Book Review – Jingle All the Way by Debbie Macomber

Christmas wouldn’t be the same for me without a Debbie Macomber holiday book. This year, Debbie has released Jingle All the Way that teaches us to take a step back from our everyday lives, and re-evaluate what is most important. I requested this book from my local library and was very happy to learn they had purchased a copy.

Everly Lancaster has built a strong online real estate business in Chicago. She has put all her energy into this business, sacrificing relationships and time with her family in Indiana as a result. She even worked through Christmas last year, missing all the usual festive celebrations. Her business partner sees what the stress of not taking a break has done to Emily and instructs her to take the month off. Everly is reluctant to take a break, but finally agrees when the partner instructs his niece working in the office to book Everly on a luxury cruise to a beach location.

The luxury cruise turns out to be a cruise down the Amazon on a small ship without luxuries. Having arrived late to the cruise, she has no idea what she’s in for until the ship has set sail. In fact, she requests the ship return to port but it is too late. The ships’s Naturalist Asher tries to reassure her that she’ll have a great time and she notices the other guests are excited to be on this cruise. Resolving to make the best of it, she settles in for the cruise. But after only a few hours on the ship she realizes that she was bitten by an insect on the way to the ship which causes her to be feverish and ill for the next five days. Asher notes she looks ill and spends much of the next few days looking after her. They spend time each day getting to know one another. Finally recovered and enjoying the cruise, Everly begins to examine what she truly values. What she doesn’t know, is Asher is about to do the very same thing.

I enjoyed this book and appreciate the messaging in the story. There are some humorous moments in the book as well as some important facts about the Amazon’s nature and ecology. The characters are well developed and the book kept me engaged. Simply said, it is a cozy holiday romance that accomplishes what it sets out to do – entertain the reader.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book which was narrated by Therese Plummer who does a good job of providing a voice to this lovely story. I listened to the book at my usual 1.25x speed which I found to be perfect. I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a holiday read.

My rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5.