Christmas Reading Challenge: Debbie Macomber - Starry Night

Carrie Slayton, a big-city society-page columnist, longs to write more serious news stories. So her editor hands her a challenge: She can cover any topic she wants, but only if she first scores the paper an interview with Finn Dalton, the notoriously reclusive author. 

Living in the remote Alaskan wilderness, Finn has written a megabestselling memoir about surviving in the wild. But he stubbornly declines to speak to anyone in the press, and no one even knows exactly where he lives.

Digging deep into Finn’s past, Carrie develops a theory on his whereabouts. It is the holidays, but her career is at stake, so she forsakes her family celebrations and flies out to snowy Alaska. When she finally finds Finn, she discovers a man both more charismatic and more stubborn than she even expected. And soon she is torn between pursuing the story of a lifetime and following her heart.

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Over the years I have read many Christmas stories by Debbie Macomber so when I saw that Starry Night was available to review on NetGalley I just had to request a copy to include in my Christmas reading challenge.   

Carrie Slayton is a newspaper journalist who's desperate to get her teeth into reporting gritty news stories rather than doing the rounds reporting on events for the social pages.  Finally having had enough she decides to hand in her resignation but her editor offers her an alternative, he'll let her cover news stories if she can get an interview with bestselling author Finn Dalton.

But this is not going to be an easy task as Finn is notoriously reclusive, infact no-one here seems to know where he currently lives.  But Carrie's investigations lead her to Finn's mother, and with the help of his friend Sawyer she eventually arrives in the Alaskan wilderness where he's living but arriving in the middle of a storm is when the fun starts...

I really liked both Carrie and Finn because of their differences.  Finn was your typical brooding hero, aloof and more comfortable with his dog Hennessy than spending time with other people, whereas Carrie was such a warm, outgoing and likeable character who enjoys social interactions with people.  On paper they have nothing in common but as the saying goes 'opposites attract'...

There was the inevitable predictability within this novel, with how the two meet and overcome their differences, but if you can overlook this then what you have is a charming love story that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  Although not overally Christmassy there was just enough to get into the festive spirit.