Joy: Three Christmas Stories

by Angela Amman, Mandy Dawson, Cameron D. Garriepy

“To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.” - Mark Twain

Joy reunites authors Angela Amman, Mandy Dawson, and Cameron D. Garriepy for a trio of Christmas love stories shining a spotlight on the joy hiding behind life’s complications.

Trusting Starlight

Bouchons’ head chef Carlos and waitress Sami navigate a simmering attraction threatening to boil over. Doing her best to juggle three kids, a clueless ex-husband, and a second chance at an education, Sami isn’t ready for a relationship - especially with her much younger best friend - but she can’t ignore the way she feels when he’s near. With a nudge from a Christmas angel, Carlos decides to put his heart on the line and hope he can help his friend trust in love again.

Airport Christmas

As if solo holiday travel wasn’t lonely enough, Margot is blindsided by divorce papers moments before her return trip to an apartment that hasn’t felt like home in too long. A grounded flight, a flirtatious stranger, and a generous airport bartender provide distraction from Margot’s travel-weary life until she and her wayward husband collide en route. Forced to face the hopes and fears they’ve hidden from one another for years, can Margot and Vance take one last chance on their love?

The Soloist

Talia Benson has the voice of an angel and a past full of secrets, but when she takes a short order cook’s position in a new town with the Christmas season hard on her heels, she’s hoping to keep a low profile. Pastor Reilly Hunt has his hands full preparing for Christmas the choir soloist is called out of town, the baby Jesus has gone missing, and his searches all lead back to Talia and her teenaged son. Talia is tempted by the earnest reverend’s dimpled smile and reluctantly charmed by her quirky new community, but her secrets threaten to disrupt the uneasy peace.

139 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 16, 2017

About the author

Angela Amman is a freelance writer and content editor. You can find her personal essays and short stories in her collections, Garden Boulevard and Nothing Goes Away, and various anthologies. Angela’s writing has been featured at The Peacock Journal. She juggles freelance writing and editing with managing a preschool office — and sometimes wonders if there's much of a difference. She is also a managing editor at Bannering Books, a writers’ co-op and lives in Metro Detroit with her husband and two children. She spends part of every day trying to convince her husband to buy into her color-coded calendar system and another part of it wondering where she put down her coffee mug. When she should be sleeping, she works on her novel and contemplates whether the perfect mascara exists.