MY THOUGHTS ON THIS BOOKThis was one really awesome Christmas read! When Natalie Pearce chose not to go help her mom take down her Christmas decorations, she never dreamed what the year ahead held for she and her family. When her mom suffered a stroke that left her helpless, Natalie blamed herself for her mom’s condition. A string of events lead to Natalie leaving her husband and daughter, accepting a job that would require most of her time, and leaving her with strained relationships that may not be fixable.Most of the time we like to think that all is perfect at Christmas time, but it is usually not. Life situations just doesn’t look at our calendar first before they happen. It was heartbreaking, yet refreshing to read One Imperfect Christmas because it was sad to see Natalie and her family going through what they had to endure with her mom, yet it was comforting to know that everyone has difficult situations during the Christmas Season, some not as bad as others, but we all have our heartaches. But I really like how Myra Johnson weaves everything together, good and bad, and brings an ending to the story that will give you peace, and make you smile. Not an ending that the Pearce family wanted, but one that gave them hope. This is an amazing debut novel for Ms. Johnson, and yes it was written a few years ago, but the message is still the same. I can’t believe I haven’t read it before this year. I really want to encourage you to pick up a copy of One Imperfect Christmas by Myra Johnson for a few hours for delightful entertainment. You will be glad you did! "One Imperfect Christmas" is Christian general fiction that spanned about a year of time. Natalie was her own worst enemy. I didn't like her attitude of "life is all about me! Why can't everyone else see that?!" She didn't care about what other people were going through. However, I could always understand where she and the other characters were coming from even if I would have reacted differently. I think I was willing to put up with Natalie's self-pitying guilt because she could see that she was messing things up but didn't know how to fix it. She often didn't like herself or her behavior but she couldn't seem to stop it.So this should have been a book I liked: actions had consequences and a Christian character realized she couldn't fix her own behavior. I was expecting the characters to realize something new (to them) about God as the solution to the problem and to draw closer to God, but that didn't happen.For most of the book, you could hardly tell it was a Christian novel. There were a few, brief prayers that were mainly of the "God give me strength" sort. The characters seemed to feel that God was a genie: they'd ask God to fix their big mess and make everything okay again. When God didn't snap His fingers and grant their wish, they felt they needed to help Him out by fixing things themselves (though their efforts never worked).(Vague Spoiler paragraph): Then, in the last few pages, Natalie finally heard some words that comforted her about her mother so she no longer felt guilty about the stroke. Suddenly Natalie had a complete personality change...at least for the day.A lot of things in the story were never wrapped up, and I was left feeling like more bad arguments were just waiting to happen. I didn't trust that Natalie wouldn't act exactly the same the next time something happened that she "just couldn't deal with" since her enlightenment moment seemed pretty vague yet situation-specific.The ending didn't leave me feeling like the underlying problem had actually be resolved which was a problem with so many unresolved problems left for the characters to sort through. There was no sex. There was a minor amount of "he cursed" style of bad language.
What do You think about One Imperfect Christmas (2009)?
Excellent Christian book...A story about a family seeking that Christmas miracle.
—carouri
Twee, but I read it on my kindle as it's about Christmas. First read of 2012.
—lindseeedge
This book was well written and realistic.
—anjelica
