Colors of Christmas: Two Contemporary Stories Celebrate the Hope of Christmas by Olivia Newport

Celebrate the joyful hope of the Christmas season as characters find healing in the midst of heartbreak.
New from Olivia Newport!

Christmas in Blue
In the wake of a personal loss deeper than anyone realizes, Angela plans to bypass as much of the season as possible and get through her duties as the church organist by going on autopilot. Instead, she finds herself in charge of the town’s celebration. After a mysterious young man arrives, townspeople suspect he is the reason that one set of plans after another disintegrate until little is left of their traditions. Yet Angela warms to Gabe because she suspects they share a secret—his real reason for coming to town. Even when all they have to work with is a garish supply of blue Christmas decorations, Gabe helps Angela discover the hidden beauty of hope.

Christmas in Gold
After eighty years, change is nothing new for Astrid. By the time she was twenty, she survived the destructive Nazi regime, caring for her family under brutal circumstances, moving to America, and losing her husband. At forty she was widowed again and left to build a new life with her children. Now, when she faces a move into an assisted living community and meets a young woman on the brink of despair, she resolves to stir up hope through tragedy one more time.

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About The Author

 

Olivia Newport's novels twist through time to find where faith and passions meet. She chases joy in Colorado, where daylilies grow as tall as she is. Her husband and two twenty-something children provide welcome distraction from the people stomping through her head on their way into her books.

 

My Review

You can probably tell which colors are the focuses of the two novellas by the cover, yes gold and blue. Two entirely different reads, but both heart warming and timely, Christmas love, and not romantic, but loving.
The author places us in two time periods in the first story, the golden years, and her youth, but the time period of the first is a time that most would want to forget. You don’t often think of the enemy and how they are living, but are they the enemy, or innocent by standers, and from that perspective we see a great deal of suffering. Yes, we walk in Astrid’s shoes through the eyes of this story, and you will soon want to get out of the shoes, but all that happens to her has made her love God all the more. This one kept me page-turning, but seem to end to soon.
The second is also about loss and trying to move on, and you are going to love the dog. Again the author has shows us that all lives are not rosy, but putting your faith first and moving on. We also meet a new comer to the town, and at first you are going to wonder what he is doing there. Yes, some are very leery, but you are in for some awesome surprises, even when it seems that nothing more could go wrong, guess what!
Enjoy these different, but meaningful Christmas reads.
I received this book through Net Galley and Barbour Publishing, and was not required to give a positive review