One Christmas Morning by Rachel Greenlaw (Review By Stacie Kitchen)

Rating: 4/5

What a heartfelt Christmas novel. This book had a lot of emotional depth for me. I don’t think I was expecting such self-discovery and emotions from this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. From strong character development to real life situations, this book was easy to dig into.

Eva is on the verge of opening her new store, and in the past few years she has lost touch with who she is as a person. Her relationships have suffered, and she can only think about work. On Christmas Eve, Eva joins her husband and friends for a weekend-long getaway at a home she spent many years of her past visiting. She attempts to leave to return to her store when the ghost of her grandmother stops her. Eva must spend Christmas day through the lives of those she loves to reconnect with herself and face her fears. Day by day, Eva learns how her actions have hurt those around her and how each person has their own problems they are facing. 

I am not usually a huge fan of the groundhog’s day style of book. Sometimes these can feel stale to me because you are hearing the same story repeatedly. However, this book took you on a different perspective each time around, so it felt fresh. It was like reading the same day through other people’s eyes so getting the full picture instead of just one person’s viewpoint. Some areas of this book were a little hard for me to read. I read this as a newly pregnant woman, and this is a little bit of a trigger warning if you are in the same boat or have suffered a miscarriage in the past. I found this book deeply emotional, yet still having the magic of Christmas. It was an elevated Christmas Carol to me. Greatly recommend if you like your Christmas novels to have a lot of heart and depth!