THE GIFT.

The fourth book read for the 2015 Christmas Spirit challenge which can mean only one thing .... drum roll if you'd be so kind .... yes, I've achieved yet another level.


THE GIFT by CECELIA AHERN.

Amazon.co.uk Blurb: If you could wish for one gift this Christmas, what would it be?

Lou Suffern wishes he could be in two places at once. His constant battle with the clock is a sensitive issue with his wife and family.

Gabe wishes he was somewhere warm. When Lou invites Gabe, a homeless man who sits outside his office, into the building and into his life, Lou’s world is changed beyond all measure…

An enchanting and thoughtful Christmas story that speaks to all of us abut the value of time and what is truly important in life.

FIRST SENTENCE {Chapter 1: An Army Of Secrets}: If you were to stroll down the candy-cane facade of a surburban housing estate early on Christmas morning, you couldn't help but observe how the houses in all their tinselled glory are akin to wrapped parcels that lie beneath the Christmas trees within.

MEMORABLE MOMENT: See 'My Thoughts' below.

MY THOUGHTS: 'And so he raises his arms above his head, pulls back, and with all his strength pushes forward and releases the object in his hands. He stands back to watch, with bitter joy, as a fifteen-pound frozen turkey smashes through the window of the living room of number twenty-four. The drawn curtains act once again as a barrier between him and then, slowing down the bird's flight through the air. With no life to stop itself now, it - and its giblets - descend rapidly to the wooden floor, where it's sent, spinning and skidding, along to its final resting place beneath the Christmas tree. His gift to them.' - Page 3.

What  a great start, I had such high hopes for this novel, but alas I'm afraid from here on in it was down hill all the way.

Put in mind of one of those old black and white Christmas movies (but minus that heart-warming 'Christmas feel' and characters you actually felt something for). If nothing else I should have relished the moral at the heart of The Gift but instead felt myself left cold by what I felt was the authors rather patronising tone.

Character wise ....

In main man Lou Sufferen we have a kind of Ebenezer Scrooge if you will. A miserly character of sorts, a womaniser and workaholic, who, mean with his time as far as his wife and family go, puts business before them until one day he finds himself visited by the ghosts of 'Christmas Past', 'Christmas Present' and 'Christmas Yet To Come'. Whoops! I mean having given the homeless Gabe a job finds his attitude being challenged - before its too late. 

Gabe being a sort of like Clarence Odbody (It's A Wonderful Life) individual EXCEPT we don't ever get to find out if he is actually a Guardian Angel .... or do we? 

To be honest, a book I eventually only went through the motions of reading as, my heart not in it, I lost any interest I might have had in either the plot or characters.

A plot I hasten to add that I found increasingly implausible. The authors penchant for the supernatural somehow just not working for me (maybe because of the pretentious tone of the writing?). The supposedly tear-jerker of an ending failing to move me in anything other than the most rudimentary way. 

Call me cynical but I can't help but think there was something rushed about this book. That maybe the author had a remit to write a 'festive' novel in time for Christmas.


ACHIEVED: MISTLETOE.