He’d never met anyone that made his heart race while time slowed at the same time.
Michelle Stimpson
All I Want for Christmas
Format:
Audiobook
Publisher’s Synopsis:
When a doctor and nurse with very different views on Christmas are thrown together on a decorating committee and bond over a special patient, they each learn the most important Christmas lesson: all they want for Christmas is each other.
Dr. Allison Hall is staring down the prospect of her first Christmas in a new town and her first without her son, who is spending the holiday with her ex. As the new doc on the block, she’s on duty for the Christmas shift and glad of it. When one of her favorite patients lands back in the hospital, and it looks like this might be his last Christmas, she hopes she can help connect him to his estranged daughter.
Dante Price thinks Allison should mind her own business. He’s a nurse—and admittedly a bit of a Christmas Scrooge. But when he gets put on a decorating committee with Christmas-loving Dr. Allison, he starts to see the holiday in a new light.
Soon the two are working together to deck the halls with boughs of holly—but can they pull off a Christmas miracle and reunite a father and daughter?
Point of view:
3rd person. Alternating between Allison & Dante’s perspectives.
Rellim’s Thoughts:
Cute Hallmark-esque Christmas novella. While faith-based, it’s a small part of the story. I enjoyed the grumpy/sunshine (well it was really grinchy/decorator) and office relationship dynamics.
Doctor and single mom, Allison, meets nurse, Dante, at Mercy Hospital. Their views on Christmas and it’s meaning differ greatly. After working together with the same patient and decorating their hospital floor it’s obvious they have a lot to learn from each other.
I liked that things with Allison’s ex are mostly positive and how Dante interacts with Allison’s son, Sam. Charming HFN ending fitting for a holiday short.
Narration:
While I speed up almost every narration, I had to do it even faster for these narrators as both of their deliveries were protracted. That said, at a comfortable speed I enjoyed their performances. They used a variety of character voices and brought through all the emotions of Stimpson’s writing.
Content Warnings (possible spoilers):
A terminal patient is central to the story, death of parent (past), family estrangement (secondary character)
About the author:
Bestselling veteran author Michelle Stimpson has penned more than fifty faith-based books including traditional bestseller Boaz Brown, the beloved Mama B series, and Deacon Brown’s Daughters, for which she produced an award-winning independent film. Additionally, she has published more than fifty short stories through her educational publishing company, WeGottaRead.com.
You can connect with Michelle Stimpson here:
My Favorite Quotes
Note: I listened to this, so any spelling/grammar/punctuation errors are my own and not the author’s.
“Let’s hope for more days and make each one count.”
“Stay away from the light Mr Eddies, we’re just stepping into the hall.”
“He’d never met anyone that made his heart race while time slowed at the same time.”
“She smelled like fresh, clean laundry. Could laundry be sexy?”
Rellim Reads 