The Perfect Love Song: A Holiday Story by Patti Callahan Henry
Vanguard Press, 2010
Brothers Jimmy and Jack Sullivan have lived a nomadic life touring with their band, but now Jack’s recent engagement to Kara has everyone looking forward to a Christmas destination wedding in Ireland. Unlike his brother, Jimmy never expected to fall in love, but he feels a sense of peace and happiness whenever he’s around Kara’s best friend, Charlotte—but how much will Jimmy have to give up to be with Charlotte? Only a Christmas miracle will lead Jimmy back to Ireland, his brother, and the one he loves.
The Perfect Love Song is the ideal read-aloud-as-a-family story for the Christmas season. Children and adults will revel in the fun tone, sweetness of young love, sparkle of musical themes, and characters so real they pop off the page.
This fun story is full of moral lessons: stick to what you believe in, keep your commitments, treasure your family, hold on to your faith. When you find yourself swept up in the noisy crowd, go back to cheering for something you really believe in.
Lovers of all things Irish will find extra treats here, and the distinctly voiced narrator is nothing short of winsome. Consider the narrator’s thoughts in Chapter Three:
The weeks between Thanksgiving when Jimmy wrote the song and Christmas passed in the hectic way of the world today. Times have changed. What was once meant to be a slow and calm remembrance of blessings, of our Lord’s birth, of joy and family, has become a chaotic jumble of parties, overspending, kinfolk drama, and obligatory giving. Oh, there I go, giving my opinion when I was just meant to tell this story.
Fans of Patti Callahan Henry might already know that although The Perfect Love Song is a standalone novel, the main characters, Jimmy and Charlotte, were introduced as supporting characters in Henry’s 2006 novel When Light Breaks.
Reader, what books are under your Christmas tree this year?
(Interested in reading other works by Patti Callahan Henry? Click here to read my review of Becoming Mrs. Lewis: The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis.)
