Evergreen Tidings From the Baumgartners

Author: Gretchen Anthony
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Type: e-book
Source: NetGalley
Publisher: Park Row
First Published: Oct 16, 2018
Opening Lines: "One would think being treated like a daft old Betty by a police officer with mustard on his lapel would top Violet's all-time list of humiliations. But after the fall of Gomorrah she'd just witnessed, it barely registered."

Book Description from GoodReads: Dearest loved ones, far and near--evergreen tidings from the Baumgartners!

Violet Baumgartner has opened her annual holiday letter the same way for the past three decades. And this year she's going to throw her husband, Ed, a truly perfect retirement party, one worthy of memorializing in her upcoming letter. But the event becomes a disaster when, in front of two hundred guests, Violet learns her daughter Cerise has been keeping a shocking secret from her, shattering Violet's carefully constructed world.

In an epic battle of wills, Violet goes to increasing lengths to wrest back control of her family, infuriating Cerise and snaring their family and friends in a very un-Midwestern, un-Baumgartner gyre of dramatics. And there will be no explaining away the consequences in this year's Baumgartner holiday letter...

Full of humor, emotion and surprises at every turn, Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners brings to life a remarkable cast of quirky, deeply human characters who must learn to adapt to the unconventional, or else risk losing one another. This is the story of a family falling to pieces--and the unexpected way they put it all back together.

My Rating: 2 stars

My Review: This holiday-themed novel focuses on a small group of friends, particularly the Baumgartner family, whose matriarch, Violet, includes a family letter in her annual Christmas cards showcasing her family's accomplishments and happenings over the past year which are interspersed throughout the story.

The story centres around Violet who, unfortunately, I found to be overbearing, manipulative and annoying who gets stuck on one issue regarding her daughter for too much of the book. She quickly became a caricature of a busybody matriarch - one that could easily give lessons on passive aggression for she has honed it into an art form.

The bones of this book were good, but it didn't come together for me. More time needed to be spent developing characters (Ed and Barb, in particular) and giving readers a mystery they can sink their teeth into. Instead, I think this book was trying to be too many things and it became convoluted. It's a Contemporary/Women's Fiction with a mystery that is too obvious, has a fairly strong Christian theme and an attempt at humour which didn't quite get there. Unfortunately, I felt the book was predictable and too slowly paced which lead me to skim much of the last half of the book.

Overall, this light family drama was a miss for me but readers who enjoy a lighter read with a Christian theme about the sometimes complicated bonds between mothers and daughters may enjoy this book.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to the publisher for providing me with a complimentary digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.