This is the first book I’ve read of the New Year 2022! If you’ve read my blog a lot, you know I love to read Christmas stories in November, December, and January. This is the third our fourth Richard Paul Evans Christmas novel I’ve read this season. It’s one of the better ones. I just love this book!

This is actually the perfect book to top off the Christmas season and start the New Year. That’s because it made me think about the legacy I’m leaving, and what goals I want to set to create that legacy, year by year, and day by day.

At the beginning of the story, James Kier, the main character, has the main goal of making the most money he possibly can, even if he hurts people in the process. His shrewd business practices and meanness leave him with a lot of money but zero friends, a shallow lover who is using him just for his money, and a wife he’s cheating on. Early on in the book, he has the interesting incident of being mistaken for someone else with the same name who dies, so he gets to read his obituary online, along with the comments people say about his character. All negative. One person says he’s a mix of the Grinch, Scrooge, and the Burgermeister from Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. Ouch! (Remember that guy? He’s the villain in that claymation Christmas special of the 60s. As the oppressively abusive town mayor, he despises everyone and arrests anyone with a toy.)

All those nasty comments are a wake-up call for Kier to repent. What follows is his Christmas List, a list of people for him to apologize to and ask forgiveness from. We see him go to all these people and make amends. It’s fun to “watch” what unfolds as hearts are healed as much as possible with Kier’s newfound generosity.

This is a perfect loose variation of The Christmas Carol, full of transformation, rebuilding marriage and friendships, and redemption. I laughed out loud several times. I listened to it in scribd. That’s how I get so many books “read.” (You too can read a lot of books in scribd. Go here to learn more and sign up.) The narrator in scribd did a wonderful job of different voices for the characters. If you like stories of married love, restoration and happy endings, I think you will like it! I really love that it was about married love for once. All the other RPE Christmas novels I’ve read/listened to so far have been about singles falling in love. So this was a refreshing change.