Engaging Father Christmas

Ought to be a snowy picture for Christmas, but, hey! Robin's a California girl.

Let's start with a disclaimer: Robin Jones Gunn is one of my favorite people. I met her at a Litt-World conference in Brazil. She has a HUGE heart for women and girls. Robin began writing when the girls in her Sunday school class had nothing decent to read. She recommended some books that they loved, but when they had read those, there was nothing more to give them. So she wrote her own, taking the chapters week-by-week to her class for the girls to critique. 

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Those girls grew up, and now Robin writes for women as well as for teens. She has inspired a generation with the idea that purity is worth it. If your church library has antique, dogeared editions of the Christy Miller series, throw them out and buy the new, fresh versions with all the sequels that will attract this generation and motivate them to wait for God's man.

Robin's books are more girlie than my usual fare. But 'tis the season to be jolly, and Robin has two Christmas novellas about Miranda Carson, a young woman who grew up in hotel rooms and longs for family. In Finding Father Christmas she follows the clues on the back of a photograph to London in search of her biological father. But when she finds his family, one she longs to be a part of, will she dare to reveal the relationship?

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In Engaging Father Christmas Miranda returns to Carlton Heath, hoping for a Christmas diamond, but a slip of the tongue in the wrong place exposes the family to unwanted publicity about the past.

Both of these books are short and sweet. And yes, they are girlie. There isn't a lot of conflict, but Robin knows how to make the reader feel the character's joy, and what can be more fun than a snowy England at Christmastime? So build a fire in the fireplace, make some hot chocolate, and settle down for a good read. You might want also want to pick up some of Robin's teen books for that young girl on your Christmas list. (Amazon has some special prices this week.)

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