Grace Winters is tall and has a commanding presence, but that doesn't keep her from being left behind by people other than her parents and siblings. On this Christmas Eve, she's mourning another such goodbye. However, it is Christmas Eve, and traditions must be observed. Her family gathers at her parents' home for this important night--but this year, her sister, Sarah, has chicken pox. She's staying home, in her apartment in the charming but not always well-maintained Pemberton Manor. Grace, having had chicken pox years ago, is going to spend the night with Sarah. She's brought lots of food prepared by their mother, altogether too much for one healthy woman and one sick woman.
Grace gets as far as the Pemberton Manor elevator, one of the things that hasn't been well-maintained. She's in the elevator with a very pregnant woman named Lucy, Lucy's three-year-old daughter, Itsy, and a rather silent and distant man called August Jones, when it stops between the second and third floors.
When the building maintenance guy can't be bothered to interrupt his Christmas Eve to get them out, they're truly stuck. Sarah tells Grace that she's too sick to eat more than some soup anyway, and asks for one particular treat to be saved for her, but otherwise, she should absolutely share Christmas Eve dinner with her accidental company.
It's a sweet novella with well-developed characters whom we get to know, and enjoy.
Recommended.
I received this novella as a freebie from the author's newsletter, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
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