All I Have to Give by Melody Carlson

This is a little strange, but for once, I wasn't very impressed with a Melody Carlson book. To me, this book felt way too rushed, as though it was written in a hurry with little thought for characters.

All I Have to Give is a re-telling of the short story "The Gift of the Magi". But in this case, Anna is prompted to make a sacrifice for her gift (and generally make it the 'best Christmas ever') by a cancer scare. There was a legitimate reason, but I thought that if she was afraid, the first thing she should have done was to check with the doctor. I could actually see the ending by Chapter 5.

In addition, the characters weren't very well thought-out. There was quite a few characters, each with their own issues. For example. Anna's sister Meredith has her own problems. But since this book is so short (just over a hundred pages), there isn't enough time to flesh out the characters. And so, they never really came to life for me. Unlike Christmas at Harringtons, the characters weren't endearing enough. It was basically a "give give give" fest, without enough motivation on the why.

That being said, the book does have potential. If the book was longer, and delved into the characters lives, it would have been a whole lot better. I don't really care that the plot was predictable, but what I really wanted were characters I could identify with.

Unfortunately, I didn't find it here. That meant this was merely a "so-so" read, rather than a fantastic one.