Merry and Bright was such a wholesome Christmas novel that reflects the joy that people should have for each other throughout this season. It certainly got me in the festive spirit and shows how surprising people can be. ( )

Full review can be found here:

https://nordie.wordpress.com/2017/10/03/merry-and-bright-by-debbie-macomber/

This was a cute, sweet Christmas story that was perfect for a nice cold day where you're drinking a warm drink or putting out decorations. ( )

A fun holiday read with extra cheesy romance. Typical love story, think of PG rated Fifty Shades of Grey and You've Got Mail. A good looking, successful and rich boss finding romance with a poor goodhearted girl working as temp at his office. Added to that was their online dating. Enjoyable and quick. ( )

So I'm typically not a big fan of these kinds of books, way to much of a hallmark kind of feel. But our book group read it for Christmas so I decided to give it a chance. Honestly, it felt way to unrealistic to me.

The biggest issue I had, however, was the way the younger brother was portrayed. You find out early on in the book he has down syndrome. There's nothing wrong with that. However, the author portrayed him to be very stupid throughout the book which is EXTREMELY offensive to someone who has worked with many kids who have different ways of thinking. Kids with down syndrome, and other things of that nature, are actually very intelligent. Typically more so than what we consider "normal." Not only did the brother himself imply that he was stupid multiple times, the sister acted surprised anytime he had an intelligent thought. It felt to me as if the author simply threw him in there just to give the main character a tragic home life. It's not tragic to have down syndrome. It just means that you think a different way.

Many others may not agree with me on this, but I wanted to give an honest review and this was going through my head during the entire book. I felt like this needed to be addressed as well. ( )