A Second Chance For Christmas by Nashin Sadeer (Fiction, 9/10E)

November 2013, Matador, 320 pages, Ebook & Paperback, Review copy

Content grief, mild adult romance, tissues needed

 

Summary from Troubador

Nathan is a single father with a son named Stefan. He was married to a woman named Emily, but she unfortunately died when Stefan was three years old. Torn apart by grief, Nathan was full of remorse, shut himself away and became a workaholic.

Emily was everything for Nathan, and his life has still not got better. He has been living his life in sadness, and not realising that he was hurting the most precious thing to him: Stefan.

But this Christmas things are about to change. A young woman, Kate, has come into Nathan's life and he has fallen in love with her. She’s the first woman he’s dated since Emily’s death. Kate has an important mission that she has to achieve before Christmas. However, she is hiding something from Nathan, and he doesn’t realise who Kate actually is until she reveals her true identity on Christmas Day…

Nayuleska's thoughts 

This is one of a few cases where the sentiments in the story overrode the parts which felt a bit rough.

Usually I leave the slightly negative side of a book at the end of a review, but I need to mention them to

explain why I love it so much. I struggled a little with the language; adverbs such as young were used to

describe almost all the characters at one point or another. Sometimes contractions woud have helped the

story flow smoother, and there were some instances where the wording was awkward.

That said, I was completely hooked by the story. The strain between Nathan and everyone else was

painfully clear. Kate sparkled off the page (I think she may have been described as sparkling at one

point.) Yes at times there was little conflict/opposition to particular events happening, which ordinarily

would bother me, but somehow I liked everything working out well. There were few issues with the

characters. Stefan often seemed way too mature for a 9 year old, the realism of his chats with his Dad

pushed the boundries of what was believable, but I was taken in by how starved of love Stefan was, and

how much he needed his dad. Elizabeth, Kate, Nathan and another character who I can't name without

spoiling the story at times were unrealistic in saying all their hopes and fears to whoever they were with,

but this also somehow turned out ok and made the story so readable. I liked how I got to know all the ins

and outs of Nathan's work, how other people viewed him (despite some points where the point of view

switched revealing convenient info), and his very eomtional personal journey with dealing with the ever

present past. There is a spiritual slash supernatural elemnt to the story which was both a little unrealistic

and understandable in terms of the plot.

I realise this sounds quite negative a negative review, I truly enjoyed the story despite what I perceived as flaws. Sometimes explanations were unnecessary and material was repeated, and words/descriptions were used which didn't fit, but the strength of the story helped me forget about the parts I struggled with. Personally I'd love to read a sequel of what happened next!

Suggested read

Another sentimental read is Instructions For Bringing Up Scarlett by Anne Sanders (Fiction, 10E/10E)