by Elizabeth Palmer from the December 30, 2013 issueTagline: Allie was happy to help out at the Christmas fundraising booth. And when her good deed brought Dan into her life, she was even happier!
In a Nutshell: Allie is known in her family for her elaborate gift-wrapping so volunteering to wrap gifts at the mall for a charity is a perfect fit. A man makes eye contact and smiles. She smiles back. Much later, he's there with a large donation and some gifts for her to wrap. Turns out, two of the gifts are for his dog. He just wanted to meet her.
Observations: Okay, Ms. Palmer. I hereby crown you Queen of the Holiday Stories. I'm convinced you could write a winner in your sleep.
I wanted to point out what a "perfect" hero Dan is. First, he looks good in leather. Just kidding. Because I have to go to work soon, I'll just do a laundry list of is attributes.
He's generous -- gives a large donation to Allie for the gift wrapping, which we find out later is his second donation to the Children's Hospital.
He's a devoted uncle who spends time with his niece and nephew.
He has a dog. (And he buys presents for him!)
He's honest -- he confesses to Allie about his deception.
Outside of that, I liked Allie too. She's so perky. Her elf-like perkiness jumps off the page. I also liked that tension when Allie notices the man, but he leaves. And the clever line at the end about Boxing Day being her favorite holiday? Clever!
What I did find strange was the woman whose granddaughter brought a sculpture to be wrapped. The little girl had made the sculpture in preschool and they made a special trip to the mall to get it wrapped? A little weird. Otherwise, it's easy to see why they picked this story.
Photo credit: rheaparedes (cc)
5 comments:
Another sweet story from Betsi, who seems to have got the hang of these romances completely.
As to the reason the granny had her granddaughter's preschool sculpture gift-wrapped, I think she wanted to make it extra-special for Mum and Dad. Nice idea.
I thought this was a clever story. She showed Allie's attraction to the handsome stranger and then Dan admitted he wanted to get to know her as well. I liked that he bought gifts for his dog, it made me like the hero even more.
I love Betsi's stories! They always make me smile. Her characters seem like they could be friends/relatives of mine, and I always root for them! Another great holiday story.
--Mary Ann
My WW finally arrived...very, very late.
I loved this story. I loved the characters, the setting, even the secondary characters. I agree with Chris that the grandmother wanted to make the homemade gift more special. Also, she might have just wanted to make a donation and teacher her granddaughter about charity.
I especially loved the hero who buys gifts for his dog and has them wrapped. I do that for my cats and lucky for me Hubby doesn't think I'm crazy for doing it.
Also loved the Boxing Day theme for the issue between Christmas and New Years. Another great job, Betsi.
Thanks for the nice comments, ladies! I remember coming up with the idea for this last summer, and discussing with Mary Ann whether or not WW would think enough Americans knew what "Boxing Day" was. I decided to keep that in, and was very happy that I did.
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