Review (+ Tour GIVEAWAY): Colors of Christmas

About the Book

Name of book: Colors of Christmas
Author: Olivia Newport  
Genre: Contemporary Christmas  
Release Date: October 1, 2017  

Christmas in Blue 

Angela just wants Christmas to be over. Instead, she finds herself in charge of the town’s celebration, and everything goes from bad to worse. Can she rescue Christmas for the town—and herself?

Christmas in Gold 

When eighty-year-old Astrid moves into an assisted living community and meets a young woman on the brink of despair, she resolves to stir up Christmas hope one more time.

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My Thoughts

I loved Olivia Newport’s Colors of Christmas so much! This poignant two-novella collection is entertaining, touching, and spoke to my heart. Heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, it’s a story of hope, peace, and inner joy during the Christmas season when loss is magnified. In a season where many stories have a light, romantic flavor, I would use the term “real” to describe Colors of Christmas. Olivia Newport is an excellent writer of relationship drama, my favorite genre, and I enjoyed the stories of Astrid and Angela equally.

Each story had a personal connection for me as well. Astrid’s German heritage played an important part in Christmas in Gold, and getting to know a lot about Germany during my daughter’s eight years of campus ministry there made Astrid’s experience special. In Christmas in Blue, Angela is a piano teacher, church organist, and choir director – making me want to say, “been there, done that”! So both of these stories resonated in a special way.

Loss is something that touches all of us sooner or later, whether it be the loss of someone close (Angela) or loss of personal independence (Astrid). A fall results in Astrid moving into an assisted living facility, and loss of a best friend leaves Angela wanting little to do with the town’s Christmas program … “The last thing she wanted to do in her grief was try to match what Carole had done in her joy.” But don’t think for a moment that Colors of Christmas is a depressing book, as it’s anything but that.  For me, its strength is gently encouraging us to look outward (and upward) instead of inward.

I’m always amazed at how God works by bringing the people we need into our lives at just the right moment, and this is reflected beautifully in these stories. I especially enjoyed Astrid’s connection with Carly and son Tyler, and that of Angela with her piano student, Brian.

The overall theme of Colors of Christmas is best reflected in Martin’s words reminding us that it’s all about remembering to go to Bethlehem … “not to dwell on what we have lost but on what God has given.”

If you’re trying to decide what Christmas-themed books to try this season, I encourage you to pick up Colors of Christmas. Highly recommended.

I was provided a free copy of this book through Celebrate Lit. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

About the Author

Olivia Newport’s novels twist through time to find where faith and passions meet. Her husband and twenty-something children provide welcome distraction from the people stomping through her head on their way into her books. 

She chases joy in stunning Colorado at the foot of the Rockies, where daylilies grow as tall as she is.

Guest Post from Olivia Newport

We All Have a Story 

I’m younger than most of the people I exercise with. It started when I had a lot of pain in my feet and needed low-impact classes with the option of sitting down and learned I didn’t have to be a senior citizen to take their classes at my gym. Then I discovered how tough most of them are. Years later, though my feet are better, these are still my people. 

A couple of years ago, while we waited for the younger and allegedly-but-not-really-tougher crowd to clear out of the group exercise room so we could invade it, a woman I would not have guessed to be 80, because she could out-cardio and out-lift me any day of the week, mentioned she had been widowed since she was 39. And she’d been widowed the first time at 19. And she’d grown up in Germany while Hitler was intent on destroying Europe and life was not easy. 

Then the changing of the guard happened and I was left with my mouth gaping. I knew I had to hear this story. The next week after class, we went across the parking lot to Culvers for lunch and I scribbled notes on the backs of a pile of brown napkins while Astrid talked. Later she let me read the account of her life that she had written herself. 

Astrid faced so many tragic circumstances, but she would be the first to tell you that God was with her even before she knew how to call on him. Many people with her life story would have found plenty of reason to wallow and stagnate. But not Astrid. Truly she is one of the most hopeful people I know. 

Her story was the beginning of Colors of Christmas, which includes two stories. Astrid’s is “Christmas in Gold,” and the other is “Christmas in Blue.” Astrid inspired me to write about hope for a time of year when the Christian message resounds with hope yet so many people struggle to grasp hope for themselves. I pray these stories will help many recover a sense of hope afresh. 

Olivia Newport chases joy in Colorado at the foot of the Rockies, where daylilies grow as tall as she is.

Giveaway

Please help by clicking this link and sharing my review on Facebook. Thank you!

To celebrate her tour, Olivia is giving away a grand prize of a Christmas Bundle Bonanza which includes 7 Jumbo rolls of Christmas wrapping paper, 2 sets of stick-on gift tags, 2 packages of Christmas cards and envelopes, 2 collections of Christmas novellas—18 stories in all, and a signed copy of Colors of Christmas!!

Enter below. Be sure to comment on this post before you enter to claim 9 extra entries!