Lexie Bell is about to spend her first Christmas in Fairfield, Washington State. She’s come from California and isn’t used to the northerly weather. Thanksgiving pretty much passed by her senior neighbour, Stanley Mann, who is still grieving for his late wife. Their homes are about to be bestowed with A LITTLE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT.

At this point, I’ll explain that I had read a dystopian novel around the same time that I read A LITTLE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT, and I perhaps spent the first half of this story suspiciously blaming men for all that went wrong. For instance, Lexie has a six-year-old son, Brock, but she’s a single mom because her boyfriend decided not to be involved. But when I looked at the situation more calmly, the people in this story are all human, and that means they make mistakes. They gain life experience, but if there are to be second chances, we see they need to make a deliberate step forward or stay stuck.

Inspired by Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Stanley is isolated and grudges having to be festive; then he believes he is visited by the harmless ghost of his wife, who died three years earlier. His wife encourages him to start hanging gaily coloured Christmas lights around the roofline. Of course, Brock sees this as a great example, and Stanley ends up having to adorn next-door’s house with lights too. That’s the start of the two adults cautiously bonding over the kid’s seasonal expectations. A boy without a grandpa and a man the right age lives next to him with no grandkids, so to Brock this inevitably makes a match.  Lexie teaches kindergarten and has a busy life. Maybe there’s a hole in the boy’s family that she didn’t realise existed, which could be filled by Stanley and the stray dog he unwillingly adopted.

We see flashbacks of Stanley’s married life, and the happiness and disappointments he faced. We also learn that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Stanley had to self-isolate, which no doubt contributed to his reclusive attitude. Many romances focus on people of young or middle years, and while someone who would suit Lexie is inevitably on the cards, I enjoyed seeing a storyline that featured mature adults. By the end of this gentle story of a slow unfolding friendship and a separate new relationship for our brave teacher, my faith in humanity had been restored. Sheila Roberts has previously written the hugely fun Life in Icicle Falls series, and this standalone novel carries several of her trademarks, including Christmas cookies. A LITTLE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT awaits, if you just go and find it – don’t wait for strange dreams to prompt you to help others and have fun.