A Holiday Miracle in Apple Blossom by June McClary Jacobs
Published By: Sweetwater Books (@SweetwaterBooks),
an imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc (@CedarFortBooks)
Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook
Converse via: #INSPY, #ChristmasNovella & #SweetRomance
Acquired Book By:
I am a regular tour hostess for blog tours via Cedar Fort whereupon I am thankful to have such a diverse amount of novels and non-fiction titles to choose amongst to host. I received a complimentary copy of “A Holiday Miracle in Apple Blossom” direct from the publisher Sweetwater Books (imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Inspired to Read:
I have always been the kind of reader who loves to curl into a Christmas story (novella or novel), as the Christmas season is always one of my favourites throughout the year. Christmas has always been a special holiday for me and my family, as we had many in-house traditions and rituals of celebratory bliss we would always include our extended family in on the joy of being together whilst celebrating the blessitudes of the past year. Each year my family has grown smaller than the years prior, Christmas has become a bit re-defined, and sometimes a bit unrecognisable as there have been a lot of loss as the years have moved forward.
Evenso, I cannot help but get a warm glow in my heart for the Christmas stories (both in print & on television) which not only encourage a happiness throughout the Christmastide straight through til Twelfth Night, but I find reading & watching Christmas stories is a way of securing a lot of hope and light during the years where you find yourself a bit betwixt about the holidays in general. I love finding new writers who are penning classical stories for Christmas, full of an adversity or a misunderstanding that leads through to a compassionate heart, a clarity of faith, and the community at large you feel blessed to have spent a visit with as you read where their journey took them to go.
A Holiday Miracle in Apple Blossom
by June McCrary Jacobs
Source: Direct from Publisher
Tragedy brings heartache to the community of Apple Blossom. A car takes the life of 6 year old Mary Noel Simmon's best friend - her dog - and nearly destroys Mary Noel's spirit as well. Now she lies in the hospital, traumatized and silent, while the medical bills are piling up with no way for her parents to pay them.
That is, until Mary Noel's teacher, Amber Kellen, breaks out of her quiet, lonely life to help.
With the help of her new friend Paul, Amber sets out to solve the family's financial problems by involving the entire community. And as the two friends work together, they discover that creating a Christmas miracle may also have some unexpected benefits. Filled with romance and kindness, this story of hope and faith will warm your heart.
"I wanted to portray a wholesome relationship between a man and woman with similar values where their friendship and common goals were the basis for developing a love relationship,” said McCrary Jacobs. “The community of Apple Blossom pulls together to help a family in need and is very successful in their efforts.”
Places to find the book:
Also by this author: , Robin's Reward
Published by Sweetwater Books
on 8th October, 2013
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 144
A towne called Apple Blossom:
Apple Blossom reminds me of most small townes where even if you do not know everyone outright, it is the type of towne where you can reach out to those of whom you have not yet met and make an acquaintance quite easily. The hospital is as good of a place as any to make new friends, as at one time or another, most residents of a small towne will know someone who is hospitalised. The towne is full of a genuine community feel to it, even if a few hotheads and other nefarious characters are still sprinkled here or there, as it gave the towne a realism to real-life. I had to chuckle to myself when the one bloke attempted to cast a fanciful eye on Ms. Kellen; knowing full well she would never have anything to do with him!
It is the type of towne where you can carve out a bit of a life whilst surrounded by the goodness and honesty each of us hopes to find in all of our places of residence. Where a bit more happiness is knitted out of the days than any angst that could find us, and where getting to see people who light up a warmth in your spirit is a regular occurrence. I especially loved the exchanges between Hazel (waitress at the local cafe) and Paul; truly classic, especially as I’ve happily have enjoyed the banter myself of a similar nature time after time!
