Christmas in Bliss

Last week, Michele Ashman Bell sent me a copy of her latest release: a short story with a Christmas Eve setting titled Christmas in Bliss. What better day to share my review of it with you than on Christmas Eve?

Christmas in Bliss centers on Nikki Michaels, a young working woman who is trying to get home to Utah for Christmas. She works in Oregon, and the drive from Tillamook to Salt Lake has already taken a lot longer than it should. Thanks to bad weather, it's about to get worse. As a storm descends on Idaho, Nikki is forced to pull off the road and wait for snow plows. She is surprised when she learns that the nearby town is actually called "Bliss." Being stranded far from home on Christmas Eve should be anything but blissful!

There are a dozen or so others who are stranded along with Nikki in a rest stop. One of the strangers is a man driving a truck full of toys meant for children at Primary Children's Hospital. Nikki, who works for Tillamook cheese, has some cheeses and other goodies in her car. The truck driver is a man named Brian Thomas. He invites Nikki to help him make Christmas Eve more enjoyable for all the adults and children stranded with them at the rest stop by sharing a little of what they've got and spreading some Christmas spirit. Nikki and Brian learn that spreading joy at a snowed-in rest stop in Idaho can mean Christmas in "bliss."

Both my daughter Nicole and I read Christmas in Bliss, and we both enjoyed it. It was a short, feel-good story. Nicole said that she "wanted it to be longer." I'm pretty sure she meant that she would love to know what happens between Nikki and Brian after Christmas in Bliss.

Thanks to Michele for allowing me to read and review her story here!