It Came Upon a Midnight Clear by A.M. Heath

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars
I was excepting a rather light Christmas story with some good parts and some romance. I was not expecting it to be so deep! It was good, just not what I was expecting.
Alyssa tugged at my heart and I wanted to hug her and tell her that even though she had sinned, there is grace and forgiveness even if her parents and many others didn’t show that. She thinks she can’t be forgiven or at least doesn’t deserve to be forgiven, but thankfully several other characters spoke truth to her. Yes, she does learn that sin can and often does affect more people than you think it will at the time.
And then there’s Stephen. Poor guy. That injury sounded painful! And I could understand those questions of “What are you doing, God?” and “Why me?” But thankfully Stephen didn’t turn bitter, and he had some really good things to say. I’ll leave it at that.
The sisters and David have to be mentioned too because they were such a special part of the story.
I loved the Christmas feels and the strong messages about trusting that God has a plan even if it looks nothing like what you thought His plan looked like, as well as the ones on asking for forgiveness and then accepting God’s forgiveness, grace, and love.

This story deals with the serious topic of getting pregnant out of wedlock by choice, but the author handled it so well! There was nothing to put wrong images in my head or suggestive comments. Yes, there are some kisses, some attraction to the other person, but everything was clean, and the Christian content was strong.