by Shelley Cooper from the December 21, 2020 issue
Tagline: Facing Christmas alone, Holly is struggling to get into the holiday spirit, when a surprising gift leads her to the skating pond...and a shot at love.
Observations: When I got to the part where her parents gave her her old skates, I knew this story was going to be fantastic and I wasn't disappointed. Maybe it's because when I was about seven years old, I took ice skating lessons with dreams of being a Chinese Peggy Fleming. (I think I lasted about a month. LOL)
The phrase "heart-clenchingly handsome," didn't float my boat, but I was highly amused by their holiday themed names - Nicholas Winter and Holly Snow. Too cute.
At the end of the story, Cooper calls back two things that she introduces at the beginning, a great trick to tie things together, sort of like when you gather a stack of papers and then jostle them together so they're all squared up.
Here's a quote for the first call back.
"...The theme for this holiday is relaxation."
Then, at the end of the story...
The smile on his face reminded her of what the season was really about: togetherness.
For call back number two, the cancelled blind date doesn't seem significant at the beginning of the story until you (and the characters!) realize they were each other's blind date.
This story wins the Kate Willoughby Handshake for surprising me. I hadn't foreseen that they were each other's blind date.
Photo by Jeremy Keith via Flickr Creative Commons License
2 comments:
Another great Shelley Cooper story. Just loved it! Wonderfully written and enjoyable read.
This was such a great story, although the names were a little too cute. But I actually gasped out loud when I realize they were supposed to be the blind dates. I hadn't seen that coming, either. This is the story I wish I could have written.
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