Catching Christmas was the first of several free books I’ve won this year. It was right after Christmas, but I decided to read this one anyway. It was such a delight that I declared it my favorite of the year.

But wait, it was only January! One or two books of the over 100 I’ve read this year have eclipsed it as my favorite, but the memory of this charming story endures.

If you need a small winsome Christmas gift for someone, they’ll love you this engaging little book.

The Book

As a first-year law associate, Sydney Batson knows she will be updating her resume by New Year if she loses her current case. So when her grandmother gets inexplicably ill while she’s in court, Sydney arranges for a cab to get her to the clinic.

The last thing cab driver Finn Parrish wants is to be saddled with a wheelchair-bound old lady with dementia. But because Miss Callie reminds him of his own mother, whom he failed miserably in her last days, he can’t say no when she keeps calling him for rides. Once a successful gourmet chef, Finn’s biggest concern now is paying his rent, but half the time Callie doesn’t remember to pay him. And as she starts to feel better, she leads him on wild-goose chases to find a Christmas date for her granddaughter.

When Finn meets Sydney, he’s quite sure she’s never needed help finding a date. Does Miss Callie have an ulterior motive, or is this just a mission driven by delusions? He’s willing to do whatever he can to help fulfill Callie’s Christmas wish. He just never expected to be a vital part of it.

The Author

Terri Blackstock is a New York Times best-seller, with over six million copies sold worldwide. She has had over twenty-five years of success as a novelist, writing these popular series: If I Run, Moonlighters, and Cape Refuge.

Terri spent the first twelve years of her life traveling in an Air Force family. She lived in nine states and attended the first four years of school in The Netherlands. Because she was a perpetual “new kid,” her imagination became her closest friend. That, she believes, was the biggest factor in her becoming a novelist. She sold her first novel at the age of twenty-five, and has had a successful career ever since.

My Thoughts

What a refreshing story! There are only three main characters–Finn, Miss Callie, and Callie’s granddaughter Sydney–told in first person present tense by Finn and Sydney. It opens with Finn having a curmudgeonly dialog with a rider who usually chooses Uber.

Sydney is a young lawyer whose job is on the line, with an impossible client. And her dear grandmother’s health has become quickly more fragile. Finn ends up taking Callie to the doctor, and facing some ghosts from his own past. Miss Callie wants a perfect Christmas and doesn’t want Sydney to be alone, so she contacts eligible bachelors to invite for Christmas!

The intriguing Author Note tells about Blackstock’s study of the science of happiness, that 40 percent of it is determined by our own thoughts and actions. And that experiences make humans happier than things do. It also includes pithy Discussion Questions.

Her Acknowledgements reveal the doctor’s office episode which blossomed into this delightful novella. I’m delighted when the author lets me in on the “story behind the story.”

Catching Christmas is a well-woven story dealing with regrets, how we choose to invest the hours given to us, and even redemption.