The Promise of Christmas

by Steena Holmes

To save their small town from dying...they need a miracle...and some hot cocoa and cookies wouldn't hurt, too.

For the past two years, Ashley Tanner has been trying to keep her promise to revitalize the small mountain town of Innsbruck, but it’s starting to look like she’s failing as mayor, and failure is never an option for her.

She has one last ditch effort - but it’s going to take a lot of work and she’s not sure if she can convince everyone to give it a try.

Rather than become a ghost town, why not become a town focused around Christmas - one of the most magical times of the year? Who wouldn’t love to visit a town where everything is holiday related - from a classic Gingerbread Tea House to a Candy Cane Lane Campground?

Thankfully, those closest to her love the idea, but together, as a group, can they convince the rest of the town?

Just when she thinks everything is coming together, things start to fall apart, not just in her own life, but in those closest to her too. Feeling responsible, while surviving the destruction of her marriage, Ashley tries to find miracles for everyone in her life - after all, Christmas is all about miracles, right?

The promise of what Christmas can be to not only the town of Innsbruck, but to everyone close to her is the only thing keeping her going. Well - that and coffee.



If you love Christmas as much as Steena does, you’ll end up wishing you could visit this tiny town for yourself. After all - who doesn’t love gingerbread houses, sugar cookies, hot cocoa and sleigh rides through a gorgeous mountain side village?

Genres: Christmas

396 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 25, 2022

About the author

Steena Holmes is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with nearly 3 million copies of her titles sold worldwide, including The Patient, The Forgotten Ones, and Sister Under the Stairs.

Named in the Top 20 Women Author to Read by Good Housekeeping, she won the National Indie Excellence Award for her breakout novel Finding Emma and the USA Book News Award for The Word Game. Steena has been featured in various newspapers and magazines, websites such as Goodreads, BookBub, RedBook, Glamour, Coastal Living and Goodhousekeeping.

One of Steena's passions is to travel with her readers, so she created her Sweet Tours, where she shares her love for the sweet life with her readers, whether in Paris, Italy, or exploring Christmas Markets.
To learn more about her books and join her on the next Sweet Tour, visit her website at http://www.steenaholmes.com.
You can also find Steena on the web at:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/authorsteenaholmes
Facebook: SteenaHolmes.author

LIST OF HER NOVELS STARTING FROM MOST RECENT:

SHE TOOK MY BABY

THE GIRLS IN THE BASEMENT (follow up to The Sister Under the Stairs)

THE TWIN

ENGAGED TO A SERIAL KILLER

THE SISTER UNDER THE STAIRS

THE PATIENT

THE FORGOTTEN ONES

SAVING ABBY & ABBY'S JOURNEY

THE WORD GAME

Stillwater Bay Series:
Stillwater Shores
Stillwater Rising
Stillwater Tides
Stillwater Deep

The Memory Child & The Memory Journal

FINDING EMMA series:
Finding Emma
Dear Jack
Emma's Secret
Dottie's Memories
Megan's Hope

Reviews

[Susan (The Book Bag) · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, isn't this cover amazing? I think it is so beautiful!

I absolutely love stories centered around the Christmas season. And I also love stories about small communities pulling together to make their town better. The Promise of Christmas has all of this and so much more.

I immediately fell in love with Ashley and this little community of Innsbruck. As Ashley struggles to keep her promise to the town she loves, she also struggles with the one person she is supposed to love. Will her decision make or break her marriage?

The Promise of Christmas has great characters and is wonderfully written. I found myself wishing I could become a part of the community and call these people my friends. I loved how the town pulled together to create their own little Christmas village. How amazing would that be—Christmas everyday?

If you love Christmas stories, this definitely needs to go on your reading list. There is plenty of depth, compassion, and love right along with all that wonderful holiday spirit. I highly recommend The Promise of Christmas.

[Pauline Frost · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written perfectly paced story pulling you in from the start. It was a promise Ashley made that turned into what the small town needed with hard work. Plenty of characters to keep the story easy to follow along with. It was up to Ashley to fix most things along with the relationship between her ex and their daughter according to him.

[Pat Welte · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Promise of Christmas

I loved this story and all the characters. I was pulled into the town and was rooting for everyone.
I am hoping that there are more books based on this town.

[Judith A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hope and Christmas spirit

A heartwarming story about the rebirth of a town and rekindling of personal relationships! The Christmas spirit drives hope for the future- a great story to read any time of the year, but especially during the holidays!

[Renee Shope · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the concept of the story. I just got boat waiting to see how the town was going to look. I also think the divorce brought the happy Christmas feel down a bit. It was ok. I bet a lot of people will like it. I only read just over half of the book.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this novel from the author, Steena Holmes. I loved the family and community aspect of this novel.

[Ida · Rating 2 out of 5]

I want to believe it's somehow just an e-book issue because of all the higher star ratings, but for far too many chunks of this book to keep count of practically every other verb flipped the tense (as in, not a quote but an explanation - she goes inside, the snow fell). It just felt like it wasn't the final version of the book, and that was really hard to look past, but even if I had this wouldn't have been more than 3 stars for me - it just wasn't fleshed out in a way that worked for me, and I couldn't understand why this German-style town has the name of a real city in Austria. The idea of this was interesting, but in all this book just didn't come together for me.