Abandon cynicism, sarcasm, any addiction to reality and/or common sense.
These books aren't meant as food for thought......they're chicken soup for your heart.......(if you must seek out a thought, it's this........Be nice and don't act like an asshole to anybody.....)
We kid you not.......if you start criticizing the far-fetched plots and unnaturally benevolent behavior in Christmas entertainment, then you're reading and watching the wrong things......
Do you need your art to confirm that the world's a chaotic crapshoot, filled with evil, soulless people? All you have to do..... turn on the news and listen to Trump for a minute or two.......
But throw that miserable stuff out of your mind completely if you plan to surrender to the snow-globe universe of Christmas as presented by novelists, screenwriters, directors and actors......
Cause these films and books, for maximum impact and pleasure, demand that you approach them with your emotions wide open and your brain shut down.......
So then.....no smirking or snickering, if you please, at the plight of poor Maggie in "The Noel Stranger".......broken and wounded by her husband's arrest for bigamy.....(with no less than two other separate families stashed in other cities.....this guy's Christmas shopping must come close putting him in Chapter 11.......)
But it's Christmas.......and our put-upon Mags meets the Too-GoodTo-Be-True handsome hunk who operates her local Christmas tree lot.
If this all sounds a little too perfect and wonderful.......hmmm....how'd you guess? Mr. Handsome Hunk has secrets and issues of his own........some of which twist and turn into near-operatic complications that equal any overheated TV soap opera.
And no......we couldn't even begin to describe any part of Handsome Hunk's deliriously tortuous backstory........(without you reading this and shouting out a few WTF's.......) Richard Paul Evans should be pitching story ideas to "Days Of Our Lives".......
Not to worry......this is a Christmas novel, after all......and as it smoothly sails into its happy ending, you can expect all the life lessons underlined for you.......opening your heart, learning to trust and love again.....yada yada yada.
3 shiny ornaments we'll hang on this one (***)......just keep in mind, we're grading all this holiday stuff on the lenient BQ Christmas Curve........which only occurs this time of year, when we start melting into a pile of sentimental mush......Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
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