Miracles and Menorahs
by: Stacey Agdern
October 13, 2020 Tule Publishing
328 pages
Review by E Broderick
Everybody has that special book, the one they curl up with when the world is too much and they just need a break. The one that tells them everything will be OK. The one that makes the impossible possible while simultaneously giving the reader a hug. For me, that book is the Friendship and Festivals Romance Series by Stacey Agdern which begins with Miracles and Menorahs.
Protagonist Sarah loves Hanukkah so much, her friends have taken to calling her the Hanukkah Fairy. When the books begins she has recently been named Vice Chair of the Hanukkah festival in the small of Hollowville where she lives. Sounds perfect right? It would be, except a new town trustee has decided the Hanukkah festival would be much better off if it more closely resembled what other small towns do for the winter holidays, namely a Christmas tree and carols. Basically, like every Hallmark movie that refuses to acknowledge the existence of people who do not celebrate Christmas as anything more than tokens, this trustee is determined to bulldoze over the Hanukkah festival unless Sarah can convince the town that Hanukkah is worth fighting for.
She assembles a helpful crew – including a publicist who gets the festival some great press and lots of interested vendors who help her diversify the food offerings to showcase many cultures, but one thing is missing. Nobody can find a sculptor willing to craft a centerpiece menorah, and without it the new trustee will plunk a giant Christmas tree in the center of the festival (taking a moment here to shout out to the tree vendor for exceedingly ethical behavior – you’ll know what I mean when you get there and you will applaud him too). There is one sculptor that comes to mind – Isaac who just so happens to be the grandson of a Hollowville community member, as well as attracted to Sarah, but he is unwilling to participate in an activity he feels might commercialize the holiday. The fall out is a delicate dance for his budding relationship with Sarah.
Plot and characters aside, this book makes me happy because it allows for a universe in which an American town would have a Hanukkah festival at all. A festival in which people of varying backgrounds get together to celebrate something other than the culturally dominant Christian holiday. That’s a beautiful thing. It also includes such fun things as a cavalcade of latkes and an entire fair of fried foods from around the world. It allows readers to think that maybe, just maybe, there might be a place larger than their community center that might be willing to celebrate their holiday with them, whatever that holiday may be.
This is a sweet romance, the highest heat level is a kiss, but it includes a lot of relationship building. It’s a comfort book, pure and simple, about love and yes- miracles. Because that’s what the festival represents to me. A miracle of inclusion. Hopefully it comes true in our lifetime!