Calculating Christmas

The Lily Sparrow Chronicles #2

by Kristee Ravan

A month after Lily and Calo rescued the characters from Cinderella and The Candlemaker’s Daughter, they’ve been assigned to a new case. Santa’s rebellious daughter, Carole, has had enough of her family and needs a change. And if that change isn’t handled carefully, it could wind up derailing Christmas for everyone—a fact the will equal lots of unhappy citizens potentially vanishing. So, no pressure for Lily, right? Wrong. In addition, Lily is dealing with the ever-increasing demands on her time, leaving her very little time for her beloved math. Multiply that by the fact that she can’t seem to please her parents, her friend Corrie is mad at her, and her unsolvable relationship status with Calo, and you’re left with a pretty stressed out Lily. Will she and Calo manage to save Christmas? Will Lily find a way to be the Princess the kingdom expects? And how will things turn out with Carole, who is openly naughty in front of Santa Claus?

446 pages, Paperback

Published November 21, 2016

About the author

Kristee Ravan lives in Oklahoma with her husband, children, and pet cats, Kasidy and Rosie. She wanted to be many things as grew up including a general, an artist, and an architect. But she never bothered to say, “I want to be a writer when I grow up.” She was always writing stories and thought of herself as a writer anyway. She sent her first story to a publisher in the sixth grade. (It was rejected—in a nice way.) When she is not making up stories in her head, she enjoys reading, juggling, playing games with her family, and hearing from her fans.

Reviews

[Kendra Ardnek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fairy tales + math = Awesomeness

It took me waaaaay to long to get my hands on this sequel and read it. The first third was a little difficult to get into, but it was altogether awesome. Anyone who loves fairy tales needs to read this series.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so engrossed in this series! And I really like Lily a lot. I've become so attached to her that I really felt a lot of what she was feeling in this book. I flashed back to my own teen angst. The poor girl just can't seem to catch a break. It's not her fault that she was kept in the Other World for the first 15 years of her life and has only been in Smythe [my shortened name for it] for a couple of months. Of course she isn't going to know much! And all of those laws and rules that have been put in place to prevent others from revealing to much to her...

And then to have the responsibility of saving Christmas thrown at her as well? That's a really tall order. I can't say I blame her for bending rules again. And her struggle continues with balancing this fantasy world of the fairy tales with her strongly mathematical mind.

I did notice she used fewer equations this time. And I still did not read most of the footnotes. I'm sorry!

But I loved this book like I loved the first one and love watching her grow and evolve and am looking forward to the next one.

Thank you to the author and Prism Book Tours for providing me with a requested review copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Calculating Christmas Kristee Ravan successfully continues the fantasy world started in The Cinderella Theorem. Lily continues to grow into her role as Princess and her father continues to learn how to be her parent.
While this is a book 2, I think that you’d be able to read Calculating Christmas on its own, although I would recommend reading the books in order.
Calculating Christmas has a focus on saving the world from a Christmas catastrophe. Lily continues in her role of Happiologist as she learns how to be the Protector of her people while balancing (or trying to) the life she’s had for 15 years in the real world. I think readers will be surprised by the outcome of the story.
I think students would enjoy having access to Calculating Christmas in a k-12 Christian school library.
I received a complimentary copy of Calculating Christmas. This is my honest review.

[Denise Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Emotional Rollercoaster

This story had me on the verge of tears and then I wanted to throttle someone! Lily was definitely going through a LOT! Sometimes I wanted to reach through the pages and give her a big hug. No one understood fully, and it took a lot of pep talks to get through to her. I am especially excited and curious about the next book. Go Team Lily!

[Daniel Simonini]

I loved the book can't wait to read the next one!

[Jessica]

Lily Sparrow is back in this second book of The Lily Sparrow Chronicles. After coming back from her last adventure saving a whole fairytale she is grounded. While she is grounded she is presented with a case of helping Carol Clause reunite with her family. Carol is upset and feels left out so she goes to live with the Sparrows. Her absence from the North Pole puts Santa and Mrs. Clause in a depression. They are not preparing for Christmas like they should. It's up to Lily to convince Carol that she needs to go back home. Carol has her own ideas of wanting to be on her own. Will Lily be able to get the Clauses back together in time to save Christmas?

In an Oyster Shell - This was a great addition to the Lily Sparrow Chronicles. I enjoyed reading it!

The Pearls - The Lily Sparrow Chronicles are fun and imaginative. I love the idea of a young girl that is heir to throne in a fairy tale kingdom. It makes it even more interesting that Lily struggles with being a logical math wiz while trying to believe in the unbelievable in the fairy tale and legend land. It makes for great conflict and an interesting story.

The characters are well developed and make the story fun to read. I love the addition of Carol Clause in this book. She's not what you would imagine Santa's daughter to be. A surly goth dressing girl who doesn't want anything to do with the family business. Or so it seems. What we end up finding out is that Carol loves Christmas and is a tender-hearted girl that is just hurting. How the author resolves this hurt with Carol is unexpected and exciting.

Full Review - Writing Pearls