Charlene Dixon—called
Charlie by family and friends—is devastated at the recent loss of her job. For
the last five years, the twenty-seven-year-old has blossomed as the activities
director of an exclusive all-girls school. But when a misunderstanding with the
headmistress leads to a pink slip right before the holidays, Charlie packs up
her dreams and returns to her grandmother, Sis, who raised Charlie as her own
in the mountains of North Carolina.
When Charlie arrives—broken
and confused—Sis immediately puts her granddaughter to work behind the scenes
of the local school’s Christmas play, A Christmas Carol. Charlie doesn’t always like working with Dustin Kennedy, the drama
teacher, but Sis encourages her to take a deeper look at why the book by
Charles Dickens had been written in the first place and what it could teach
Charlie about the needs of people in their own community.
God Bless Us Every One
is the first book I’ve ever read by Eva Marie Everson, and I have to say, I was
pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed this cute little novella very much, especially
since it was set at Christmastime. I loved how there were excerpts of A Christmas Carol at the beginning of
each chapter, as it was super cute and it really tied together that whole theme
of the story. Christmas is my favorite time of year, and I absolutely love
Charles Dickens, so that made this story all that much more lovable to me.
Charlene—Charlie—Dixon is a wonderful character who seems to
be doing well despite her somewhat troubled past, until the loss of her job sends
her back home to her Grandmother, whom she calls Sis. Though she loves her
hometown, the surprising return of two people from her past—one loved, the
other unforgiven—turns her already spinning world upside down. It will take the
help of her grandma, a few old friends, and an old Charles Dickens novel to
help Charlie see just what life—and Christmas—is all about.
All in all, I really enjoyed this novella, although there
were just a couple of things that bothered me about it. Charlie’s story with
Dustin developed just a bit too quickly for me, while the rest of the book moved
somewhat slowly. I know there’s only so much you can put into a novella, but I just
wish where would have been a little bit more going on. Other than that though, I
really enjoyed this story and am looking forward to reading more of Eva’s novels
in the future!
Happy reading!
I received a copy of this book through the Litfuse Publicity
Group in exchange for only my honest review.
To see where I’m linking up, check out my Where I Party
page.
All credit for the italicized synopsis goes to Eva Marie
Everson and Abingdon Press.
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