Christmas in Fountain City

By: Daphne Simpkins

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Each Christmas retired chemistry teacher Edwina Bopp makes her newest invention of miracle fudge as a fundraiser for missions in her small Southern town Fountain City.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the good lady cooks through the night and then gives the candy away to the fudge-hungry group of people who know this year's newest recipe is coming and line up in front of her store before she ever opens the door of her Main Street candy shop. People receive their portion of this year's fudge and place donations for missions in her jar on the counter, expecting miracles.

Some miracles have occurred, so they said. Lonely people fell in love. Couples who wanted children have fat babies. Heartsick people wake up to hope. Afterwards, they say the fudge did it. But it isn’t the fudge. It’s the secret power that enlivens this small town. The secret ingredient for life in Fountain City is their love for God and for one another. Fountain City folks know this, but they also want that miracle fudge. Friends and neighbors wait for it year-round, hoping Mrs. Bopp won’t veer off into some weird recipe that doesn’t include chocolate. She did that once, and the residents of Fountain City are still talking about it! Available only at Christmas, the demand for her miracle fudge is high—an intensity of desire that could be lessened if she would just share her recipes.

But she won’t do that. It’s not selfishness. Mrs. Bopp’s fudge recipes keep changing. She’s never finished with perfecting the perfect batch of fudge, and so she keeps working on measurements and ingredients. And in her slowness and inscrutable gifts and responses to their demands, she models what the world calls faith and patience, too.

All of that comes to an end when Mrs. Bopp is attacked and her day’s fudge supply stolen. How the neighbors of Fountain City respond to this calamity is the new experience of miracles in the daily life of Fountain City at Christmas. An uplifting story, Christmas in Fountain City will remind you that the existence of love itself is the great miracle, and you can have it every day of your life if you trust the One who invented the miracle of grace. And you can also have fudge.... Check out Christmas in Fountain City now.

About the author Daphne Simpkins: Daphne is best known for her series about church ladies of the South featuring Mildred Budge and friends. There is a primary series of novels that begins with Mildred Budge in Cloverdale. There is a secondary series of shorter fiction that begins with Miss Budge in Love. There is also a spin-off series about Mildred's friends, and that series begins with Belle: A Mildred Budge Friendship Story. To keep up with new releases, follow her on Amazon or Facebook.

Mildred Budge & her community are fun to follow

I am posting this same review for each of 10 related books. In the course of a few weeks in early 2026, I listened to all of Daphne Simpkins’ Mildred Budge books. Like many before me, I fell in love with main character Mildred. There is much I recognized from my own experience in the stories. I was born in Alabama (AL), & lived 57 of my 64 years in the South (AL & Tennessee). My mother lived in Mongomery’s old Cloverdale neighborhood a few years, so the setting was familiar. The “church lady” stereotype struck me as a bit dated or too extreme at times, but there is much truth in it. The material is funny, practical, & very accurate as far as human nature. It portrays a church community living out faith, shares the truth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; & what it’s like to have the Christian experience over the long haul of life, to be convicted & grow as a Christian, & to have the Holy Spirit in your ear.

There are three series featuring the same character (primary, short adventures, friends/friendship). The “primary” four are continuous stories that follow in order from first to last. The short adventures & friends/friendship ones fit around/before/during/after the time frames of the “primary” four. Some of the same events overlap, but titles across the three series do not fully follow each other sequentially, including if you read from oldest to last by original publication date. It is obvious where some would fall, but debatable where to place others. If you want to go everywhere Mildred does, you want to consume all titles as much in order as possible. There are numerous Internet references that list the books in order (not all the same). Here is the order I recommend - (1) Miss Budge in Love, (2) Mildred Budge in Cloverdale, (3) The Mission of Mildred Budge: Short Stories About Church Life in the South, (4), Mildred Budge in Embankment, (5) Belle, (6) Bride’s Room, (7) Miss Budge Goes to Fountain City, (8) Kingdom Come, & (9) A Gentle & Lowly Christmas. Christmas in Fountain City can go anywhere near the beginning, but works best before Mildred Budge in Embankment. It makes no mention of main character Mildred Budge, but lays groundwork for when she & Dixie go there later, & refers to an earlier different Christmas than the one where Mildred Budge visits.

At the close of A Gentle & Lowly Christmas, there is plenty of story for the cast of characters that could still be told IF the author chooses to produce more!

I purchased the main four in large print hard copy paperback to donate to the local Sellersburg, IN library near me. I know plenty of ladies from age 60s into 90s who would very much enjoy them. The author herself helped me to find these through Amazon, as they were not obviously available when I searched. It was a pleasure to correspond with her via electronic mail.

I always prefer authors reading their own works, but most non author narrators on Audible are good. These books were my first Audible experience with artificial intelligence (AI)/virtual narration. I AM NOT A FAN! It was dismal to me. Despite loving the first book & falling in love with the main character, I considered not listening to any more due to the this factor alone. Though it was was generally annoying, I forged ahead due to my affinity for the material, & because the titles were available as part of my membership without costing credits or extra funds. There were mulitiple AI voices - young to middle aged sounding women (black & white) & two males, at least one of which was black. The best fit for narrator would be a white female, aged 60+, from the deep South/with a clear natural Southern accent (such as Fannie Flagg or me!) & familiarity with lingo. It would also be more pleasant to the listener to have the same voice do all titles in the series. The cadence was off. “Breaths” were taken/pauses occurred at wrong places. Emphasis was not always on the correct syllable. Pronunciation was often incorrect. I called Audible & complained & was told my input was being noted. I contacted the author in case she had input into the process & was not aware of how her work sounded. She explained that she had agreed to participate in a program to implement & develop the use of AI/virtual narration with Audible.

A Blessed City

This a story of Christ's love expressed among the folks of a small city in Georgia through sacrificial giving to each other.