The Christmas Keepsake

by Annie Rains

Mallory Blue has been a caregiver for most of her life. She tried to fill in for her mother Daisy when she left Mallory and her little sister Maddie in search of a better life as an actress. Her grandmother Nan had taken both girls in quite willingly, but Mallory tried to do everything right to cause less trouble for her grandparents. Now, a nurse, Mallory is burning the candle at both ends trying to work extra shifts at the hospital to be able to afford to keep Nan in a memory home, visit Nan who rarely remembers her, and fulfill her promise to Nan to keep her beloved theater running.

Hollis and Mallory had an attraction to each other in high school, but he had a hard time letting anyone love him. With a bad home life, he became a juvenile delinquent bouncing from one foster family to another. Matt and Sandy took him in when he was close to aging out of foster care. They treated him as their own child, and he learned the construction business from Matt as well as how to be a responsible man. Hollis and Mallory have trust issues, expecting to be left behind by those they count on.

With Nan’s memory declining, she gives Mallory a box that contains “ornaments,” odd keepsakes that are to be hung on the Christmas tree in a certain order. She gives her a journal to go with it that tells a story from Nan’s life explaining the significance of each object. In this way she answers questions about her own life as well as Mallory and Maddie’s that she realizes she will not always be able to answer due to her failing memory.

The Christmas Keepsake has a current day story to tell, and it meshes that story with the past happenings for Nan, Daisy, Mallory, and Maddie. This structure was a clever way to tell Nan’s story and give Mallory and the reader a better understanding of the circumstances that brought them all to that place in that time. There are also themes of overcoming disabilities and dog training, both of which enhanced the span of the book.  I enjoyed The Christmas Keepsake, but it did bog down for me a bit in the middle. It picked up again in its ending, and I especially liked the way the author tied everything down for the characters in the last pages and in the Epilogue.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Rating: 4/5

Category: Fiction, Romance

Notes: #2 in the Love in Bloom series but could be read as a standalone. I actually did not remember that I had read (and loved) #1 in the series, The Finders Keepers Library, which shows how independent the two books are. There is an overlap of characters, but the reader won’t miss out by not having that connection. “Bloom” is the name of the town.

Publication: October 7, 2025—Forever (Grand Central Publishing)

Memorable Lines:

Maybe my best wasn’t good enough. Maybe I should have done things differently. All I can say is that life doesn’t have a dress rehearsal. It’s all improv on one big stage.

Back then, he wasn’t even aware of the reasons behind his actions. All he knew was that he had a crater-size void in his heart that couldn’t be filled no matter how hard he tried. He missed the father he never had. He missed the mother who was never going to nurture and love him the way he needed to be.

Life is a lot like theater. Full of unexpected plot twists, moments of high drama, and the occasional intermission. And, if it’s a good play, there’ll be a happy ending.