A Wish for Winter

By: Viola Shipman

Narrated by: Nancy Peterson

“I love this book—funny, perfect and wonderfully good. A not-to-be-missed delight.” —New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery

With echoes of classic Hollywood love stories like Serendipity and An Affair to Remember, Viola Shipman’s latest winter charmer following the USA TODAY bestseller The Secret of Snow is sure to tug on heartstrings and delight readers who love books about books, missed connections and the magic of Christmas.

Despite losing her parents in a tragic accident just before her fourteenth Christmas, Susan Norcross has had it better than most, with loving grandparents to raise her and a gang of quirky, devoted friends to support her. Now a successful bookstore owner in a tight-knit Michigan lakeside community, Susan is facing down forty—the same age as her mother when she died—and she can’t help but see everything she hasn’t achieved, including finding a love match of her own. To add to the pressure, everyone in her small town believes it’s Susan’s destiny to meet and marry a man dressed as Santa, just like her mother and grandmother before her. So it seems cosmically unfair that the man she makes an instant connection with at an annual Santa Run is lost in the crowd before she can get his name.

What follows is Susan and her friends’ hilarious and heartwarming search for the mystery Santa—covering twelve months of social media snafus, authors behaving badly and dating fails—as well as a poignant look at family, friendship and what defines a well-lived and well-loved life.

“Viola Shipman has written a captivating story for anyone whose memories run deep… This book keeps faith and hope alive!” —New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods

A Country Living Magazine Best Christmas Book to Read This Holiday Season!

Don't miss bestselling author Viola Shipman's charming new novel, THE WISHING BRIDGE—where an ambitious executive rediscovers the magic of family, friendship, home...and Christmas!

Other books by Viola Shipman:

• Famous in a Small Town
• The Secret of Snow
• The Edge of Summer
• The Summer Cottage
• The Heirloom Garden
• The Clover Girls

Fun Christmas Listen

I really enjoyed this holiday book. The narrator did a good job with the characters. I laughed, cried and cheered for the characters. It is a story of hopeful family and friends.

Christmas magic

2 great feel good stories! Reminder of what Christmas can be if we remember to care for others.

Heartwarming holiday novel

What a beautiful and heartfelt welcome to the holiday season! And the bonus short story is one you must hear!

Religion

Too sappy. I just had to fast forward too much. Not what I had hoped for.

More complex than most of this author's books

I listen to Shipman's books mostly because of the Michigan settings. Usually the sweet, over-the-top language is barely tolerable, violating "show don't tell" constantly, grating on my ears. While the overall story in this novel was predictable, that's not a problem for me as long as the characters are realistic and well-developed. In this Shipman novel I found more complexity than in "her" other novels, which was much appreciated.

A number of reviews mention being put off by the element of religion, but that's to be expected in a Shipman novel. If it's a big problem, find another author.

I hope this new complexity is a taste of things to come.