With her husband missing in Afghanistan, Carly is not looking forward to Christmas, especially as her father has recently died, and her mother, Elizabeth, seems at peace despite everything going on. Things only get worse when her mother starts to tell the story of how she met their grandfather, only to drop the bombshell that he was not her first husband. This was completely unknown to Carly and her brother Jake, who are stunned they knew nothing about this. So they sit down, with Carly’s two children, and listen to the tale. She starts out with how she met Carl at school and how their relationship developed beyond that to when they became a couple. Then one day, Carl receives his draft papers for Vietnam and he leaves for war. She regularly gets letters from him until one day she is informed that he is missing. To try and go on with her life, she heads to her parent’s only to find herself driving into a Christmas snowstorm. It’s not long before she skids off the road, finding herself trapped and knowing there is no-one who really knows where she is. While the they know she must survive, the greatest shock is in how she was found in the past, to be alive today.

The Gift is an romance about love and hope with some extra ghostly elements as part of it. The plot of the story general follows Elizabeth’s story, with the sub plot of Carly’s husband. It’s well written and the stories overlap neatly where they need to. It does take a little while to get going but as the story unfolds, it becomes easier to follow. Of the characters, while it appears that Carly is the initial character, Elizabeth is the main protagonist of the story and the author does a wonderful job of fleshing out the initial meeting between her and her first husband and the life she has after that. It also neatly portrays the family and how they interact after a while.

I was a little surprised at Carly’s antipathy towards her mother as it wasn’t really explained and came out at the start. It’s like she was upset with her mother for not showing more grief over the death of her father than Carly thought her mother should. The formatting for the book is fine and the chapters switch cleanly between the past and present. There are no obvious spelling mistakes or grammar issues, and the book was easy to read thoughout.

Overall, this was a book that had a rough start but improves throughout. Fans of the genre will enjoy this and is worth a read if you enjoy a good story.