Publius Ovidius Naso V1 (1820)

Naomi M. Forester gives us another delightful collection of short stories that are heartwarming, romantic, and funny. Throughout this collection, Ms. Forester leaves the safety of the romantic comedy genre in which she excels and brings us a perfect murder (or is it?) and three interesting encounters with beings not of this Earth (or are they?). Whether writing about a young ex-con and an elderly lady in Baltimore who come together on Christmas Eve to save an abandoned newborn puppy, or the hardworking cowboy pursuing the rich girl from the East, Ms. Forester introduces us to an interesting array of characters that look for and find different meanings in Christmas. She also brings us six more of the delightful aMiss Lilliea stories that remind us of the difficulty of raising a large family on a small Alabama farm during the Depression of the 1930s. We are reintroduced to young Roland and his dog Rattler, the freeloading Reverend Brown, and the glue that binds the family together, Miss Lillie.