Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball

Dear Blog Friends,

I recently became a member of the Waterbrook/Multnomah Book Reviewing Team! I get to choose a new book from their list, they send it to me for free, I read it, post a review of it on my blog, and then get to keep the book! :) Win/win!

The first book that I am reviewing is a delightful Christmas tale called Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball by Donita K Paul. The cover of the book is magical and warm. It drew me in right from the start with its blues, whites, snow, and lights.

This is a tale of mysterious matchmaking booksellers who bring two lonely hearts together in time for Christmas. Mystery is a great adjective for the entire story. The real and possible is mixed with the magical and whimsical for a story that would make a great movie!

Cora Crowder is the only Christ follower in her disfunctional, extended family. She manages life on her own with the company of her kitty and a good job. Simon Derick is one of the managers in Cora's place of employment. He has a loving Christian family circle consisting of his mom, aunt, Downs-syndrom sister Sandy, and grandad. But he has no social life and fails miserably when it comes to initiating relationships with the opposite sex.

Cora and Simon meet unexpectedly at a quiet little bookstore down the street from their jobs. They have had little contact before even though they are employed at the same place. They both go home with their Christmas gift purchases from the bookstore and find that they have each received a free ticket to the Wizards Christmas Ball...an event of which few have heard. The Ball's website looks promising, however; the photos look inviting and intriguing.

And thus begins the adventure. Simon deems to take his sweet sister to the ball as a Christmas treat, but Cora becomes involved in a way that only whimsy and the Lord can ordain.

The story does involve the discussion of wizards; they are defined as being "old, wizened ones", not a part of any type of occult activity. As a believer that does not even like to be involved in Harry Potter type things, this was a stretch for me. However, there is only good involved in this story, and the wizard references are made with a twinkle in the eye, rather than as a reality.

This story is a mix of the mysterious and the possible, to create a truly fun, light, uplifting literary journey. On the serious side, disfunctional family relations are also addressed with Biblical solutions of how to handle them. I would recommend this to anyone with a love for Christian Christmas stories. In the meantime, I shall be on the lookout for the Warner, Werner, and Wizbotterdad's Bookshop on the secretive Sage Street. :)