Acquired Book By: In (2014) I was selected to be a tour stop on the “A Home for Christmas” virtual book tour through Book Junkie Promotions. I received a complimentary copy of the book direct from the author MK McClintock, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein. I am re-visiting this collection for a new blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club in (2024).
Re-visiting “A Home for Christmas”:
It isn’t often I get the chance to re-visit a book I’ve read and reviewed in the past on Jorie Loves A Story. However, recently whilst in search of blog tours to host and new companies to host for as a lot of the touring companies have shut down in recent years – I found The Coffee Pot Book Club! They celebrate and champion Historical Fiction – with the same passion and dedication as the company I previously hosted tours for which was Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. Uniquely enough – I originally reviewed this title for the sister company to that one which was Book Junkie Promotions. Out of the eleven years I’ve been a book blogger, I hosted blog tours with HFVBTs for ten of those years – and it is a lovely new chapter in my life as a book blogger to continue seeking out new voices in Historical Fiction and revisiting and reacquainting myself with the authors I’ve previously discovered whilst hosting for The Coffee Pot Book Club!
Whilst it wasn’t my intention to miss my first tour stop for this new company – I had a difficult week at work and with the exhaustion that went with it – my blog was the farthest thing on my mind to be honest. I was filling in shifts and working extra hours and somewhere whilst just trying to get through a hard week, I had forgotten to release this post on my tour stop which was Friday, the 25th. I try to pre-schedule posts during these kinds of weeks and although I thought I had set everything correctly to go live apparently, I missed the fact it was still marked as private. Therefore, my full apologies are extended to Cathie @ The Coffee Pot Book Club and to the author, Ms McClintock as this was not the way to put my best foot forward as a new tour host!
When I originally read “A Home for Christmas” I was simply immersed into the setting, the characters and the stories which are gently told and completely uplifting to read. I love the style of McClintock’s writings, and it is still my intention to read more of her stories. In particular the stories about Crooked Creek are catching my eye as they are serial short stories and there are three installments of them, too.
If this is your first time finding her stories, you will be in for a treat because one of the best ways to get a sense about an author’s voice is to read their short fiction. This is one reason I oft-times try to seek out anthological collections by authors or a collection of authors. In short style fiction (ie. short stories, novellas, etc) you can get a firm idea about how writers approach writing their stories but also, have a lovely new way of seeing how their stories flourish in a shorter space than a novel.
I also appreciated reading this collection as it is rooted in one of my favourite times of the year – Christmas! I am definitely that kind of girl who binge watches Christmas films on television and in particular Hallmark Channel. Though NOT until after Thanksgiving and never before or just after Halloween – despite the fact the network trying to convince us otherwise. I like to ease into the Christmas season and observe the other holidays which lead into it, too. One of those ways I like to celebrate the holiday seasons is by reading seasonal reads – and that includes finding stories which are set in and around Christmas.
It truly is a joy of mine as a book blogger to re-showcase a collection of stories I read during my first year as a book blogger whilst I’m in the midst of my eleventh year. Be sure to keep this earmarked for your Christmas Reads this year and/or consider giving it as a gift to a friend or family member who loves these kinds of stories as much as I do.
A Home for Christmas
Subtitle: Collection of Three Heartwarming Historical Short Stories
by MK McClintock (2024)
Source: Author via Book Junkie Promotions
Will six strangers find hope, love, and family at Christmas? A collection of three historical western short stories to inspire love and warm the heart.
CHRISTMAS MOUNTAIN
In search of family she barely knows and adventure she’s always wanted, Katherine Donahue is saved from freezing on a winter night in the mountains of Montana by August Hollister. Neither of them expected that what one woman had in mind was a new beginning for them both.TETON CHRISTMAS
Heartache and a thirst for adventure lead McKensie Stewart and her sister to Wyoming after the death of their parents. With the help of a widowed aunt and a charming horse breeder, McKensie discovers that hope is a cherished promise, and there is no greater gift than love.LILY’S CHRISTMAS WISH
Lily Malone has never had a real family or a real Christmas. This holiday season, she might get both. From an orphanage in New York City to the rugged mountains of Colorado, Lily sends out only one wish. But when the time comes, can she give it up so someone else’s wish can come true?If you love inspirational romance and heartfelt holidays, then you'll enjoy this trio of stories as we remember the true meaning of love any time of the year.
