The Offering by Angela Hunt

While searching for a way to help support her young family, Amanda Lisandra decides to act as a gestational carrier for a childless couple. After she finally establishes a pregnancy with another couple’s embryo, her soldier husband is killed on a special forces mission. Devastated by grief, she surrenders the child she was carrying and struggles to regain her emotional equilibrium.

Two years later she studies a photograph of the child she bore and wonders if the unthinkable has happened—could she have given birth to her own biological child and inadvertently given him away? Over the next few months Amanda struggles to decide between the desires of her grief-stricken heart and what’s best for the little boy she has never known.

My Review:
I get so excited whenever Angela Hunt releases another book because she never disappoints me. Her characters ring true, the situations they face are believable, and plots move along at a nice pace. I appreciate the depth the author goes to with her research. I always learn from her novels.

This is a story about a military wife who decides to serve as a gestational carrier for a couple who cannot carry their own child. There is a side story about foster parenting and adoption. The first person point of view allows the reader to walk hand-in-hand with Amanda (Mandy) as she moves through her experiences. I think she reasoned her dilemma out quite well, and I agree with her decision.

Merry Humbug Christmas by Sandra D. Bricker

A Merry Humbug Christmas features two holiday romance novellas from hilarious and heartwarming author Sandra D. Bricker--the perfect gift to yourself or someone else at this most wonderfully stressful time of year.

In Once Upon a Jingle Bell, A Bah! Humbug cruise to the Mexican Riviera is Joss Snow’s answer to this year’s quest to avoid the holidays completely; at least until she’s rebooked on a different kind of cruise altogether. Candy canes, holly wreaths, reindeer and ornaments seem to be stalking her on the Twelve Days of Christmas holiday cruise extravaganza. An escape back to land is her only goal . . . until she meets a kindred spirit in rugged Irishman Patrick Brenneman, and then the game is on! Avoid Christmas festivities at all costs . . . except maybe for that one stop under the mistletoe.

In It Came Upon a Midnight Deer, Reese’s guilt over abandoning best friend Joss on their holiday tradition of avoiding all things Christmas is trumped by the joy of her recent engagement. Meeting Damian’s family for the first time on idyllic Sugarloaf Mountain is about as far from that Bah! Humbug cruise as she can get, and Reese can hardly wait to get there. But from the moment they hit that deer in the road just two miles from the cabin, everything seems to go wrong. There are no drummers drumming or pipers piping this particular year! And once she sets her future in-laws’ family cabin ablaze, she’s pretty sure there won’t be even ONE golden ring in her future.

My Review:
These two Christmas novellas tie in together with some of the same characters. Because of childhood experiences, Joss and Reese are BFFs who cling together each Christmastime as they try to avoid the season. Everything goes smoothly until Reese gets engaged and plans to spend Christmas with her fiance's family. The changes will keep you chuckling.

This lighthearted book is fun and easy to read. The author tells two stories within this one title. Chapters are short and titled with lines from The Twelve Days of Christmas. All things Christmas are covered. This would make a pleasant read for most anyone. Good Christmas gift!

Thank you to Bonnie at Christian Fiction Blog Alliance and BandH Books for my copy.

If you would like to read the first chapter, click here.

If you would like to buy a copy, click here.