Paul, Donita K., Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball, WaterBrook Press, 2010.
ISBN: 9780307458995
Ages: Young Adult / Women's Fiction
Description:
From publisher WaterBrook Multnomah, Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball. Cora Crowder is an industrious and resourceful woman. She longs for a Christmas spirit, one that is catching and permanent, but her family and childhood background make the discovery troublesome. Simon Derrick is busy with his work and the care of his family particularly the happiness of his sister who lives with Down Syndrome. He is so serious at work that they call him "Serious Simon". While Cora and Simon know of each other at work, they have never truly gotten to know each other. This story Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball is the result of their unlikely meeting in a local bookstore. Read the first pages here. Check out the NookBook version, too.
It is to Cora's great surprise that Simon can and does laugh, and who would ever have guessed that he could be charming. Simon is equally surprised to realize that a woman both kind and beautiful has been working for him for five years. It is as if he is seeing her for the first time.
Interwoven into this boy-meets-girl tale are the intriguing mysteries surrounding a city street of quaint shops that only a few people can see or find and a costume ball with magical properties.
Critique:
I read Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball twice. The first reading was during the time spent traveling home for Christmas. I was captive to a confined space and happily read for the duration. Two Tickets was a pleasant read and enjoyable. The dialogue was not complicated; it was easy to track and added depth to the character development. I learned more by what the characters said to each other as I did the author's description. It was refreshing to find so much more to Two Tickets than simply being a love story.
On the other hand, the first reading proved a challenge to my traditional definitions of creation, and most specifically, to the creatures God designed in the beginning. I had not entertained the notion that fairies could naturally have existed in God's creation. It was because of this challenge to my thinking that I stalled my writing of the book review. So, I waited two weeks and read Two Tickets again.
The concept that God has the ability to make whatever He wishes is not changed. That creatures like fairies, even trolls and wizards, are not new, and indeed were used extensively by J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. I find it curious that my faith in the scope of God's creative ability and my acceptance of classical literature are long-standing, and yet I was hesitant to allow Donita K. Paul's ideas that fairies were among those created. Archaeology shows that dinosaurs walked the earth when Man did; Christian archaeologists give account to the same though the Bible does not name "dinosaur" in its verses. What of fairies, then? I will continue to give it thought.
As for character development, Donita Paul is clever to show in what ways family history shaped Cora's and Simon's belief systems. She is also careful to allow Cora the freedom to test new thinking and form beliefs based on truth rather than bad experiences. In that way, Ms. Paul encourages the reader to consider new thinking as well. Perhaps the reader has not heard the gospel spoken of in endearing terms. Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball shares the gospel in just such a way.
I am glad to have read Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball. Overall, a good read! Here's a video introduction. Order your copy for this great retailer today!
