The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah by Jean Meltzer
Publisher: MIRA
Genre: Contemporary Romance
ISBN: 9780778334422
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Audible
The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah is a story of facing love and loss, wrapped up in a second chance romance and a Jewish, contemporary spin on A Christmas Carol. Jean Meltzer takes her readers on an incredibly emotional journey as our heroine relives the heartbreaking moments of her life.
Evelyn Schwartz believes in the power of television to transport people away from the cruelties of the world for just a while. She’s put everything she has had and more into climbing the ladder and the live-action televised version of A Christmas Carol will make or break her career as a producer. Evelyn lives with chronic migraines and carries a lot of pain inside. She buries herself in work not just because of her love of the job but because she cannot bear the pain of her past. Enter David, her ex-husband. She’s never forgiven him for leaving her but David had his own reasons and trauma that lead him to divorcing her. Now he’s back to fill in as a doctor and when Evelyn takes a header into a piano and starts having hallucinations, David will drop everything to help her.
I’m not going to spoil what drove Evelyn and David apart, but Meltzer puts a rather lengthy list of content warnings in the front of the book and I highly recommend people read it before diving into the story. There are painful moments in Evelyn and David’s lives that are handled with care and authenticity, and the realistic depictions of some of the most heartbreaking times of their lives can be hard to read. Evelyn and David have always loved each other but that isn’t enough. While he supports her career, David is also open about the fact that Evelyn wasn’t there for him when he needed her the most. She in turn has pain over the way he abandoned her during their darkest time. Neither of them are wrong nor are they entirely right. They needed help and Evelyn wasn’t ready for it when their marriage fell apart. There’s a lot of struggle for the two of them that can’t be addressed until Evelyn is ready, which isn’t until the very end. I liked where they ended up, but I wanted a bit more between the last chapter and the epilogue.
This is a heavy book, but there is hope in it. Meltzer also tries to lighten the mood with the difficult star of the musical, Jared Sparks. Whether you find Jared funny or irritating is really reader preference. For me, he was the latter and his over-the-top nonsense didn’t fit with the rest of the book and kept pulling me out of the tale.
The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah was sometimes hard for me to read, but even with the issues I had with it I do think it’s well-written. Jewish joy and tradition may take somewhat of a backseat by virtue of the plot but it’s there and I loved it. Even though there may be mystical holiday spirits guiding Evelyn’s journey, the heartbreaks she and David faced were grounded in reality and the book made me tear up more than once. Though this isn’t my normal type of book, it was engaging and I finished it rooting for David and Evelyn to get the life they deserved.
Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Publisher: MIRA
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Audible
Can these exes rekindle their love this Hanukkah?
Evelyn Schwartz has the perfect Hanukkah planned: eight jam-packed days producing the live-action televised musical of A Christmas Carol. Who needs family when you’ve got long hours, impossible deadlines, and your dream job? That is, until an accident on set lands her in the medical bay with one of her chronic migraines, and she’s shocked to find her ex-husband, David Adler, filling in for the usual studio doctor.
It’s been two years since David walked away from Evelyn and their life in Manhattan, and his ex-wife is still the same workaholic who puts her career before everything else—especially her health. But when Evelyn begins hallucinating “ghosts” tied to her past heartbreaks, and every single one leads to David, he finds himself spending much more time with her than he anticipated. And denying the still-smoldering chemistry between them becomes impossible.
As Evelyn revisits her ghosts of Hanukkah past, she and David both begin to wonder if they can have a Hanukkah future. But with a high-stakes production ramping up the pressure on Evelyn, and troublesome spirits forcing them both to confront their most difficult shared memories, it might just take a Hanukkah miracle for these two exes to light the flame on their second-chance at love.
The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah is a story of facing love and loss, wrapped up in a second chance romance and a Jewish, contemporary spin on A Christmas Carol. Jean Meltzer takes her readers on an incredibly emotional journey as our heroine relives the heartbreaking moments of her life.
Evelyn Schwartz believes in the power of television to transport people away from the cruelties of the world for just a while. She’s put everything she has had and more into climbing the ladder and the live-action televised version of A Christmas Carol will make or break her career as a producer. Evelyn lives with chronic migraines and carries a lot of pain inside. She buries herself in work not just because of her love of the job but because she cannot bear the pain of her past. Enter David, her ex-husband. She’s never forgiven him for leaving her but David had his own reasons and trauma that lead him to divorcing her. Now he’s back to fill in as a doctor and when Evelyn takes a header into a piano and starts having hallucinations, David will drop everything to help her.
I’m not going to spoil what drove Evelyn and David apart, but Meltzer puts a rather lengthy list of content warnings in the front of the book and I highly recommend people read it before diving into the story. There are painful moments in Evelyn and David’s lives that are handled with care and authenticity, and the realistic depictions of some of the most heartbreaking times of their lives can be hard to read. Evelyn and David have always loved each other but that isn’t enough. While he supports her career, David is also open about the fact that Evelyn wasn’t there for him when he needed her the most. She in turn has pain over the way he abandoned her during their darkest time. Neither of them are wrong nor are they entirely right. They needed help and Evelyn wasn’t ready for it when their marriage fell apart. There’s a lot of struggle for the two of them that can’t be addressed until Evelyn is ready, which isn’t until the very end. I liked where they ended up, but I wanted a bit more between the last chapter and the epilogue.
This is a heavy book, but there is hope in it. Meltzer also tries to lighten the mood with the difficult star of the musical, Jared Sparks. Whether you find Jared funny or irritating is really reader preference. For me, he was the latter and his over-the-top nonsense didn’t fit with the rest of the book and kept pulling me out of the tale.
The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah was sometimes hard for me to read, but even with the issues I had with it I do think it’s well-written. Jewish joy and tradition may take somewhat of a backseat by virtue of the plot but it’s there and I loved it. Even though there may be mystical holiday spirits guiding Evelyn’s journey, the heartbreaks she and David faced were grounded in reality and the book made me tear up more than once. Though this isn’t my normal type of book, it was engaging and I finished it rooting for David and Evelyn to get the life they deserved.
Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
