A Wish For Winter by Viola Shipman: Book Review

A Wish For Winter is a story of loss and hope for the future in a family who celebrates Christmas like no other. It’s one of my favourite reads of 2022.

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From The Publisher:

With echoes of classic Hollywood love stories like Serendipity and An Affair to Remember, Viola Shipman’s latest winter charmer following the USA TODAY bestseller The Secret of Snow is sure to tug on heartstrings and delight readers who love books about books, missed connections and the magic of Christmas.

Despite losing her parents in a tragic accident just before her fourteenth Christmas, Susan Norcross has had it better than most, with loving grandparents to raise her and a gang of quirky, devoted friends to support her. Now a successful bookstore owner in a tight-knit Michigan lakeside community, Susan is facing down forty—the same age as her mother when she died—and she can’t help but see everything she hasn’t achieved, including finding a love match of her own. To add to the pressure, everyone in her small town believes it’s Susan’s destiny to meet and marry a man dressed as Santa, just like her mother and grandmother before her. So it seems cosmically unfair that the man she makes an instant connection with at an annual Santa Run is lost in the crowd before she can get his name.

What follows is Susan and her friends’ hilarious and heartwarming search for the mystery Santa—covering twelve months of social media snafus, authors behaving badly and dating fails—as well as a poignant look at family, friendship and what defines a well-lived and well-loved life.

My Thoughts:

I have been wanting to read a book by Viola Shipman for quite some time and when I looked at the synopsis for A Wish For Winter I believed it would be a wonderful read. I was not wrong.

Susan Norcross is about to turn forty – the same age as her Mom was when she was tragically killed alongside Susan’s father. Susan was thirteen at the time and was taken in by her paternal grandparents. Susan has had a hard time loving anyone again afraid to lose someone special all over again.

Both Susan’s Mom and Grandmother found their true love when these men were dressed as Santa Claus. Her friends and Grandparents are pushing Susan to try and find someone to share her life with. At the annual Santa Run, Susan finds a man dressed as Santa and the chemistry is like no other she’s ever experienced. The race sets off and the man tells her to meet him at a local bar later that evening. Unfortunately, he doesn’t show up.

For the next year, Susan’s friends create a search to find the mystery Santa. There are many humourous moments during this quest, as well as many emotional ones as Susan reflects on her life with her parents.

I loved learning more about Susan as the story progresses. The flow of the book makes it easy to want to read this book in one sitting. It is full of the magic of Christmas, as well as a celebration of family and friendships.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a holiday story. I look forward to reading more books written by this author.

I listened to the audiobook version of A Wish for Winter which was narrated by Nancy Peterson. I enjoyed her performance and found her voice to be articulate and easy to listen to. I would not hesitate to recommend the audiobook version of this book to those that enjoy this format.

What I Liked:

• The magical feel to a wonderful story full of emotion
• The genuine love of family and friends felt by Susan
• The character development of the protagonist

Acknowledgments:

Thank you to my local library for purchasing this audiobook.