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9780996507653
Published by Trappers Peak Publishing
on 5th November, 2014
Format: Trade Paperback
Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook
Converse via: #MKMcClintock, #AHomeForChristmasBlogTour, #ShortStory, #SweetRomance
For those who want to gain a glimpse of insight to what stood out to me from this collection of stories, I am re-sharing part of my review with you on this new blog tour celebrating it. If you would like to read my fuller thoughts on behalf of the other two stories, kindly read my review.
| Lily’s Christmas Wish |
I will always have a soft spot for stories about orphans, guardians, and the families who take in the children who are seeking a forever family and a place to call home. I have occasionally come across stories where the orphan trains ran through townes attempting to make a match between child and families or even individuals if they were not able to settle with a family outright; yet I do still intend to read one particular story by Christina Baker Kline which brings the whole history of this dead lock and center.
Lily is the type of girl you vie to find inside a story such as this, because it is through her spitfire personality of having strength through adversity that knits your heart to her immediately! The fact her teacher wanted to adopt her simply pulled at my heartstrings, inasmuch as when Aunt Katherine found herself a bit betwixt on how to deal with her growing affections for August!
Liam is a proud man who found himself in towne on the very day a neighbour of his started to cause a bit of a muck of mischief in attempting to get an orphan adopted without necessarily in want of being a father figure towards the child in question. Personally, I nearly felt as though Liam almost did not speak up soon enough on Lily’s behalf! And, the fact he noticed the two were a pair (Lily & Miss Abbott) was heart-warming to say the least! Who else would take-on a young girl and her teacher, in order to keep the safety of the child intact?
Wishes have a curious nature attached to them; oft-times the wishes we cast out are the ones our heart’s want to see arrive as quick as span but it is how our wishes are generally answered or resolved that takes a bit longer to accept! Young Lily has a true blue wish nestled into her heart, one that will lift her spirits and give her a lasting bout of joy, but it comes with a bit of courage that she isn’t even sure she has the confidence to embrace! What I appreciated the most about McClintock’s telling of Lily’s story is how she kept her innocence yet grounded her in being bold when necessary and vulnerable at the same time!
A Home for Christmas is simply the right cuppa of Christmas stories settling into your heart at a time in the season where Winter is not fully in force and where Autumn’s long smile has already started to wan. The holidays are sneaking up on you, and the happiness you have whilst reading stories of Winter’s best known holiday are filtering into your reading hours. This is the collection which can kick off a season of joyous stories knitted out of heart, love, and the incredible girth of wilderness settled in and around the Rocky Mountains! You quite nearly want to hop on a flight and seek out your own small tract of land somewhere in Montana, Wyoming or Colorado, where the wilds of the West are still alive and can be found.
On the Western style of writing by MK McClintock:
McClintock encourages her characters to step out of their interior lives and to take up a bit of a residence inside our foreground of sight; she breathes in images of their lifestyles which alter our sense of reality for the time in which we pick up her stories – giving us a true sense of freedom of how living in the West truly is a living adventure, changing per season and moment lived. I like the gentle favour she has with telling her stories, and how she gives honour and grace to the characters by only revealing what they want to impart to us as we read about them, yet with a guiding hand towards providing the elements of era and place.
I was so caught up in her stories — the warmth emitting out of the heat settling around me as Winter’s grasp has started to come to the Southern states afterall, matched my affection for her style of the craft. I truly enjoyed soaking inside her shorts, and realised as I had such a fond memory of reading the characters within them, this would only mark the beginning of my readings of her novels! I can only hope more are available in print editions and that perhaps, I’ll be a bit lucky and find them available through my local library’s ILL services!
On a dearly personal level, I love how sweet the romances are written and how lovely it is to drink in stories whose writer uses language and words I love to etch into my own writings! Words of emotion and feeling yes, but words which are never too strong nor too unyielding to tell a story; both honourable and authentic of its generational timescape. I nearly pegged these as inspirational and uplifting as a Heartsong Presents novella! Yet, I held back a bit as I wasn’t sure if the intent was to market this on the INSPY Romance branch of literature or to be a collection within the mainstay of Western Historical Romances. Readers of both designated areas will find themselves wicked happy for finding this treasure of a short story collection!
The Virtual Road Map
for “A Home for Christmas” can be found here:
This marks my first blog tour hosting for:
See what I am hosting next on my Bookish Events page!
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2024.
I shared this post via #bookstagram.
Thank you so much for hosting MK McClintock with A Home for Christmas. I’m delighted you enjoyed the memory of reading the book before. What a lovely post.
Welcome to The Coffee Pot Book Club!
Take care,
Cathie xo