The Christmas Promise by Richard Paul Evans (2021) Christmas themed books and films are usually after three things.......sometimes separately, sometimes simultaneously......
1. Make you cry your eyes out.
2. Make you chuckle with appreciative laughter
3. Make you sigh deeply, with "Awwwwwww" escaping from you mouth.
We've never been afraid to admit when a Christmas book or movie accomplished any or all of these reactions from us......
Sorry, but this book didn't do it. But not for lack of trying.
In his attempt to wring tears and provide you with a teaching moral lesson straight out of the bible, Richard Paul Evans concocts a story so far fetched, so ridiculous and in its final twists, so borderline weird and creepy, it cancels out whatever warm 'n cuddly feelings it hoped to achieve.
Richelle's an Asian American nurse who cares for sick and dying children in a pediatric Intensive Care Unit. She carries an enormous burden of crushing guilt over her estrangement from her late identical twin sister Michelle, who died at the hands of a drunk driver.
The twins' backstory vaguely resembles the parable of the Prodigal Son, with Michelle the wild wayward sibling and Richelle the sturdy nose-to-the-grindstone type......with the addition of a terrible shocking moment that drove them forever apart.
Into Richelle's life comes Justin, a pitch-perfectly handsome, kindly, out-of-nowhere stranger whom she falls for hard.......even if he seems always evasive and obtuse about his own past......
If you're sensing a BIG TWIST in the works about Justin, you're right. Other readers claim to have guessed it ahead of time, but we don't believe them. We don't think anyone could predict how foolishly off-the-wall this book's reveal turns out to be.......not to mention downright strange, like a twist left over from a cockeyed mystery thriller.
That ending, meant to elicit tears and smiles, did neither for us. Our only reaction consisted of shaking our head back and forth, muttering, "You gotta be ****in' kidding me....."
Zero stars (0), unless you're willing to surrender all reality, common sense and any moral compass. From us, this author wins a coal in his stocking.
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