Christmas Yet to Come is a great stocking-stuffer of a novella. It mixes the darker elements of A Christmas Carol with a sweet romance and some suspense to surprisingly good effect.
Jason is a banker who lives alone. He doesn’t socialize during Christmas and he gives all his servants the day off. He doesn’t decorate or anything because he figures there’s no point in celebrating by himself. On Christmas Eve, Jason is astonished to discover a young woman knocking on his door. She wears nothing but a tattered shroud and claims to have lost her memory. He lets her in to prevent her from freezing to death and the two bond as Christmas Day approaches.
Laura does not have amnesia. She’s actually a ghost. Specifically, she’s the Ghost of Christmas Future, but she quit because she’s tired to terrifying people into celebrating. However, she’s not sure how this quitting thing is supposed to work. She’s not even sure if she’s actually quit successfully. She’s definitely mortal again, or at least corporeal, but she suspects she’s been sent to Jason’s estate for a reason, and she has a terrifying vision of his future fate.
I have to say, I was a total sucker for this novella. I liked the combination of sweetness and darkness. The whole “Three Ghosts” set up of A Christmas Carol has some ethical problems, and Laura and Jason are quick to point them out. There’s a sequence with robbers that is weird and spooky and very cinematic. The whole way people become ghosts seems shady (no pun intended). I love Christmas and I love A Christmas Carol but there are hints that becoming a ghost is not entirely voluntary, and Laura doesn’t like their methods, and that makes me wonder (in a good way) where this series is going. I may be reading too much into this, but it seems like this series could go in a “defeat the conspiracy” direction just as easily as it could go in a “nice romance series” direction. I do love a good “defeat the conspiracy” storyline.
Meanwhile, Jason and Laura are adorable together. Jason makes his own Christmas decorations for her. Laura learns to use the teapot. She shows Jason that he needs to be kind to himself as well as others, and he reminds her that her story (she died as a child) is a sad one, and offers her hope of a mortal life beyond being a ghost. They are both people who are very calm in the face of crisis and that makes the story rather soothing despite a lot of external conflict.
I tend to grade novellas on a bit of a curve because it’s hard to pack a whole romance into a novella. This novella, like many others, feels rushed. It’s easy to believe that the two main characters are attracted to each other, but harder to believe that they are madly in love. It helps that this is lampshaded when Laura points out that although she’s only known Jason for a day, that’s considerably longer than she’s ever known anyone else.
It also helps that the main part of the story doesn’t end in a total “I love you forever” montage. It resolves a major crisis, leaving the main characters in a position in which they could actually have a viable romance, and
On the other hand, the main part of the book ends incredibly abruptly. It could have used just a tad more resolution before jumping to the epilogue. I thought I had missed a page.
This book isn’t a bastion of historical accuracy. It’s just fun and fairytale-like. I read it on my phone in the pick-up line while waiting for my daughter to get out of school, and in the checkout line while buying groceries, and in line at the mall (I’m in California, so yes, I shop at the mall) while buying presents, and it was a lovely diversion every time – not too long, not too heavy, and not so light that I forgot all about it between lines. That’s pretty much all I ask from a Christmas romance. If it can divert me while I’m in line at Sears, it’s a win.
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