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

Choosing Christmas

Welcome back to our annual blog series spotlighting (over 60 again this year) new and recently-released Christmas reads!

Only THREE DAYS until Christmas!

We’re in the home stretch in our spotlights of several Christmasy releases from 2022. Most days will have more than one post, just FYI. 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!)

CHOOSING CHRISTMAS by Carol James
SERIES: Christmas Holiday Extravaganza
GENRE: Inspirational Contemporary Romance
PUBLISHER: White Rose Publishing
RELEASE DATE: October 14, 2022
PAGES: 99

Heartbroken over the unfair loss of a position in the school where she teaches, Angela Taylor is determined to find an AP position.

Adam Thornton has struggled for years to overcome the physical and emotional effects of a devastating accident that occurred when he was a teenager. A successful real estate attorney and part-time handyman, Adam uses his gifts and talents to serve others.

When Angela is hired as an AP at the school where Adam’ s mother is the principal, Angela and Adam find they share a past… an unexpected connection. And they must choose whether to surrender to the pain of that past or find hope for the future in the spirit of Christmas.

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by Carol James, author of Choosing Christmas

The shepherds were exhausted. Their bodies ached. The steep and rocky paths had bruised their feet. Briars had sliced their legs. The day had been long. Just like every other day. They’d spent hours chasing one little lamb through the wilderness. And now that they’d finally gotten him back into the fold, all they wanted to do was sleep.

They’d been taught the promises since they were children. God was sending a Messiah, a Savior. But as the silent years passed, Israel’s expectancy waned. They wondered if God’s gift would ever happen. They forgot. I imagine none of them expected the Messiah to come that night.

In Choosing Christmas, Adam and Angie have both suffered losses. Their lives have not followed the paths each had planned or turned out as each had dreamed and expected.

When a tragic accident steals Adam’s dream, he immerses himself in his work, his church, and serving others. Maybe his expectations were unrealistic, and he wanted too much…or the wrong thing. Maybe this is the best his life can be. After all, he’s comfortable. He’s fairly happy. He has a good life. Just less than the life he expected.

Angie works hard, too. When she was a child her mother deserted her. So she’s constantly trying to prove to God and others that she’s good enough. And instead of handing her pain to God, she pushes it down deep inside, covering it over with busy-ness. She tells herself she should be able to accept God’s will and continue on with living. But when she fails to get a promotion she feels she deserves, she’s hurt and angry. Her life is not what she expected.

But then God…

While Adam and Angie are resigned to live lesser-than-expected lives, God has been making new pathways for them through their deserts. And when the time is right, He brings them together in the most unexpected way. The whole time they’d been living life, He’d been working to give them lives full of abundance. They simply needed to wait and trust.

Isaiah 43: 18-19 tells us:

“Forget the former things;

do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

and streams in the wasteland.”

People are not naturally patient beings. We often expect everything to be done in three minutes, just like our microwave dinners. But, even when we can’t see it, our Heavenly Father is always, ALWAYS, working for our good. When life seems less than desirable, we must trust Him to bring good from it. We must face life with expectancy.

In God’s perfect timing, Adam and Angie found each other…not as either could have predicted or would have expected.

And we all know the rest of the story about the shepherds. How they were the first to receive God’s expected gift of a Savior.

Christmas is a season of expectancy. A time when a Heavenly Father reminds His children of His love and sacrifice for them.

So, live expectantly. Our Heavenly Father has something wonderful ahead for you.

Raised as an Air Force brat, the longest Carol James ever lived in one place was a year and a half. Maybe that’s why when she and her husband bought their first home over forty years ago, they stayed put.

Wife, mother, grandmother, and dog-mama, Carol loves writing stories of Redemptive Romance, intriguing, transformative stories with happy endings..

Visit her website to sign up for her newsletter and get a free short story: https://www.carol-james.com

Carol James is offering an ebook copy of Choosing Christmas to one of my readers! (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 Choosing Christmas by Carol James?