(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

Henry, a shy and talented artist, moonlights as a security guard at a museum and loses his heart to a beautiful, melancholy woman in a painting. As his obsession grows, he finds a kindred soul who helps him in his search for happiness. On Christmas Eve, Henry dares to take a chance on love and fulfill his dream.

[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook in conjunction with the review tour in exchange for an honest review.]

Normally I’m not in the mood for Christmas books until at least December 20th.  However, I put my grumbling aside about having to review a Christmas story while it’s still warm out and decided to take a chance on Aubrey Wynne’s short story.  The blurb sounded interesting enough, so I figured I’d give it a go.

You know, in the end I was not disappointed in the least.  Aubrey Wynne somehow managed to give me that warm and Christmassy feeling in the middle of October, which is certainly a testament to her writing skill.  Yes, Merry Christmas, Henry is your typical heartwarming semi-sappy story about Christmas and the magic surrounding it, but I still loved it.  It’s nice to read a story where the good guy gets what he deserves and life improves for him after having a hard life.

Henry is a pretty three dimensional character, especially considering the fact that this is a short story.  He’s a shy and retiring artist who passionately loves his work at the museum.  One day he becomes obsessed with a woman in an obscure painting in the back of the gallery and can’t get her out of his head.  He visits her, talks to her and generally thinks of her as real.  As Christmas approaches, the pull becomes stronger and stronger.  I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but let’s just say that anything can happen on Christmas Eve in Aubrey Wynne’s world.

The plot was fairly fast-paced since it was a short story, but at the same time I feel like I knew the main characters intimately.  There was no one-time info dump, but rather an organic growth of Henry’s sad backstory and the events leading up to his getting a job in the museum.  By the end, you really do feel like you know him intimately and Aubrey Wynne spins such a beautiful tale that you can’t help but cheer for the heartwarming ending.

In short, it’s the perfect Christmas story.  Even in October.

I give this short story 5/5 stars.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble*     Goodreads

*No link because B&N is stupidly telling me I don’t have permission to access the requested search.  I know: huh?