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The Christmas Bargain (2012)

by Shanna Hatfield(Favorite Author)

3.96 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Shanna Hatfield

series

Hardman Holidays

review 1: This was a thoroughly delightful book set in the Victorian era somewhere in mid-western America. I was routing for the hero and heroine right from the start. Philomena and Luke are two very likable characters. It’s amazing to realize how women really had no rights other than what their “men folk” allowed them to have. A woman practically had no say in her own life. This story begins with Luke, the local banker, going to collect on a debt that was in arrears for over six months and the man he is trying to collect from, offering him his daughter as payment of the debt. What’s a good Christian man supposed to do? If he didn’t take her, the man was going to give her to the local saloon/brothel owner in payment of that debt. At a loss as to what to do with the woman, ... morehe brings her to his friend, the local pastor, his wife. Of course the pastor tells him the only thing he can do is marry the girl. Thus begins Luke and Philomena’s story, The Christmas Bargain.
review 2: I struggled with how I would rate this book. The plot was developed sufficiently, the characters were believable, and the story progressed and was interesting enough to hold my attention; however, the numerous occurrences of “head-hopping” were extremely distracting, and the frequent grammatical errors were irritating.What I liked: The main characters were likable, and grew in personality until the end of the story. I found myself sympathizing with Philamena and being thankful her horrible situation was improving. The plot was not a boring one, and there was a sufficient amount of twists and turns to keep it interesting.What I didn’t like: Apart from the many grammatical errors, the physical attraction between Philamena and Luke grew to a level that I personally was uncomfortable with in a Christian fiction story. When characters start discussing a strong physical passion toward the other character at the beginning of the story, it only leads to an inevitable conclusion at the end, and the last chapter was extremely frank for my tastes in a Christian fiction story.Over all, I give this book two stars … mainly because of personal preference, but also because of the structural errors. Since this book grew increasingly uncomfortable for me to read, I probably won’t read the next book in this series. less

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