The Gift: Cecelia Ahern

I have a very firm ‘no Christmas stuff until December 1st’ rule that is broken, every single year, by one of my best friends. This year included an impromptu Roswell holiday episode and a random holiday movie that I can’t even remember. As we were leaving, this book was tossed in my general direction with an “Have you read this? Take it and let me know if it sucks.” This, people, is my Christmas. It’s kind of awesome.

The Gift was incredibly predictable but well written, mildly amusing and pretty good. In just over 300 pages, Ahern (the author of lots of good sounding books with very pretty covers that I haven’t read yet) manages to really build a connection to the characters. You hate the bad guy, feel sorry for the kids and are confused by the randomer with the weird might-be-magic stuff.

The story is like so (no spoilers): Workaholic dad and husband (Lou Suffern) is working as usual while his family carries on their lives without him. It’s coming up to Christmas and he is reaching for a promotion that might not exist, working more hours than ever and becoming an even more useless member of his family while doing so. One day, Lou meets a mysterious stranger, Gabe, sitting on the freezing cold Dublin sidewalk and ends up getting him a job. Gabe seems to be everywhere at once and knows a lot more than he should, but this mysterious weirdo (I thought he was very odd) ends up offering Lou more than he ever could have dreamed.

{Mild spoiler} Fair warning, this book is sad. I’ve only read P.S. I Love You, but I’ve surmised that Ahern goes in for the heart mangling. {/spoiler}

I like a nice easy read, especially at the end of the semester, and this was a perfect way to kick off my Christmas list. Light but powerful, predictable but sweet, Ahern neatly ticks off the boxes necessary to make a decent Christmas tale.