A Family Under the Christmas Tree + Giveaway

RANDOM RETRO RE-READ

This Christmas, will their shared puppy love lead to a forever family?

Sophie Griffith travels around the world as a photographer. Her new assignment — helping her grandmother for a few weeks — is just temporary. Once Christmas Day comes, Sophie will be on her next adventure.

Caring for Grandma is a piece of cake. Caring for her new Bernese mountain dog, Riggs, is a different story. Then Riggs strikes up a friendship with a lost little boy at the park, who leads her to David.

David Murphy never knew much about kids. But when his brother dies unexpectedly, David is granted custody of his five-year-old nephew, Troy. He already has his hands full running his business, and he has no idea how to help the grieving boy. When Troy runs off one day, David finds him at a park playing with an adorable and rambunctious Bernese mountain dog — who leads him to Sophie.

Sophie will be gone after Christmas, and the last thing David needs is another distraction. Still, their faith and growing love for the little boy — and the mischievous dog — soon have them falling for each other. Could this be more than a holiday romance? Will Troy finally get his Christmas wish for a family?

My Review:

published in 2016

It’s official — it’s puppy love! As in Riggs the Bernese Mountain dog pup. Squealll! His antics are hysterical and endearing and kept me grinning and ‘ahhhing’ all the way through the read. Okay, yes, there is a two-legger hero in this novel as well and he’s pretty fetching too. I expect you want to hear about him. 🙂 

David is in over his head when it comes to his five-year-old nephew. His workaholic bachelor days are over and if that isn’t enough of an adjustment, dealing with the intricacies of a grieving little boy might prove to be his breaking point. Until his elderly neighbour’s granddaughter visits for the holidays. His conniving, matchmaker-minded neighbour, that is. 

David and Sophie are thrown together as they strive to make a memorable Christmas for Troy. Emotions become entangled despite their best efforts because no matter how much they seem right for each other, common sense tells them they’re all wrong. Sophie lives a nomadic lifestyle as a photographer. David is anchored by a growing business and an orphaned nephew. A future together seems impossible. That makes for some truly tender love scenes that kept me on edge because it all seemed so futile. 

The Christmas backdrop brings a stirring element to the story and includes a children’s pageant complete with Riggs in reindeer antlers!!!!! (one of my favourite scenes, by the way!) Destined to become a Christmas classic.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

This giveaway is for a gently read paperback and is available to any reader, any where — so, yay, another International Giveaway!

If you would like a chance to win a copy of A Family Under the Christmas Tree, leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca. If you add an email to your comment, remember to use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in order to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email, please add the title to the subject line so it’s easy to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday Nov 25, 2023.

23 thoughts on “A Family Under the Christmas Tree + Giveaway”

  2. I’ve read today’s book selection and the other two from Mon/Tues, so I’m feeling rather accomplished this morning 😉 A Family Under the Christmas Tree was made into a very good Hallmark movie too.
    I hope to get some reading done today after some pre-Thanksgiving prep.
    Happy reading Wednesday!

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    1. Woohoo — we are like minded Christmas readers. I didn’t realize that A Family Under the Christmas tree was made into a movie. I’ll have to check and see if I can get it anywhere. I no longer have a TV and don’t subscribe to anything that would carry it but I’ve found some Hallmark movies on YouTube of all places. Thanks for that insiders scoop, Tracey. Good luck on the pre Thanksgiving prep!

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      1. We have a Bernese Mountain dog in my neighbourhood who looked just like that when he was a pup. Now he’s a behemoth but still just as cuddly…only there’s so much more of him! Good luck, rubynreba!

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  7. How have I missed “A Family Under the Christmas Tree”???

    Adorable cover and you know right away that Riggs is going to be front and center in this story, which sounds amazing. Can’t wait to read Riggs’ story (oh yeah and David and Sophie’s too).

    Thank you for the wonderful chance to win a copy and maybe get to correct a serious error in having missed this one for so long.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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  8. I am not entering as I’ve read this, just throwing my two cents in, but did you know they made a movie based on this book?? I believe it was Hallmark who picked it up. I’m wondering if it’s still available because it would be my every year Christmas movie to watch! 😊

    Such a cute story to get lost in for the holiday season 💖

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    1. Tracey mentioned that too and I did not know and did some digging. Quite a few Hallmark and Lifetime movies are on Youtube now…no idea why, but, alas, there’s just a promo for this movie. They changed the title to Picture Perfect Christmas. Found some other movies to watch closer to Christmas though. 🙂

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  10. I really enjoyed this one. They made a movie out of it, Picture a Perfect Christmas. It’s pretty good, but not as good as the book, as is usually the case. 😎
    Not an entry comment. 😎

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    1. Thanks for sharing that, Mark. I’ll be on the hunt for the movie. I find that usually the book is always better than the movie. I don’t like it when they mess with a fave story or characters. 🙂

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