Reviewed by Sandra Merville Hart
In the 1880s, the Woolworth’s Five and Dime department store has a home in Scranton, Pennsylvania. This nostalgic place is the setting for four historical novellas in the Five & Dime Christmas collection.
I enjoyed this collection! Of course, I had my favorites yet each story took me back in time. I thank the authors for the historical glimpses into this store. Likeable characters drew me into their heartache and struggles. I love reading Christmas books during the holiday!
There wasn’t a lunch counter in the 1880s, as the authors mentioned in their notes, yet this feature greatly added to the atmosphere of the stories.
In A Merry Little Christmas by Susanne Dietze, Hattie, a store clerk, discovers that her favorite customer inadvertently threatens her struggling brother’s job.
In A Home for Christmas by Patty Smith Hall, Essie, a socialite working as a store clerk, is intrigued by a pastor who has taken six homeless young boys into his home.
Alone this year, Lizzie’s job is her sole support in The Light of Christmas by Christina Lorenzen. Can she save her home on her salary? The new bookkeeper wonders how to help.
Lunch with Maggie by Cynthia Hickey finds Maggie, who works the lunch counter, making a friendship with a widower and his young daughter, regulars at her counter. Maggie, who’d been jilted on her wedding day, refuses to trust another man with her heart.
An enjoyable, nostalgic Christmas collection!
Sandra Merville Hart 