My Review of A Holiday Miracle in Apple Blossom:
We are introduced to the young girl whose heart is broken and whose emotional anguish over the loss of her dog has left her beyond bereft, at the start of a new school day after a break for Thanksgiving. I remember how much I used to look forward to the breaks during the school year, and how sombering some of the returns were after hearing my own classmates recount something quite tragic that had occurred in their own young lives. Even I had my fair share of loss during the holidays, but what I appreciated about Mary Noel’s teacher Ms. Kellen is her intuitive nature to off-set the obvious disruption in all her students lives by giving them an outlet for their feelings: creating cards and art to give to Mary Noel. A simple gesture but one that could at least temper the jolt of news each of her young children were trying to sort through in their own way.
Paul enters Ms. Kellen’s life whilst she is visiting Mary Noel and her family at the hospital, a kind spirit of a bloke who likes to reach out to those who are afflicted with an unexpected medical emergency; in this case, his boss’s young daughter. Paul has a way with children in the way Ms. Kellen understands them as a school-teacher, as both were given the insightful knowledge of listening to what a child has to say and knowing how much listening truly means to the child. Mary Noel is grief stricken and silent; but there are other children in the ward who are chatty to the adults who are passing by to visit those they know personally.
Paul and Ms. Kellen hatch an idea that not only would involve the community directly but the impact of hosting a special event to raise funds to cure the medical bills Mary Noel is accruing reminded me fondly of stories out of New England (where this story is set) where communities set-up bean suppers, spaghetti suppers and other special events to help off-set an expanse one family is unable to pay themselves. It is an act of community spirit and the joy of giving an unexpected mirth of a blessing to a family who would not expect an ending to their strife and adversity to eclipse the fuller meaning of “It’s A Wonderful Life” (my absolute favourite Christmas movies!)! I love how the tenacity the pair have to pull this together as much as seeing how their own passion for helping Mary Noel starts to warm the people of Apple Blossom.
A Holiday Miracle in Apple Blossom is strengthened by everyone’s sense of goodwill and charitable giving at a time in their lives where a young girl’s plight not only touched those within her inner circle, but sparked a light of gratitude for everyone to not only appreciate what they have in their lives but to give gratitude back to those who are in need of their love and grace. One of the added blessings of the tale is watching two unsuspecting singletons find they finally have crossed paths with someone they can trust and walk through life together hand in hand. Christmas is set within such a beautiful season of thankfulness, compassion, faith, and the joy of giving; and this story set in Apple Blossom is a testament to them all.
On the writing style of June McCrary Jacobs:
Ms. Jacobs has a way of giving you the heart-warming ‘returning back home’ feeling whilst reading one of her stories, especially this one set in Apple Blossom! She has a way of weaving in virtues of a faith-driven life interspersed with the dialogue and narrative bits which give you a full grounding of where her inspiration well of creativity originates and where her inspiration inspires her own characters. I appreciated seeing this all lightly sprinkled throughout the story, without being too obvious about it but at the same gentling giving the strong impression that both Paul and Ms. Kellen make spirituality as an integral part of their lives anchor and compass.
I would love to see what Ms. Jacobs could do with a full-length novel, where she could not only flex her creativity to include a longer length of story but her sweet kissed Romances could work well given more time to flesh out the character interactions a bit more and given us a story we would not want to end soon. I will be keeping my eye on her next releases, especially the two Contemporary Romances – one INSPY and one mainstream.
A small note on the cover-art:
Normally, I do not mind if there are small differences in the cover-art designs for books, but in this one particular case, I was a bit surprised of seeing Paul on front of the hardback edition was clean shaven! As he sports a beard inside the story – I am sure this was either an oversight or in lieu of finding a model photograph, the cover artist opted to switch out this one particular personality signature of Paul’s.
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{SOURCES: Book Cover Art for “A Holiday Miracle in Apple Blossom”, author biography and author quote on behalf of the novella and author photograph were provided by the author June McCrary Jacobs and used with permission. Blog Tour badge, book synopsis and badge for Cedar Fort Publishing & Media is provided by Cedar Fort Publishing & Media and used with permission. Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. SFN November Book Review badge & #IndieWriterMonth badge created by Jorie in Canva. Cross-Posted badge for Riffle created by Jorie in Canva.}
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