THE GIFT OF CHRISTMAS PRESENT

THE GIFT OF CHRISTMAS PRESENT by Melody Carlson was read for the 2010 Holiday Reading Challenge.

From the book jacket:

Christine Bradley couldn't have been more surprised when, shortly after her mother's death, her father revealed that Christine had been adopted at birth.  As she grapples with the revelation, Christine determines to find what's left of her biological family.  As Christmas nears and Christine draws closer to the truth about her heritage, she finds an unexpected gift in the family she never knew she had.

I wasn't too thrilled with this one, which surprised me.  As some of you might know, I found my birth father's family a few years ago, and they all welcomed me in with open arms.  So I thought this book would be right up my alley.

I felt that Ms. Carlson had a tough time deciding who the characters would be, especially the grandmother.  She seemed so tough on the outside, but then made a 360 degree turnaround almost overnight.  It just seemed too easy to me.  And the reaction of the rest of the family seemed unlikely given the short period of time they had to digest the news of Christine's story.

This was the second book in this treasury - right now I don't have high hopes for the third.