
Mr. Miracle by Debbie Macomber told the story two adversarial young adults who come together and fall in love over the Christmas holidays, which is predictable Macomber. Addie, subtly influenced by the guidance of two angels, grudgingly volunteers to look after Erich, her childhood crush and bully. When Erich is injured just days before his and Addie’s mothers are scheduled to go on a cruise, the women contemplate cancelling their vacation so that Erich’s mother could look after him. Addie realizes how much this cruise means to her recently-widowed mother and an angelic push gives her the idea to look after Erich herself.
The two don’t hit it off but it is only pages before they find a mutual attraction and start kissing. Addie is enrolled in a literature course where she is studying A Christmas Carol by Dickens and the parallels between Erich and Scrooge are obvious since Erich abhors Christmas and all the decorating that comes along with it.
The angels who are sent to Earth work in the school and the aptly-named Celeste serves as a mentor to newbie Harry, who is Addie’s literature teacher. He bungles up several missions yet never to the point of jeopardizing his heavenly identity. I found the title of the book to be misleading, as I didn’t think there was anything supernatural in Harry’s interventions.
With the backing of Ballantine Books and a sea of editors at her disposal, I cringed when I encountered the incorrect past participle “Because they were both badly shaken, they’d drank the entire bottle of champagne.” [emphasis mine]
I didn’t care for this novel. It was a rapid read yet full of unbelievable dialogue, especially in Erich’s philosophical turnaround from bitchy invalid to reflective lothario.