Review: Broken Christmas by David S. Henderson

Title: Broken Christmas:  Three Stories of Christmas

Author: David S. Henderson

Publisher: Pope, Harrington. & Castro Press

Published: October 7 2012

Format: E-book

Pages: 52

Source: Received from the author

in exchange for an honest review

Read: December 4, 2012

In A Few Words:  Short, Heartwarming

My Rating: 4 stars

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Goodreads Synopsis:

Broken Christmas is a compilation of three short stories about Christmas.

In the first, “Fourth Wish,” a skid row resident finds himself leading a trio of privileged but neglected youths on Christmas Eve. Through their journey the homeless man fulfills their Christmas wishes, showing that sometimes those who need help the most are the ones who help others the greatest.

The second; “Best Christmas Ever,” is an eight year old's “glass half full” remembrance of a Christmas Eve his parents would rather forget.

The third story, “Broken Christmas” tells of a soldier who leaves the frozen battlefield behind and goes home for Christmas via his dreams.

Melissa's Musings:

All of these stories are sweet and to the point. The first story, the Fourth wish shows the power of helping out, when three boys help out a man down on his luck and in return he gives them things and adventures that all the money they are surrounded with can't buy.

"Best Christmas Ever" is the funniest of all the stories by far being that it has the most odd things going on in it. The 8 year old's uncle comes back to visit...after having escaped lockup. The rest of the family has told the boy that his Uncle has been away working in Australia, so there are all these references to a job in Australia. Then the familys' lost dog comes home pregnant and proceeds to have ten puppies in a box in the garage. The boy's sister  also comes home pregnant. And then, there's a fireworks explosion. An eventful Christmas story, to say the least.

All I'll say about "Broken Christmas" is that the ending will tug at your heartstrings just a little.

Overall, this is a nice collection of stories. The overall message goes well with the title in that even though holidays and families may sometimes be dysfunctional or "broken" you can always try to make the best of what you've got.

The only negative about the collection of stories is that they felt just a bit wordy.  A bit of paring down of some repeated phrases and tightening up language in other spots would make this perfect.

Have any of you ever had any "broken" Christmases where things didn't go quite as planned but you made the best of it anyway?