

By: Linda Brooks Davis

Narrated by: Nicole Rowland

In A Christmas to Remember listeners of The Calling of Ella McFarland revisit Ella and her husband Andrew in the cottage along Rock Creek. Three years into their marriage, their life - and they, themselves - have changed. What could have prepared them for the challenges thus far? Or those ahead?

It's Christmas, 1908. And Ella's life is about to be transformed. Again.

©2016 Linda Brooks Davis (P)2021 Linda Brooks Davis

3.5 stars

After being a little underwhelmed with The Calling of Ella McFarland, I was hesitant to dive into A Christmas to Remember, which is an epilogue of sorts. We revisit Ella and her new family a couple of years following the first book.

Where The Calling of Ella McFarland seemed a little unfocused to me, A Christmas to Remember was much better. It focused on roughly the week leading up to Christmas and the preparation of the holiday. But Ella being Ella, she’s placed way too much on her plate, which she’s going to have to come to terms with. The author throws in a couple of twists that challenge Ella even more.

A Christmas to Remember is still a historical fiction with just a touch of romance. It’s all about Ella’s growth as a person and a little about her faith. This book doesn’t have the same level of inspirational undertones as the first book did. I still had trouble really connecting with Ella as, more often than not, I just wanted to shake her for running headlong into a situation without even attempting to think about the consequences first.

Once again, the book was narrated by Nicole Rowland. It feels like she’s really settled in with her performance with good pacing and plenty of emotion and different voices for the various characters. She did a solid job and made the book more interesting for me.

A Christmas to Remember is a holiday novella. It is a continuation of the story told in the first book of the series, so it won’t stand alone very well. But it is a solid story, and I’d recommend it if you’ve read the first book and would like to reconnect with Ella.