Rating: 
Summary: The True Meaning of Christmas
Review: Every year, there are dozens of Christmas books published. We like them. Christmas is a happy season, and what better place to reveal the happiness of romance?
But what if the family is not happy at Christmas? What if all faith has been lost between a husband and wife, and they just can't seem to make their way back to each other, no matter how much they might want to?
TWELVE DAYS is a rich, deeply emotional, twelve-hanky read about faith, about redemption, about the healing that hope can bring to even the darkest of times. It celebrates the truest, deepest meaning of Christmas--the power unleashed in giving and the courage it takes to have faith--in ourselves and in others.
I can't say enough about the beauty of this story. Don't miss it.
Rating:
Summary: The True Meaning of Christmas
Review: Every year, there are dozens of Christmas books published. We like them. Christmas is a happy season, and what better place to reveal the happiness of romance?
But what if the family is not happy at Christmas? What if all faith has been lost between a husband and wife, and they just can't seem to make their way back to each other, no matter how much they might want to?
TWELVE DAYS is a rich, deeply emotional, twelve-hanky read about faith, about redemption, about the healing that hope can bring to even the darkest of times. It celebrates the truest, deepest meaning of Christmas--the power unleashed in giving and the courage it takes to have faith--in ourselves and in others.
I can't say enough about the beauty of this story. Don't miss it.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Spectacular!
Review: I discovered this book because I always read the RWA RITA Award finalists, and I can't remember the last time a novel touched me so deeply. If you're looking for a book that will bring tears to your eyes and joy to your heart, buy TWELVE DAYS. Buy it right now.Ms. Hill gifts us with everything we could ask for and more: lyrical writing, powerful emotion, tender romance and the kind of freshness and originality we rarely see in the genre these days. She also writes some of the best dialogue this side of Nora Roberts. Her characters are marvelously human, vulnerable, real people and their story will linger in your heart long after you turn the last page. In my humble opinion, TWELVE DAYS should have won the RITA and Teresa Hill deserves a place on the hardcover bestseller lists. If you enjoy women's fiction by authors like Barbara Delinsky, Kristin Hannah and Anna Quindlen, you will love Teresa Hill.
Rating:
Summary: The best Christmas book I've ever read, bar none.
Review: I'm not much of a fan of Christmas books. I mean, I think they're good ideas in theory, but I rarely find one I like. Then I read this one. I had to read it with a kleenex box next to me and pretty much cried the whole way through it. There were points when the emotion was so intense that I felt physical pain, pressure on my chest, from it. When I finished, I just had to go hug and kiss on my son and my husband and tell them both how much I love them. This was a fabulous, fabulous book, and I'd recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Emotional and Magical
Review: In Baxter, Ohio, registered foster parents Sam and Rachel McRae can no longer deal with the swinging door mentality of child placement after falling in love with Will. The lad stayed with them until a judge ruled his mother deserved another chance and had the lad removed from the McRaes. Sam and Rachel grieve their loss, vowing never again. With Christmas less than two weeks away, Rachel's social worker Aunt Miriam arrives with three small children, eleven year old Emma, five year old Zach, and a baby, Grace. Their mother apparently abandoned them at a nearby motel. Reluctantly, Rachel agrees to nurture the children through Christmas until a home can be found. However, the slight lift in her spirits is dampened when she overhears Sam on the phone telling someone he is leaving her the day after Christmas as love is not enough. TWELVE DAYS is an insightful relationship drama that focuses on the aftermath of fostering a child. Sam and Rachel are a fine hurting couple, while the readers will empathize with the precocious Zach and the determined Grace. However, Emma, a surrogate mother to her siblings, will steal the hearts of the audience as she does Sam and Rachel because of the loss of her childhood and its innocence. Teresa Hill writes an angst-laden story line that has three helpless children teach two battered souls the meaning of the Yuletide season. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Poignant drama
Review: In Baxter, Ohio, registered foster parents Sam and Rachel McRae can no longer deal with the swinging door mentality of child placement after falling in love with Will. The lad stayed with them until a judge ruled his mother deserved another chance and had the lad removed from the McRaes. Sam and Rachel grieve their loss, vowing never again. With Christmas less than two weeks away, Rachel's social worker Aunt Miriam arrives with three small children, eleven year old Emma, five year old Zach, and a baby, Grace. Their mother apparently abandoned them at a nearby motel. Reluctantly, Rachel agrees to nurture the children through Christmas until a home can be found. However, the slight lift in her spirits is dampened when she overhears Sam on the phone telling someone he is leaving her the day after Christmas as love is not enough. TWELVE DAYS is an insightful relationship drama that focuses on the aftermath of fostering a child. Sam and Rachel are a fine hurting couple, while the readers will empathize with the precocious Zach and the determined Grace. However, Emma, a surrogate mother to her siblings, will steal the hearts of the audience as she does Sam and Rachel because of the loss of her childhood and its innocence. Teresa Hill writes an angst-laden story line that has three helpless children teach two battered souls the meaning of the Yuletide season. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: CHRISTMAS CAN BE TRULY MAGICAL
Review: Rachel McRae expects to have the worst Christmas of her life. Her husband is leaving her right after the holiday, and by the time she finds out, she has the TWELVE DAYS leading up to Christmas to convince him to stay. But sometimes, just when life seems the hardest -- when we think we've struggled as much as we can and have no faith left -- things finally gets better. Sam and Rachel have always wanted children, but have never been able to have them. Just as they're giving up on each other, three children are found abandoned at a motel on the edge of town. Sam and Rachel agree to take them in -- just until after Christmas -- and to try to make the holiday special for them. They all need each other this year. They all have lessons to learn about the power of love and the sheer magic of Christmas.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderfully emotional holiday story.
