The Mistletoe Letter

Clare Bennett thought she had her life planned. A seasoned investigative journalist at the Chicago Tribune, her days were filled with corruption exposés, tight deadlines, and the constant rush of city life. But one December morning, everything changes. A phone call from Holly Pines, the snow-covered small town of her childhood, shatters her focus and redirects her future. Her father, Henry, has fallen while shoveling snow, and the doctors suspect he is entering stage three Alzheimer’s. Clare’s heart pulls her home, and what begins as a reluctant return quickly becomes a divine redirection.

In Holly Pines, Clare confronts the painful realities of Alzheimer’s a father who slips in and out of recognition, memories tangled like the frost-covered branches outside his window, and the sobering truth that tomorrow may not look like yesterday. Yet within the heartache, Clare begins to see glimmers of grace. She reconnects with her best friend Alice, who becomes both a companion and a source of strength in the long days ahead. She rediscovers her hometown, a place once too small for her ambitions but now rich with God’s quiet miracles. And she finds herself drawn back to Evan; the bookstore owner whose steady faith and gentle spirit stir something in her heart she thought was long buried.

As Clare lays aside her high-profile career, she finds herself unexpectedly offered the chance to purchase the very newspaper that once shaped the town’s voice the Holly Pines Gazette. At first, it seems like coincidence. But as doors open and circumstances align, Clare begins to believe it may be more than chance it may be God’s plan. With encouragement from her father, who despite his illness insists it is “a sign from God,” Clare begins to embrace the possibility that her detour is, in fact, the path she was always meant to follow.

Through Henry’s journey with Alzheimer’s, Clare learns what it means to love patiently and to honor the past while living faithfully in the present. Through her budding romance with Evan, she sees the beauty of second chances and the hope of love rekindled. Through her work at the Gazette, she discovers that storytelling isn’t just about exposing corruption it’s about shaping a community, inspiring change, and capturing the stories of ordinary people whose lives are woven together by faith.

At its heart, The Mistletoe Letter is more than a novel about illness and caregiving it is a portrait of resilience, faith, and the quiet miracles that reshape our lives. It explores how God works through unexpected turns, how He calls us not away from purpose but into it, and how His faithfulness can transform our grief into hope.

Clare’s journey is one of surrender surrendering her career for her father, surrendering her own plans for God’s plan, and surrendering her doubts for a deeper trust in Christ. And as she embraces life in Holly Pines, she discovers that home is not just where you come from it is where God plants you, calls you, and blesses you with new beginnings.

Tenderly told with spiritual depth and heartfelt emotion, The Mistletoe Letter invites readers to reflect on their own journeys of faith. It is a story for anyone who has faced the unexpected, anyone who has wrestled with letting go, and anyone who has wondered if God was still nearby in the silence of grief. The novel reminds us that even in loss, there is love; even in uncertainty, there is purpose; and even in the hardest seasons, God’s grace writes a new beginning.