A book to read for the Christmas holiday - with romance and a delightful town. An easy read full of holiday flavor

I've always enjoyed Donna VanLiere's Christmas novels and, this years story, The Christmas Town, proved to be another feel good read.

Lauren Gabriel is 20 years old and had spent most of her childhood in foster homes. She always hoped her mother would come back into her life. She's longed for a real family. One day on her way home from her job she witnesses an accident in the town of Grandon and she soon finds herself a part of the close-knit community and the holiday spirit of what the season is really all about.

There are several wonderful characters in this story that are slowly woven together. Each one plays a part in making this particular Christmas special for Lauren. My favorite was young Ben, a bagger at the grocery store who slipped special notes into the bags of customer's who looked like they were in need of an uplifting message. I loved the ways the characters found ways to make each day special for those who had seemed to lose their faith in mankind. The Christmas Town was a heartwarming story for this time of year.

Lauren has been in and out of foster homes and always hoped that her mom would come back to get her. Even though Lauren is now twenty years old, she has never experienced the feel of a real Christmas with family and friends around her. Lauren longs for that more than anything this year.

When Lauren is getting off of work one day, she knows that she doesn't want to go home to her lonely apartment and spend another evening by herself, so she ends up just driving around by herself. Everyone is in the Christmas spirit when they come in to Lauren's work and the Christmas music they play just puts her in a bad mood because she longs for a family Christmas.

Lauren drives and drives before she needs to get gas. When Lauren goes to pull into the gas station, she sees a wreck and one of the drivers flees the scene. Now it is a hit and run. Lauren goes to make sure the other person in the accident is ok and she is.

Lauren ends up becoming friends with the person in the accident that did not flee and she gets the person that did flee arrested. Lauren is still lonely though and decides to put an add on Craigslist to see if she can get a family for Christmas. This is a crazy, insane idea but Lauren does it anyway. Will Lauren get some answers to her request or will the message go unnoticed? You will have to read this one to find out. Such a great Christmas read that will for sure put you in the mood for Christmas! I love the writing of Donna VanLiere. She definitely knows how to write a Christmas book! Well Done!

I loooooved this book! I didn’t see quite as many cute connections to the beginning of the series as in other books, which is always fun, but such a good story!

Filled with delightful characters.

The variety of people in this Christmas story is fantastic. They range from strong outspoken ones to those with either health or emotional limitations. They worked well together and the story is sweet and very inspirational. It displays the best of people of all walks of life coming together and supporting each other.

At times the point-of-view seemed awkward to me. This is a new author to me and it may just be that her writing style is different than what I’m used to reading.

I received a free eBook copy of this novel through NetGalley. I have chosen to write this review to express my personal opinion.

Nice Christmas story. Hallmark Movie material