It is always nice to have a bit of a short book for our book club in December. This year's choice was a bit of a Hallmark novella. We chose it because of its setting in Pittsburgh.
At the heart of the story is the process of decorating the windows for Christmas at Hanover's Department Store in 1942 at the height of World War II. It seems that it represents the Kaufmann's store with other references to Gimbel's and Horne's. Joy also mentions the clock, which all Yinzers know is located at Kaufmann's. Kaufmann's also had 26 windows that were on display.
When the primary decorator suddenly quits the team of decorators is thrown into quite a tailspin with only hours left to complete the windows before the Christmas parade and the unveiling of the windows. It becomes the primary task of Stella West and her support team, principally, Hector. As one can imagine, according to Hallmark protocol, there is a bit of a romantic tension between the two. Of course, enter a third party to the story to make the reader wonder whom Stella will choose. When every conceivable thing goes wrong in the process, including electrical failures and wallpaper fiascos, it becomes a race against time to completing the task.
Joy's story was a warm and predictable one that was a quick read amidst Christmas preparations. As a native Yinzer, I did pick up on a couple of minor errors in the writing. There was no Heinz Hall in 1942 where The Nutcracker would be performed. Also, there was no sales tax on clothing. A nice quiet Christmas read.
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