REVIEW: Christmas on Candy Cane Lane by Sheila Roberts

In Christmas on Candy Cane Lane by Sheila Roberts, Making her road the most beautiful in all of Icicle Falls during the holiday is Maddy Donaldson’s goal each year. She loves seeing the smiles on the faces of everyone who drives through, enjoying the sights on Candy Cane Lane. But this year, Maddy is dealing with a grumpy teenage daughter at home sulking as well as someone vandalizing everyone’s outside decorations. The newcomer down the street, Tilda Morrison, just happens to be a local cop with a perfectly bland house. Maybe they can strike up a bargain: Tilda can catch the hoodlums and Maddy can give her tips on decorations.

‘This Christmas she was going to follow the advice she’d read in Muriel Sterling’s book. She was going to make her Christmas perfect even though it wouldn’t be. So there.’

Ivy Bohn is also determined to make this a banner Christmas for her kids since her break up with her husband. She’s lacking in holiday spirit but she’ll find it somewhere. Maybe in the pages of local author Muriel Sterling’s latest book. To complicate matters, Ivy didn’t start off on the right foot with her new next door neighbor Tilda, but fate keeps throwing them in each other’s paths. Just like bad boy Devon Black is always showing up in Tilda’s life somehow. So as the residents of Icicle Falls settle in with their families for the season, the people of Candy Cane Lane will each have their own set of problems–some shared, some individual–to overcome.

“I’m not picky,” Tilda insisted.
“Then quit looking around for Superman and go for Clark Kent. When he loses his glasses he’s the same guy. And you know what? Deep down they’re all really just Clarks, anyway.”
Tilda had to smile at that. “Maybe you’re right.”

I look forward to the new Christmas story author Sheila Roberts puts out every year in her Life in Icicle Falls series. I never know what emotional adventure awaits the characters, but I know that it will be nothing short of pure heartfelt Holiday entertainment.

‘Such a magical place she and her neighbors had made. And yet she’d spent so much time focusing on the outside that the inside, where true Christmas happened, she’d let the magic die.’

We had three very fun women to follow this year, Maddy, Ivy and Tilda, all dealing with the demise of their perfect Christmas. I think what struck me most throughout their trials and tribulations is that (even with the help of Muriel Sterling’s newest helpful book) there was a consensus by the ending that perfection should be thrown out the window. When it was all said and done, each woman and her family did the best they could with their situation and let things happen naturally instead of spreading themselves so thin that they couldn’t function. I think that was a very real lesson to learn and one that a lot of us need to hear at this time of year. Don’t overdo it.

I liked as well that Tilda, Ivy and Maddy were all at different stages in their lives and relationships. It was comical to watch Tilda fight her attraction to Devon at every turn, knowing how incredible they would be together if she just gave in. And it was bittersweet to see Ivy and Rob wishing they could make things right again, seeing their animosity over the events of the past year. Maddy was at odds with her teenage daughter (go figure, right?) so watching her navigate that minefield of emotions was interesting. I thought all of the women’s stories together created a perfect cohesive picture or slice of what a small community looks like and was realistic in how they interacted.

Christmas on Candy Cane Lane was filled with the joy, chaos, hope and spirit of the Season. Highly recommended for your Holiday literary collection.

Book Info:

Publication: Published November 1st 2015 | by MIRA | Life in Icicle Falls #8

Icicle Falls is the place to be at Christmas…

Everyone’s getting ready for Christmas in Icicle Falls, especially on Candy Cane Lane, where holiday decorating is taken very seriously. Tilda Morrison, town cop, is looking forward to celebrating Christmas in her first house… until she discovers that she’s expected to “keep up” with the neighbors, including Maddy Donaldson, the inspiration behind the whole extravaganza. But this year, someone’s destroying Maddie’s precious candy canes! Thank goodness for the cop in their neighborhood.

Tilda already has her hands full trying to sort out her love life and fix up her fixer-upper. Oh, and won’t it be fun to have the family over for Christmas dinner? Not really… Then there’s her neighbor, Ivy Bohn. As a newly single mom, Ivy can sum up the holiday in two words: Bah, humbug. But she’s determined to give her kids a perfect Christmas.

Despite family disasters, irritating ex-husbands and kitchen catastrophes, these three women are going to find out that Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year!