By Melissa AmsterEvelyn 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. (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon.)
I've been a fan of Jean Meltzer's books ever since I read The Matzah Ball (reviewed here). Not only do her books feature Jewish characters, Jewish holidays, and romance, but they also focus on physical and/or mental health issues that her main characters are facing. In The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah, Evelyn has chronic migraines, and the one person who understands what she's really going through is her ex-husband, who is suddenly back in her life after two years of being apart.
Jean is a great storyteller and I enjoyed getting to know Evelyn and David throughout this novel. They both had different heartbreaks to confront and seeing each other again brought that to the surface. Plus, there were other obstacles at play, such as a very annoying and overprivileged lead actor for the live musical Evelyn is producing. For all the stress Evelyn was under, which included reconnecting with her ex-husband who left her after a very difficult situation, she had a lot of patience to put up with Jared for as long as she did. He made my blood boil with how frustrating he was being. That's all I will say on that topic or I'll just get riled up again!
Another situation Evelyn was dealing with was that these "Ghosts of Hanukkah Past" would visit her every night and make her flash back to certain difficult times in her life.
Not only did we get Evelyn's point-of-view, but we also got David's perspective and he saw some things differently from how Evelyn saw them, so they were butting heads about why the divorce happened in the first place. However, I was rooting for them to find their way back to each other.
This story had some sad moments and after hearing about the real experiences they were based on, the sadness factor was kicked up a notch. There's still Jewish joy to balance it out, but you may want to have tissues handy.
Some characters and situations from Jean's previous novels are mentioned, which is fun for anyone who has read those books and light spoilers for those who haven't. My only concern was that it felt like there were some timing inconsistencies, but I hope these were ironed out for the final publication.
Overall, this novel was thoughtful and heartfelt and I encourage you to check it out! It's currently available, so what are you waiting for?!?
(Trigger warning below.)
Movie casting suggestions:
Thanks to Harlequin for the book in exchange for an honest review.
More by Jean Meltzer:
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TW: Termination of pregnancy for medical reasons.
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