It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (Reads) GIVEAWAY: The Heart of Christmas

today’s book: The Heart of Christmas

It may not be winter yet, but it’s time for our annual blog series spotlighting (over 60 this year) new and recently-released Christmas reads! This is our largest year yet, with the most authors & books, and we’re back with an all-new look, too.

Christmas is still 41 days away, though, so… snuggle in, grab your fave hot beverage and comfiest blanket, turn on some Christmas tunes and start your bookish Christmas list! Oh… and did I mention there are GIVEAWAYS with EACH POST in this series??!! (Because authors are awesome!)

Today’s next featured book is a moving Christmas anthology from the Mosaic Collection, plus author Sara Davison shares an excerpt from her story, “Star Light”.

THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS by Sara Davison & other Mosaic Collection authors
SERIES: A Mosaic Christmas Anthology #3
GENRE: Inspirational Christmas Fiction
RELEASE DATE: October 6, 2021
PAGES: 442

“At Christmas, we always…” And thus a tradition is born. The rituals stay the same, but if betrayal, illness, unfaithfulness, or tragedy strike, can cherished traditions survive?

When unexpected twists throw life out of kilter for the people in these stories, will beloved, time-honored customs lead them back to the heart of Christmas?

The Heart of Christmas: A Mosaic Christmas Anthology III

♥ Brenda S. Anderson
♥ Eleanor Bertin
♥ Sara Davison
♥ Chautona Havig
♥ Lisa Renée
♥ Lorna Seilstad

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“I don’t like it.” Felicity set the green vase on top of the piano in the corner. There. The mantel was cleared off. Not a full commitment, but a first step, at least. Keeping her options open.

“I know.” Justin sat on the couch, one long leg crossed over the other, his ankle resting on his knee. Given her level of angst, it was almost indecent of him to be so relaxed.

She flopped onto the beige couch cushion next to him. “If I do this, and I’m not making any promises, do I have to read the story?”

“It’s tradition. We don’t do one without the other. It wouldn’t be Christmas. Not our Christmas, anyway.”

Felicity pursed her lips, considering his words. He wasn’t wrong. They’d read the story as they set out the pieces of the nativity scene every year since their first Christmas together. This year, if she did it, would make seven times. The number of completion. Ironic, since absolutely nothing in her life felt complete these days. More like … broken off partway through. Like an important conversation rudely interrupted. Or a compelling story with the last few chapters missing. Or maybe more like a fatal car accident on the way to a long-anticipated holiday. “You’re very pushy. Do you know that?”

Justin grinned. “I am aware.”

“Also annoyingly difficult to say no to.”

He lifted both hands, palms up. “It’s my superpower.”

She snorted.

He lowered his hands. “Does that mean you are not going to refuse?”

“I think we both know I’m not. I just don’t want to make it too easy for you.”

“Which has always been your superpower, love.”

Felicity sent him a look of feigned irritation. As expected, her husband only laughed. She managed to hold out another thirty seconds before expelling a breath loudly.

Justin inclined his head toward the gold box she’d carried into the living room earlier and set on the coffee table with a little more force than necessary.

Without discussing it, they both understood that, if she was going to do this, she had to do it herself; he couldn’t do it for her. Not anymore.

When she slid to the front of the couch, lifted the lid, and tossed it onto the table, the storybook her husband had gotten one Christmas when he was a child rested on top of the other items in the box. Justin packed it that way every year so the book would be the first thing to be lifted out.

Tradition.

That sort of thing used to matter to her as much as it did him, but after what had happened, traditions—like everything else that had seemed so important to her in the past—now mostly felt trite.

For a few seconds she only stared at it, at the worn, familiar cover with the ripped corner and the bent plastic coating, then she reached for it.

Settling against the soft throw pillows, Felicity opened the book. For a moment, the words blurred on the page, and she blinked and waited for them to come into focus. Her throat tight, she sent one last look in Justin’s direction. If she hoped he would let her off the hook, he didn’t oblige her, only smiled and nodded at the page. He didn’t say the words this time. He didn’t have to. They still hung in the air from the last time.

You need this.

Felicity lowered her gaze and began to read.

Sara Davison, “Star Light”, from The Heart of Christmas
© 2021, Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Sara Davison is the author of three romantic suspense series—The Seven Trilogy, The Night Guardians, and The Rose Tattoo Trilogy, as well as the standalone, The Watcher. She has been a finalist for more than a dozen national writing awards, including Best New Canadian Christian author, a Carol, two Selahs, a Holt Medallion, and three Daphne du Maurier Awards for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense. She is a Word and Cascade Award winner. She currently resides in Ontario, Canada with her husband Michael and their three children. The words on the mug she uses every morning pretty much sum up her life—I just want to sleep, drink coffee, and make stuff up.

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Sara Davison is offering a print copy of The Heart of Christmas and a $10 Amazon gift card to one of my readers! (US/CAN only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

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What about you? What makes you want to read The Heart of Christmas, including “Star of Light” by Sara Davison?