Sarah Raplee's Review of CHRISTMAS REDEMPTION by Paty Jager

My favorite Western Romance author, Paty Jager, has given me and all her other fans an amazing gift this Christmas: a new Christmas novella! Christmas Redemption is available from Smashwordsfor FREE through Dec. 25th,2011!  

When I heard the news, I knew I’d review Christmas Redemption for my November RTG post.  Why? 

Okay; I’ll confess: even writers can be fan girls. And diehard fans are a writer’s best friends when it comes to spreading the word about a great book. We want to help readers find this heartwarming story of redemption, second chances, and unexpected love.

REVIEW

Pleasant Valley, Eastern Oregon, 1880s
At fifteen, rebellious Van Donovan made a bad decision that sent him to prison for ten years, estranged him from his family and cost a little girl her father.  Now an accomplished boot maker, Van has returned a few weeks before Christmas in hopes of patching things up with his unforgiving father and to prove he’s a changed man.

Since her father’s murder during the bank robbery Van was involved in, Tessa Harrison has led a hard life. Her mother never recovered emotionally from her husband’s death. The same judge who gave Van a harsh sentence spread rumors that her father had been in on the robbery. Since her mother’s death, Tessa has served drinks at the saloon and secretly slept in the empty building next door while waiting to take the exam to qualify as a teacher.

When Van learns how the robbery ruined Tessa’s and her mother’s lives and robbed Tessa of her childhood, he is filled with remorse for his past actions. He finds Tessa, now an attractive young woman, in the saloon and offers her a job in his shop. When he learns Tessa is the person who’s been living in the building he purchased, he insists that she stay

Van tells Tessa the truth and expresses his sadness and regret over his part in the robbery. Tessa understands that Van was a misguided boy at the time.  Van senses there’s more to the story than they know. (Spoiler Alert: Little does he know that events were set in motion before he was even born.)

Ms. Jager’s believable, likable characters drew me into the story from the beginning. As the attraction between the hero and heroine grows, the heroine’s internal issues believably keep them apart. At the same time, the mystery unfolds little by little. Twists and turns keep the reader guessing until the end. Three-dimensional secondary characters and Ms. Jager’s signature descriptions of life out West in the 1880s round out the story.

Paty Jager packs heart-tugging emotion and a unique story-line into this gem-of-a Christmas novella. Christmas Redemption is a must-read! And it's FREE at Smashwords through Dec. 25, 2011!!!