Reviewed by Lisa
TITLE: Christmas Angel 
SERIES: The Christmas Angel
AUTHOR: Eli Easton
PUBLISHER: Pinkerton Road
LENGTH: 121 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 2, 2018
BLURB:
When John Trent, a dedicated member of the new Bow Street Runners, finds an exquisite carved angel floating in the Thames, he can’t stop thinking about it. He tracks down its creator, a sad and quiet young sculptor. But neither the angel nor the sculptor is done with John just yet. The blasted angel refuses to leave him be, behaving not at all like an inanimate object should.
Alec Allston is resigned to the fact that his love will ever be a river that flows out and never flows in. All he wanted to do was create a special gift so that a small part of himself could be with his unattainable and noble beloved, always. But when the gift keeps showing back up at his shop in the hands of a windblown and rugged thief-taker, Alec will need to reconsider his conviction that love is destined to remain an ethereal ideal.
REVIEW:
One of my all-time favorite Christmas movies is It’s a Wonderful Life. I used to watch it every year when I still had network television access. The story prologue has a very strong IaWL vibe, however after the prologue it becomes its own story.
After discovering who created the angel ornament John Trent finds floating in the Thames, he takes it back to Alec’s shop because he believes it’s too valuable to keep. However, a short time later he finds the angel once again seemingly discarded so he takes it back to Alec’s shop. When he explains to Alec how he found it the second time, Alec gives it to him because he feels like the angel has chosen John for some reason.
John then tracks down the first person who discarded it to find out why. And once he has the reason, he can’t get Alec out of his mind. So he courts Alec for several weeks before inviting Alec to the Christmas celebration at the boarding house where he rents a room.
When Alec attends the celebration he feels warm, comforted, and accepted by all John’s friends. And he’s decided living lonely and pure isn’t all he thought it should be. So he hopes he’s not making a mistake by becoming intimate with John.
Even though the story is relatively short it felt completely fleshed out to me as the MCs have a courtship that spans at least several weeks. I thought the secondary characters were just as well-rounded as the MCs and enjoyed the different personalities. The found family and acceptance themes came through strongly.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes historical, found family themes, and slow burn type stories.
RATING: 
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