It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (Reads) GIVEAWAY: Where Memories Await (+ guest post)

today’s book: Where Memories Await

Hello again! Even though Christmas is over (and I hope you had a merry one!), I am continuing our annual blog series spotlighting (over 60 this year) new and recently-released Christmas reads! So… snuggle in, grab your fave hot beverage and comfiest blanket, turn on some Christmas tunes if you aren’t sick of them yet and continue 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 dual timeline novella that’s part of a series with a Little Women twist, and author Heidi Chiavaroli talks about what Little Women can teach us about a meaningful Christmas!

WHERE MEMORIES AWAIT by Heidi Chiavaroli
SERIES: Orchard House Bed and Breakfast #4
GENRE: Inspirational Dual Timeline Christmas Fiction
PUBLISHER: Hope Creek Publishers LLC
RELEASE DATE: November 10, 2021
PAGES: 104

Can memories of old restore a forgotten love?

Camden, Maine ~ Present Day

Spunky octogenarian Priscilla Martin is a woman with many Christmas secrets. When a beloved niece tempts her to bare her wounded soul, Priscilla must decide whether to share the secret of her sister’s demise—and the reason she abandoned the man she loved in favor of a loveless marriage.

Camden, Maine ~ December, 1957

The only person Priscilla loves more than Ed Colton is her younger sister, Hazel. But when Ed is drafted and Hazel runs away to New York to be with a man she believes will make her famous, Priscilla’s plans crumble around her. Ed’s silence and Hazel’s tragic return leads Priscilla to make a choice she will forever regret.

Can revisiting long-ago memories give Priscilla what she’s longed for all these years?

This is Book 4 in The Orchard House Bed and Breakfast Series, a contemporary twist on the well-loved classic, Little Women. Readers will fall in love with the Martin family—Maggie, Josie, Lizzie, Bronson, Amie, and their mother Hannah—each trying to find their own way in the world and each discovering that love, home, and hope are closer than they appear.

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by Heidi Chiavaroli, author of Where Memories Await

“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents!”

The first line of the well-loved classic, Little Women, pulls us into the timeless, beautiful story while grabbing our attention with a probing question. What would Christmas be like without presents?

I can certainly feel for Jo March, despairing from her spot on the rug as she laments how dreadful it is to be poor. After all, some of my fondest memories are unwrapping gifts around a tree on Christmas morning with my family—both my childhood family, and my family of now, where I get to be “Mom.”

And yet, a part of me longs for a simpler time. A part of me longs to shun the consumerist frenzy and focus on the true gifts of Christmas. The way those little women so successfully did.

As I think on what makes Christmas Christmas, it has very little to do with the unwrapping of presents and much more on what lays behind it all—sharing love, sharing memories, sharing hope, nestling in gratitude.

This looks different for each of us. Maybe for you, it’s crammed in a cozy kitchen with a small child making chocolate turtles. Maybe it’s watching movies such as It’s a Wonderful Life (even my teenaged boys look forward to this one—we quote from this movie all year long!). Perhaps it’s seeking out those in need within your community and planning how to bless them. Or maybe, it’s one of my favorites—Christmas Eve service—and the glimpse captured in the weighty majesty of this meaningful season. The songs, the candles, the joy and peace.

Like the March sisters, we can embrace a meaningful Christmas by giving generously out of what we already have. By enjoying one another’s presence in yummy food, in a song, a laugh, a joke, a movie, or the stirring up of a memory. Gifts don’t have to be lavish—they can come from the heart. As we bask in these moments of gratitude, remembering what the season is truly about—the love of our Heavenly Father—we will receive the greatest Christmas gift of all.

Merry Christmas to you, dear readers!

Heidi Chiavaroli is offering a print copy of each book already released in the Orchard House Bed and Breakfast series plus a macrame bookmark handmade by the author to one of my readers! (US 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 Where Memories Await by Heidi Chiavaroli? What is a meaningful memory you made this Christmas?