Review: Sam and Rachel have drifted apart, neither understanding at the beginning of the story just how far. When she overhears him on the phone making plans to leave her right after Christmas, she is devestated,and realizes she has only twelve days to change his mind. In Sam and Rachel's tradition, the twelve days before Christmas (not following) are very special, and the magic of caring for unexpected foster children may help revive their love. But they've loved and lost children before, and the three who show up on their doorstep desparately needing a warm Christmas, have the power to tear the couple apart, or put them back together. This is an emotional story and I recommend a box of tissues and a big chunk of time to read uninterrupted.
Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable Family Drama!
Review: Sam and Rachel's marriage has been going downhill for years, neither of them wanting to admit it. Despite the fact that Sam has taken to sleeping in another room, Rachel is stunned when she overhears Sam's phone conversation revealing he is moving out after Christmas. While their problems are deep, they seemed to come to the surface after the foster child (Will) they were caring for had to be returned to his biological mother. Now neither of them are willing to care that much for a child again. Sam and Rachel have struggled with infertility ever since the death of their premature daughter twelve years previously. They gave their heart to young Will only to have it shattered. Twelve days before Christmas Rachel's aunt, a social worker, shows up on their doorstep with three young children in tow. It seems they have been abandoned in a local motel by a mother who promised she'd return. Rachel and Sam are still on the list of approved foster homes and despite the fact that neither of them feel they want to risk their heart again, they have no option but to keep the children -- at least through the Holidays. This is an emotional story, reminiscent of Kristin Hannah's "family dramas." I love it when you have a couple who has had some sort of problem to work through which leads to them almost parting -- or sometimes actually separating/divorcing. The characters of Sam and Rachel as well as that of the three children, Emma, Zach, and Grace are ones that will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned. There were no easy answers for Sam or Rachel here. Their problems are realistically portrayed. If you enjoyed books such as ANGEL FALLS by Kristin Hannah, COAST ROAD by Barbara Delinsky or MOMENTS IN TIME by Mariah Stewart, chances are you will enjoy TWELVE DAYS as well. The book is simply unforgettable and I can assure you it will be going on my keeper shelf for re-reading every Christmas season
Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable Family Drama!
Review: Sam and Rachel's marriage has been going downhill for years, neither of them wanting to admit it. Despite the fact that Sam has taken to sleeping in another room, Rachel is stunned when she overhears Sam's phone conversation revealing he is moving out after Christmas. While their problems are deep, they seemed to come to the surface after the foster child (Will) they were caring for had to be returned to his biological mother. Now neither of them are willing to care that much for a child again. Sam and Rachel have struggled with infertility ever since the death of their premature daughter twelve years previously. They gave their heart to young Will only to have it shattered. Twelve days before Christmas Rachel's aunt, a social worker, shows up on their doorstep with three young children in tow. It seems they have been abandoned in a local motel by a mother who promised she'd return. Rachel and Sam are still on the list of approved foster homes and despite the fact that neither of them feel they want to risk their heart again, they have no option but to keep the children -- at least through the Holidays. This is an emotional story, reminiscent of Kristin Hannah's "family dramas." I love it when you have a couple who has had some sort of problem to work through which leads to them almost parting -- or sometimes actually separating/divorcing. The characters of Sam and Rachel as well as that of the three children, Emma, Zach, and Grace are ones that will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned. There were no easy answers for Sam or Rachel here. Their problems are realistically portrayed. If you enjoyed books such as ANGEL FALLS by Kristin Hannah, COAST ROAD by Barbara Delinsky or MOMENTS IN TIME by Mariah Stewart, chances are you will enjoy TWELVE DAYS as well. The book is simply unforgettable and I can assure you it will be going on my keeper shelf for re-reading every Christmas season
|
