Title:Over the Holidays
Author: Sandra Harper
Release Date: October 2009
Pages: 336
ISBN-10: 1439158703
ISBN-13: 9781439158708
Summary
The best holiday traditions are meant to be broken.
It’s only December 1, and Vanessa Clayton has been dreading Christmas since she spotted tinseled trees at her local mall in September. Thankfully, she and her husband, JT, can’t afford to drag their twin boys across the country to New England for the annual celebration at her stuffy sister-in-law Patience’s home. Not that Vanessa has prepared a proper Christmas for her family in years, and she has less time than ever since she agreed to consult on the script of a local play. Her older sister, Thea, is no help — she’d rather make art and flirt with surfers than babysit her nine-year-old nephews. Then Patience drops a holiday stress bomb: Her family will come to California instead.
In between “baking” cinnamon rolls for the school potluck and overbearing Patience testing her patience, Vanessa can’t stop thinking about the difficult but charming playwright at work. Meanwhile, Patience’s teenage daughter, Libby, obsesses over a college boy she has met by the pool, and Thea searches desperately for the meaning of Christmas — for her latest installation, of course. As their holiday plans go comically awry, these four women discover the true spirit of the season is hidden in every festive surprise.
About the Author
Sandra Harper is the author of the play, Magpie’s Tea Room, which enjoyed a successful run in Los Angeles at The Ventura Court Theatre. She has written a cooking column, “The California Cook” for the newspaper, Skirt. A script reader for Pathe Studios and Springcreek Productions, she also wrote and produced fashion and rock videos for Elvis Costello, Chaka Khan and Vidal Sassoon, amonf others. Ms. Harper recieved her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Southern California and has completed a children’s book, The Witches Club.
My Thoughts
This book was a very relaxing and easy read and quite apt for the upcoming holiday season. The character I related with the most is Vanessa, the over stressed mom of twin boys who, even though she tries to deny it can’t help but feel like she’s in competition with her over achieving sister-in-law, Patience, who usually ‘does Christmas’ way over the top. Money worries is always on Vanessa’s mind as she tries to put on the Christmas ’show’ what with suddenly having to host the family dinner instead of the simple ‘just us’ event she had envisioned when she first canceled their annual trip to the East Coast. She and Patience are like opposite sides of a coin. Patience is all for themed Christmas event, made from scratch dinners, and handcrafted gifts whereas Vanessa could easily go for artificial christmas trees, peas in a can, frozen turkey and gift certificates. It was fun to read about their interaction. I could feel Vanessa’s irritation over Patience’s pushiness, her frustration over her sister’s complacence, and her infatuation with her colleague. You can see all these emotions roiling around her as you read through the book.
The other characters in the book: Libby, Patience’s teenage daughter who found a beau in L.A.; Thea, Vanessa’s artist sister who decided to make Christmas into an art project; Carol, Thea and Vanessa’s mother who is too busy with senior citizen social life and love life; and their husbands who are more background props than anything, all comprise the convoluted relationships and interactions that those of us who belong in big families can totally relate to. I know in my family, comprised mostly of women, the guys sometimes end up being the window dressing. lol!
I really enjoyed reading this book, especially now. It reminded of what is important about this season. Because like Vanessa, I think I have always known what should be important but always feel compelled to go with tradition or what everyone else expects.
I like books that flow easily and this fills that quite nicely. It doesn’t meander too far and the message of family, friendships and traditions come through nicely; reminding us again why we go through this thing we call ‘the holidays’.
If you’d like to read this book, visit the Simon & Schuster website where you can purchase the book or find retailers carrying this book.
Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, provided a copy of Over the Holidays for review, free of charge.
Visit these other blog tour participants to see what they thought of this book:
Rundpinne: http://www.rundpinne.blogspot.com
Frugal Plus: http://frugalplus.com/
The Life (And Lies) of an Inanimate Flying Object: http://haleymathiot.blogspot.com/
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Tags: book reviews, Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster
