I had a hard time getting into this story. It is the story of a family with 4 siblings. Their mother died many years earlier and they are now estranged from their father. He has called Maggie and asked her to get all her siblings together to come to his house, their childhood home, for Christmas dinner. The story introduces us to each of the siblings and lets us know what is happening in their lives. None of them have it all and some are going through quite a bit of turmoil. Food plays a large part in the story and their lives. Jacqueline is an opera singer living in Brussels, Maggie lives in Philadelphia and is a successful cookbook author, Colette is an aspiring clothing designer living in California and Art is the youngest and he is a wanderer. Can Maggie get them to agree to their father's request?

Once I got about 1/3 of the way into the story, I began to care about these characters. I wanted them to be happy and wondered about their father and his request. Maggie was the main character in the story, but I actually enjoyed Colette's story the most. She had to find herself and what she really wanted out of life and I was rooting for her to do that. This ended up being a nostalgic family-oriented, food-filled story, with some traditions and celebration. It was a story of self-reflection, forgiveness and reconciliation, all with the undertone of food and drink. Throw in Christmas and the need to get together with family and friends at this time and you have a story full of self-discovery and eventually family love. I did enjoy this story, but not as much as I had hope. It was a nice Christmas read, a little more serious than others I had read, which actually makes it stand out for me.

A Sweet Christmas romance that was a little precdiateable. But still worth the read. That makes a great escape read.