Quilted by Christmas: review

Jodie Bailey sets most of Quilted by Christmas in North Carolina, where testimonies run true, quilting is commonplace, politeness prevails, friends often become kin. In case you've read the teasers or started reading the book, I won't include spoilers in this review, so I'll simply say Quilted by Christmas is such a good love story about Taryn and Justin (from when they were late teenaged lovers, to more than a decade later when they'd grown in chronology, maturity, and self-understanding), such an accurate account of the sometime messiness of being human, and a lovely portrayal of contemporary southern Appalachian life in ways that also honors tradition, because for the most part, daily living in the American South still is about rich heritage as it necessarily looks into an uncertain, changing future.

Although author Jodie Bailey is unabashedly Christian, and Quilted by Christmas is a book in United Methodist pub house Abingdon's Quilts of Love series, the narrative is not overtly spiritual, Christian, or generically religious, and likely would offend only those actively seeking to be offended.

Unlike many books I've recently read – or tried to read – in both print and digital formats, Quilted by Christmas is well-written and well-edited, which these days is an actual bonus on top of a story that effortlessly held my attention from beginning to end! I chose this book because of "Christmas" and "Quilted" in the title, but it would be a good gift and a good read for almost anyone, almost any time during the year.

my amazon review: seasonal and timeless