Blessedly Cursed Christmas

by Olivia Stowe

Curtain Call retirement home has received a bequest.


Having received a bequest to do “something to make the residents happy” movie star Brenda Brandon and her spouse, retired FBI agent Charlotte Diamond, owners of Curtain Call, a Hopewell, Maryland, movie colony retirement home, decide to make Christmas memorable. Motivated by the need to encourage residents to have the will to live through a season that is as challenging as joyful for the elderly and lonely, and also by the wish to integrate the retirement home into the village better, Brenda and Charlotte decide to bring in best friends and favorite relatives for each resident for a surprise Christmas Eve party. The plans are heartfelt, but they also are ambitious, and the weather has plans that challenge them at every step. Will Curtain Call get its Christmas miracle?

22 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 10, 2015

About the author

Olivia Stowe is a published author under different names and in other dimensions of fiction and nonfiction and lives quietly in a university town with an indulgent spouse.

Reviews

[Thom Swennes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Curtain Call is a geriatric utopia. Owned and run by former actress Brenda Brandon and her life-partner ex-FBI agent Charlotte Diamond for ageing, lonely and sometime destitute stars of the Silver Screen, the home tried to bring some happiness where it could. If one could call it a mistake or oversight, the home wasn’t located in Hollywood, where most of its residences had lived their lives and made and lost their fortunes but rather in the backwash rural Maryland township of Hopewell. Their long awaited and aggressively advertised Christmas shindig soon begins to crack and threatens to collapse completely; to the disappointment of the residents and chagrin of the staff. A special gift for each of the residents would hopefully make this a Christmas to remember. On the premise that it is far better to give than to receive, this missive proves the positive power of friends, family and neighbors.
This is my introduction to Olivia Stowe and I must admit that it wasn’t what I expected. It reads like a back issue billboard and almost every page contains references to other short stories in the series. If the reader can overlook this flaw and accept the story in spite of it, they are given a “feel good” Christmas yarn from outside of the traditional box.

[Vykki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a interesting cozy I really enjoyed it. There were great characters and the story was great it lots of twists and turns.