The Christmas Table: A Novel

The Christmas Table by Donna VanLiere is part of the Christmas Hope series. Lauren’s story started in The Christmas Town and I recommend reading it prior to beginning The Christmas Table. All the books in this series are a delight to read. I thought The Christmas Table was well-written with steady pacing. The characters are realistic and relatable. They have fears, joys, heartaches, and tribulations just like real people. This is a dual timeline novel that takes readers between 1972 and 2012. Joan Creighton along with her husband, John and their two children are looking forward to the holidays. John is determined to build the family a dining room table out of walnut he found in an old barn. While Joan tackles the recipes given to her by her mother. Their lives are upended when Joan is diagnosed with breast cancer. Things begin to look grim for the family when John meets someone who gives him hope. Lauren Mabrey discovers she is pregnant which thrills her and her husband, Travis. She wants to make sure that her child has a warm, loving home to grow up in. Her friends from Glory’s Place begin the makeover under bossy Miriam’s direction. Lauren finds handwritten recipe cards in a dining table that she purchased. They contain detailed instructions along with family memories. Lauren wants to return the recipe cards to their rightful owner and sets out to find them based on clues in the stories. I like how the author tied the two stories together. We see Lauren learning to cook using the cards and enjoying the special tales on each one. The ending was touching. Some of the recipes from the book are included at the end. I am looking forward to trying Aunt Dee Dee’s Peanut Butter Fudge (I have been trying to find the right recipe for years). The Christmas Table would make a charming Christmas movie. I enjoyed reading The Christmas Table which is a heartwarming, faith filled tale.

This book was really cool to read and it didn't go like I had thought it would which is not a bad thing. It starts off in 1972 with John and his wife and two children. John has decided that he is going to make a dining table for his wife and he hopes to have it finished by Thanksgiving. His wife, Joan, decides that if she is getting a table than she needs to cook better meals, so she starts using her mother's recipe cards. Her children, Gigi and Christopher love to help her cook and soon they are having a grand time. Then the unthinkable happens and Joan is diagnosed with breast cancer. Soon the table construction is moved to the back burner as John must take care of Joan and the kids. When Joan has her first surgery, John meets a man at the hospital and they bond over their interest in woodworking and the man gets John to thinking about God and how today might be the day that God is doing something grand. We then fast forward to 2012 and meet Lauren, Gloria, Miriam and Andrea. Lauren recently got married and soon learns that she is about to be a mother. Since her house is still in need of some TLC, Gloria, Andrea and Miriam decide to help her decorate. Lauren and Miriam find a lovely table at Larry's furniture shop. Lauren soon discovers a hidden drawer which contains a collection of recipe cards, each card not only contains the recipe, but also comments and stories from a mother to her daughter. Lauren then decides that she must find the family that these recipes belong to because she just knows that they were never meant to be given away. The story continues going back and forth between Lauren and Joan and I knew at some point that they were going to intersect, but I didn't know just how much it was all going to overlap. I really enjoyed this book and its reference to God and the way He works in our lives. Thanks to NetGalley, Donna VanLiere and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read an ARC of this book. This is my freely given review and all thoughts and ideas expressed above are strictly my own.

The Christmas Table is a book for all seasons. We see life through the eyes of John and Joan Creighton and their children Gigi and Christopher from the spring of 1972. John is challenged to complete a kitchen table for Joan from three beautiful slabs of black walnut wood in his little workshop behind the house. Joan would love to have it completed by Thanksgiving or Christmas, but no pressure. Their tale alternates with that of Travis and Lauren Mabrey beginning in May of 2012. Lauren is barely pregnant with their first child, and Travis takes time out from his job with the county parks department to search in antique stores and garage sales for the perfect table to fill their kitchen with family traditions. By Christmas, they will be parents. Lauren is a clerk in the floral department of Clauson's Supermarket by morning, and in the afternoon is one of several women responsible for Glory's Place, a haven for disadvantaged children with meals and after-school programs. In the drawer of the black walnut table that Travis found, is a packet of 3 x 5 recipe cards, each with notes from a loving mother to her newly married daughter, and instructions for completing the dish as would be needed by a new cook. Lauren is inexperienced in the kitchen but she is learning a lot about preparing foods from these little recipe cards, although she is certain that the recipient of the recipes would not have just left them to strangers. Unfortunately, there are no hints as to the names of the recipient nor the sender of the cards, although there are several references to Bud, a dairyman with excellent milk and milk products. Lauren has friends and family trying to find a dairyman named Bud from 30 or more years ago, as he might be able to help her find the rightful owner of these treasures. In the meantime, she has made copies for herself to begin her own recipe collection. Some of the recipes are included in this story - you probably won't be able to avoid trying them out for yourself. I sure couldn't. I received a free electronic ARC of this excellent novel from Netgalley, Donna VanLiere, and St. Martin's Press. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. Donna VanLiere is an author to look for when you need that little lift of faith or hope to be found in the kind eyes of another.