Richard Paul Evans Finding Noel

Finding Noel

Richard Paul Evans

Simon & Schuster, Oct 2006, $19.95

ISBN: 0743287037

Mark Smart is extremely depressed. First he made all "A"s in his first year at the University of Utah, but due to cutbacks at the school his scholarship is dropped, his job at the Registrar terminated, and he cannot afford to remain there. His Alabama hometown girlfriend of four years sent him a Dear John letter informing him she is engaged to someone else. At work cleaning toilets at West High School, he is accused of stealing a CD player. These are minor nuisances that add to his anguish. Eleven days ago his beloved mom Alice died. Now driving at night in November, he plans to join her.

In Salt Lake City during an early snowstorm, Mark's sixteen years old car dies. He enters The Java Hut coffee shop as they are closing the place down for the night. There he meets kind hearted Macy Wood, who lets him cry on her shoulders. They quickly become friends, and soon afterward Mark knows his feelings are more than just gratitude; he is in love. He proposes, but Macy says no. As he returns to Alabama to mend things with his estranged stepfather Stuart, another waitress Joette, who raised a teenage Macy, knows Macy loves Mark and plans to bring them back together even as his stepfather insists he go fight for what he loves.

FINDING NOEL is a terrific allegorical tale that provides readers with encouragement to go after what you cherish and as a reminder that it is not the biological but the nurturing that makes love. Like Joseph raised someone else's child, Stuart and Joette were there to bring up a person not related to them by blood. Well written with a strong cast, Richard Paul Evans provides a wonderful life holiday tale.

Harriet Klausner