Catching Christmas By Terri Blackstock

Summary

*This review is part of my series of favorite Christmas reads. Click the Christmas category on the sidebar to see the rest.*

An overworked attorney’s grandmother will stop at nothing to find her a date for Christmas in this heartwarming holiday love story about finding what really matters in life.

As a first-year law associate, Sydney Batson knows she will be updating her resume by New Year’s if she loses her current case. So when her grandmother gets inexplicably ill while Sydney is in court, she arranges for a cab to take her grandmother to the clinic.

The last thing cab driver Finn Parrish wants is to be saddled with a wheelchair-bound old lady with dementia. But because Miss Callie reminds him of his own mother, whom he failed miserably in her last days, he can’t say no when she keeps calling him for rides. Once a successful gourmet chef, Finn’s biggest concern now is paying his rent, but half the time Callie doesn’t remember to pay him. And as she starts to feel better, she leads him on wild-goose chases to find a Christmas date for her granddaughter.

When Finn meets Sydney, he’s quite certain she’s never needed help finding a date. Does Miss Callie have an ulterior motive, or is this just a mission driven by delusions? He’s willing to do whatever he can to help fulfill Callie’s Christmas wish. He just never expected to be a vital part of it.

Positives

If you take a look around my reads, you’ve probably noticed I don’t read a lot of contemporary. I can’t put my finger on why, but despite all the brilliant books in the genre, it never held much appeal for me. I’ve tried multiple books only to get bored a few chapters in.

But not with Catching Christmas.

This book took me about two days to read. I read it over 2019 and then again this year. I honestly want some film company to pick this one up and make it a Christmas movie so I can watch it and read it every year.

This book is definitely a detour from Terri Blackstock’s usual style, but that doesn’t slow it down at all.

And as I reread it this year, I realized so much of what kept me in it were the characters.

People. How do you not love Finn?! He’s so gruff and sarcastic, and yet he can’t turn down an elderly lady (who has dementia and probably won’t pay him when he really needs money) who needs a cab ride. He gets mad and yells at her daughter over an answering machine for leaving her by herself—because he cares for this lady he just met that much. And he feels his regret of the past very deeply. While Sydney was a great character herself, Finn was who sold the book for me.

The book also rocks the tension and stakes. The further this ridiculous predicament went—Callie having Finn drive her around to try and hunt down a boyfriend for Sydney—the more I wanted to see just how it all settles out.

But don’t think it’s all fun and games here. Part of the sweet element of this book is definitely a bittersweet note. Even in that, the author realistically depicted grief and regret.

Negatives

I can literally think of nothing negative about this book. I guess that it’s so short? But if it were any longer, maybe it wouldn’t work so well.

Conclusion

This sweet book is one of my favorite Christmas reads and one I’ll read every year. Now if you know of a film company in need of their next Christmas film, let me know, I could help with that.