About the Book

Book: Home for Christmas

Authors: Chautona Havig, Toni Shiloh, Cathe Swanson, Jaycee Weaver

Genre: Contemporary Christian Christmas Romance

Release date: October 21, 2021

Settle in with your favorite beverage, a Christmassy snack, and get ready for all the feels with these four heart-warming, military-honoring Christmas novellas.

The Christmas Lights Collection is back, and this year’s collection is better than ever. Full of love, joy, and hope, this year’s collection offers the celebration of freedom, sacrifice, and the greatest Gift ever given.

These novella features two veterans and two active servicemen and their stories.

The Stars of New Cheltenham (Chautona Havig): When a woman arrives at the Marine recruiting center, livid that her brother is ready to sign up tomorrow, the recruiter takes her on a journey through Rockland in hopes of showing her why her brother wants to serve.

Most Wonderful Time–  Gabe loves Christmas, so when he discovers that his new co-worker Shanée wants nothing to do with the season, he makes it his mission to show her the true meaning. But he never expected feelings to develop for the Air Force veteran. Will he take a chance that she feels the same way or miss the best gift of all?

The Road Home: ally has tried to leave her military history far in the past, but she’s not ready to go back to her former life, either. Can an old army buddy help her find a new road home?

Now and Forever Christmas: The past eight years as a professional musician for the US Army prepared Tobin McGhee for his new job as high school band teacher. They didn’t prepare him for how he’d feel seeing an old girlfriend again. This time, though, he won’t make the same mistakes. Can they make holiday music together and rekindle the friendship they once had, or will romance ruin everything… again?

My Thoughts

I look forward to reading this collection every year, and am always interested to see which authors are in the line-up. Past years have been good, but I think this is my favorite.

Can I be completely honest here and say I don’t like this collection? I love it.

There is enough variety in the stories, the characters, and the settings to make each book stand out on its own. Each author brings their own story to life with the little nuances that only they can bring, and I didn’t find myself liking any one book a great deal more than the others.

Which is something that I run across a lot. Typically, there will be one story in a collection that is more memorable than the others and when I think of the collection, I’m reminded of that one story. For this collection, when I tried to sit down and figure out which book and which character were my favorite, I found myself skipping from one book to the next. Because I found myself liking more than just the one character, or the one book… they’re all good.

It’s a solid collection, with four good books included. Anyone who enjoys books about Christmas, or books about Christmas that feature military men/women will enjoy this collection. For that matter, anyone who enjoys books will enjoy this collection because it’s good.

I requested a copy of this book to review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

About the Author

Authors Chautona Havig, Toni Shiloh, Cathe Swanson, and Jaycee Weaver are about as different geographically and personally as you can get—except where they’re not. What they all share is a love of books, writing, and Jesus. Their great diversity is what makes their books so complementary and what makes the Christmas Lights Collection an eagerly-anticipated set each year.

More from Chautona

Picture it. Sweaters, fuzzy socks, a gas fireplace, and laptops. Cathe Swanson and I had been invited to join author Brenda Anderson for a writing retreat at her timeshare in the Wisconsin Dells. So, I flew out (and arrived in Minneapolis in the middle of riots! EEEP!) and we drove over to the Dells. There we were both determined to get a ton of writing done. And we did.

While Cathe worked on Home Run, (and I sneaked peeks at her recent release, Long Shadows), I finished up Penelope’s Pursuit and wrote a significant amount of Adoring April.

I also had a genius idea while I was there. I kind of freaked out poor Cathe a bit, running into the room where she was working and blurting out all the idea-ness (for a video of that, go HERE), but still… guys! Military! Woohoo!   Here’s a video of us brainstorming:

It was perfect on so many levels. So, Cathe zipped messages off to Jaycee and Toni, and we all began planning what we’d do to honor our military in this collection.

Look, it’s been a hard year for our military families. Folks are grieving and there’s just so much uncertainty. So, all of the authors of the Christmas Lights Collection would like to dedicate this collection not just to the men and women who have and are currently serving in our armed forces, but also to the families who make their own sacrifices in giving up time (often years) with their service men and women.

In this collection, you’ll find a Marine recruiter, a struggling veteran, an Army musician, and an Air Force veteran now working a nice prosaic bank job! See how each author ties Christmas and these heroes together!

Blog Stops

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, December 8

Texas Book-aholic, December 9

Locks, Hooks and Books, December 10

Batya’s Bits, December 10

Inklings and notions, December 11

Musings of a Sassy Bookish Mama, December 12

A Modern Day Fairy Tale, December 13 (Spotlight)

Joanne Markey, December 13

Older & Smarter?, December 14

For Him and My Family, December 14

deb’s Book Review, December 15

Blossoms and Blessings, December 15

Kayem Reads, December 16

Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, December 16

By the Book, December 17

Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, December 17

lakesidelivingsite, December 18

Blogging With Carol, December 19

Cultivating Us, December 19

She Lives To Read, December 20

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, December 21

Mary Hake, December 21

Giveaway

To celebrate their tour, the Christmas Lights Authors are giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/1482c/home-for-christmas-celebration-tour-giveaway