A Timeless Christmas, by Alexis Stanton, is a historical romance with Hallmark Publishing. I admit, I first was skeptical when I saw the film’s trailer on Hallmark, but after watching it several times (and loving it), I needed to read the book. Usually, when books come in the mail, they sit around for days to years before I open them up. But this one? I opened this one the day after it arrived, and read it cover to cover in a total of four days. I thoroughly enjoyed it and absolutely loved reading it, though while making notes afterwards, for this review, I did recall a few areas where that skepticism reoccurred. Here I’ll give a brief summary for you guys as well as what I considered some key pros and cons to the novel, and as usual, with my opinions on why.
Charles Whitley, an inventor in 1902, accidentally time-travels 116 years into the future, landing in 2018. He arrives in 2018 exactly where he stood in 1902–at the desk in his mansion’s study, only, it’s a little different now. In 2018, it’s a museum, and Megan Turner, a tour guide (and self-proclaimed expert on all things Charles Whitley), finds herself helping navigate the modern world as he attempts to find a way back to 1902, where his fiancée, milling company, and nemesis still reside.
So that’s the summary I promised. Now, where are the pros and where are the cons? Well, let’s start with a con. The book starts off in 2018 with Megan leading a tour inside the mansion. Right off the bat, she comes across as a little strange, her thoughts expressing that she has a crush on a man from another century, and little to no interest in any men from the current century. (Well, I guess she got lucky, because guess who happened to drop in from 1902?)
In the next chapter we’re in 1902 as Charles Whitley is arriving home from a business trip. Right away, he comes off as self-centered and without care for really anyone or anything outside of his own business and inventions. This is the second con, because while, having an idea of what was happening, having seen the film, it did leave me feeling, with both these characters, almost nothing in terms of interest.
Con number three? The manner of time-travel and it’s execution was rather odd and seemed a little unfinished. He loses a piece to a clock he’s working on, bends down, and when he stands up . . . he’s one hundred sixteen years into the future? It seems a little strange, and also, a little ridiculous for Charles, basically a genius, to have failed considering this piece of information in his immediate efforts to return to his era. Furthermore, quite often he seems driven purely by spite, which can be slightly aggravating (but, early on, understandable, especially when we learn more about the characters).
Con four is that the characters of Rosie, Eliza, and Harold Moran (Charles’s maid, fiancée, and rival, respectively), are barely there. Rosie makes a single appearance during Charles’s chapter in 1902, but Eliza and Harold both fail to make entrances–at least, outside of what we learn about them (and Rosie) from Megan’s tours and Charles’s thoughts throughout the novel.
Other, more minor cons here would be that the character of Dan behaves almost childishly to Charles, until about midway through the book, whereas Dan’s young daughter behaves more maturely and politely. Furthermore, my first impression, based off Megan’s thoughts, was that Megan would have turned to her mother when it came to Charles, and while there was a brief conversation there, she instead turned to her father. While this isn’t really a con, as it offered some wonderful scenes and insight of Megan’s relationship with both parents, it did seem a little out of place for me.
Now onto the pros! While I did list a considerable number of cons, I can promise that the pros, for me, far outweighed them.
Starting off with a simple pro: immediate humor! Right away I was recognizing the jokes and sarcasm, and enjoying reading it. Throughout the entirety of the book, there is consistent humor, even if it is more subtle in some areas than others.
This novel has incredible character growth and it was nice to be able to get insights to both Megan and Charles’s characters through their thoughts and feelings described in the book. It’s really cool to see these elements used in the novel as oftentimes we as readers solely rely on the insights of one character but not another, the actions of a character, or it simply isn’t executed well. Ms. Stanton executed it brilliantly, and I fully applaud her on this pro alone.
The entire novel was so well-written, with good descriptions of the characters and scenery around them, with very few grammatical, punctuational, or other errors (something easily missed, of course, especially when it’s a missing word that you automatically read into the sentence). Overall, it was brilliantly done and created a vivid picture in my mind of what was happening, how it was happening, and it really pulled me in and made me feel various things throughout its entirety.
There are lots of wonderful pieces in this novel, as it’s full of cute, funny, and romantic scenes, and Charles’s interest in how things work (such as check-out lines and smartphones) makes him more endearing with a sort of young, enthusiastic quality, whereas Megan’s patience with him (such as the thoughtfulness of her responses about technology and the modern era) makes her all the more respected. Charles and Megan immediately appear to form a genuine friendship, and mutually grow closer throughout the novel, and Ms. Stanton really made every move and every word pretty damned believable. Not only this, but the friendships formed between all of the characters is really very tightknit and easy to picture, with encouragement and support in every word.
Megan and Charles’s holiday gifts for one another, towards the last few chapters, are incredibly heartwarming, and really are what I consider a key turning point in Charles’s decision on whether or not he will return to the past, or stay in the future.
While the “traveling back” scene, as I’ll call it, was a little more dramatic than what was needed, it was extremely significant and, as with many other scenes, scattered with comedy and emotion. Going even further past this, the epilogue was incredible, and quite frankly the best epilogue I’ve ever read, full of such beautiful interactions and dialogue.
This was really such an incredible read, and I am so glad to have not only purchased this book but to have read it in its entirety so quickly while enjoying almost every moment of it. My original rating for the book was a full ten stars, and after a week of consideration and writing up this review, my rating for Alexis Stanton’s A Timeless Christmas is . . . ten of ten stars.
My first ever 10/10 star review? Yep, that’s right, so if you’re if into time-travel, romance, history, comedy, or really any kind of Hallmark/Christmas-themed novel, go buy this one today.
SheReadsWorlds 