The Gift

September 17, 2007
Evans (The Christmas Box
) returns with narrator Nathan Hurst, a frequently traveling, Tourette's-suffering security chief for a retail chain. When Nathan gets snowed in at the Denver airport at Thanksgiving, he offers half his hotel suite to a stranded needy family: recently divorced single mom Addison (a massage therapist), and her two children, Lizzy and Collin. Collin, who has leukemia, cures Nathan's Tourette's with his gift of healing touch. Exercising his secret gift makes Collin sicker, though, and as news of his healing powers eventually leaks out, leading to a demand for his services, his condition worsens. Nathan, meanwhile, feels emboldedened by his cure, and moves to address childhood woes when visiting his nursing home–bound mother. The tightly honed narrative, brimming with good intention to find courage in shared suffering, soon brings everyone together.

October 1, 2007
Evan's latest Christmas offering (after "The Christmas Box" and "Finding Noel") is the story of Nathan Hurst, a man with a troubled family past. Nathan, who has Tourette's syndrome, travels across the country as a detective for a retail chain. While stranded at the airport just before Thanksgiving, he invites a stranger, Addison, and her two children to share his hotel suite until a storm passes. Nathan finds himself falling for Addison and mysteriously cured of his syndrome by her son's touch. Evans's inspirational titles are perennial best sellers. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 6/15/07.]

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