The Synopsis

For the past few months, Holly Larson has been looking after her nephew, Gabe, while her brother serves in the military. Right when she’s starting to getting the hang of it, Gabe tells her what he wants for Christmas this year—the new Intellytron. Holly wants more than anything to make this Christmas special for Gabe since his father won’t be present, but there’s no way she can afford such an expensive toy! As for Jake Finley, manager of the toy department at Finley’s Department Store, that’s exactly his concern. On a whim, he bought 500 of the new robot toys, hoping to make a huge profit before Christmas. That is, if anyone thinks they’re worth spending so much money on. Then there’s Mrs. Miracle, new employee in the toy department, who befriends Gabe and gives Holly and Jake the little nudge they need to have the best Christmas they’ve ever had.

I read this book for my own personal pleasure and was not required to write a review. All comments and opinions are entirely my own.

Review:

I’ve watched the Hallmark movie based on this book multiple times since it aired in 2010!

Holly is quirky, Jake is earnest, Mrs. Miracle is both adorable and hysterical at the same time and the whole thing just makes you want to wrap up in a cozy blanket with some hot chocolate. There are several Hallmark movies based on Debbie Macomber’s novels and for good reason. She knows how to write a predictable, yet feel-good and heart-warming tale.

This fall my sister and I have been trying to listen to audiobooks on our way to and from work (we both work as preschool teacher’s assistants) to try to help us reach our reading goals for 2018. Mom got us a few from the library one day, including this one, which we decided to listen to all together on our way to and from my cousin’s house (she lives an hour away—perfect for listening to audiobooks together!). We all loved the movie, so we were excited to read the book.

And it was just adorable! Granted, Holly and Jake started dating after only seeing each other three times, but I guess if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be, right? 😉 What I really liked about this book was the way Macomber told the story. The plot centered around whether or not Holly would manage to scrape up the money she needed to buy an Intellytron for Gabe for Christmas without Jake just straight-up buying it for her since they were dating. It may sound trivial, but it felt real. The story took place over the span of maybe two weeks and each day was described in detail from every misunderstanding, argument and little victory each character faced. We got to watch Holly develop her relationship with her nephew, Jake try to prove himself to his father, Holly try to be patient with her overbearing boss and Mrs. Miracle overseeing it all. It felt so realistic because the daily struggles they faced with family dynamics, money being tight and dreams being just out of reach are so relatable to us as readers.

I also loved how each chapter title was a verse or quote from Mrs. Miracle. Some of them were just hilarious and others held plain common sense.

Like this one from Chapter Two:

“If God is your copilot, trade places.”

It’s a funny way of putting it, but if you and stop for a second to reflect on your own life, you might realize the need to implement such a truth yourself. Sometimes the narrative would even stop in a middle of a chapter and there would be a recipe inserted of some food a character had just baked or mentioned. It made the book feel homey…like my grandmother was reading it to me.

There was no big climax in Holly and Jake’s relationship or in the story in general. Of course, there was moment or two of panic, but then everything worked out just the way it was supposed to. And much like Nanny McPhee, Mrs. Miracle mysteriously disappears when she’s no longer needed. After all, there’s always someone somewhere who needs her help, too.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, I give Call Me Mrs. Miracle 4 out of 5 stars. Besides a few scenes where Jake and Holly share a few deep kisses, the book is clean and perfect for the whole family. I think sometimes we need a sweet book like this to remind us that the monotonous routine we go through every day doesn’t have to be so boring as long as we’re faithfully pursuing our dreams and keeping our families close.

(Now I’m going to get a cup of hot chocolate and watch this cute movie again!)

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