Christmas in Bethel
by Richard Paul Evans
My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Contemporary romance
Leigh Beth Stilton has been abused by men throughout her life and experienced many other horrors as well. She has plans to end her life on Christmas day, but after reading a book by an author she’s never read, she finds the strength to carry on. Fast forward ten years, and a chance encounter with “her author” leads her into a whirlwind of fancy dinners, expensive gifts, and a hectic book tour schedule. Beth and J.D. Harper form a quick connection, but the pain in her past threatens to ruin everything.
First things first—this is not really a Christmas story. It takes place from before Thanksgiving to after Christmas, and some festivities are involved, but they’re really just background. It’s really just a contemporary romance that happens to take place at Christmastime. Not a deal breaker for me, but it’s good to make sure potential readers are aware. Also, you might see this marketed as Christian fiction in some places. It’s not. I’ve only read a few of Evans’s other books, but I’ve never gotten the impression that he was a Christian author, or even a Christian who is an author. The book doesn’t mention God once, unless you count the explanation of the meaning of the word “Bethel” (house of God). The two main characters become fairly intimate pretty quickly, though it’s pretty vague whether or not they actually sleep together and there’s nothing graphic. And there is a minor character who is somewhat-subtly gay. None of these things would bother me normally, but when the book is listed as Christian fiction (at least on Amazon and NetGalley), it definitely confuses me.
As for the book itself, I found the plot to be shallow and a bit muddled, and I didn’t really connect with the characters. I questioned so many things while I read. For example: Beth’s first name is Leigh (presumably pronounced like “Lee”), but she goes by Beth. So why did she give her name as “Lee” to the barista at Starbucks? Why, to give her the coincidental chance to meet J.D. Harper (whose real name is Lee), of course…though that could have still been worked out without her using her first name that she never uses. And why didn’t Beth recognize J.D./Lee? Sure, his picture isn’t on his books, but apparently his visage is widespread enough on TV and the internet for him to be recognized like crazy when he’s out at restaurants and stores…yet Beth, who has been halfway in love with him for ten years, doesn’t recognize him? I have other examples, but I don’t want to extend the review too much or come across like I’m ranting.
Not a fault of the book, but I don’t really connect with the heavy abuse in both of the characters’ pasts. But more than that, I felt that the romance was hurried and lacked any depth. They connect quickly, but then Lee stars inviting Beth to all sorts of events and even to his home, with barely any time to get to know each other. I guess the romance is mostly supposed to be in Beth falling in love with Lee through his writing, but since we don’t get to read any of his writing, it falls flat for me. In fact, I’d really like to know…anything about his books, especially the one that saved her life. We get only brief glimpses and are basically told that he writes about love so poignantly that he’s a big-name author. Maybe a romance based around the impact of fictional books works for some people, but it didn’t for me.
When I started to realize the little twist that was coming, I thought it might go a different way, but in the end, I did appreciate the way this story ends. It wasn’t nearly enough to salvage the rest of the book for me, though. I also have realized that I don’t really care for Evans’s writing style—I thought before that it was just his YA style, after reading most of the Michael Vey series, but now I know it’s just his style in general. I don’t personally recommend this book for anyone, but if the synopsis sounds interesting to you, please check out other reviews at the link below. They’re way more positive than not (which is pretty normal for me).
Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery Books for providing me a copy of this book to review.
Find out more about Christmas in Bethel
If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!
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