Donna VanLiere , New York Times bestselling author of the timeless The Christmas Shoes and The Christmas Hope, is back with this moving and uplifting story about finding love, hope, and family in unexpected places. Lauren Gabriel spent many years of her childhood in foster homes, wishing her mother would come back for her and be the family she needs. Now twenty-years-old, she still longs for a place that she can truly call home . Her work as a cashier is unfulfilling, and at Christmas it’s unbearable with the songs and carols and chatter of Christmas that she hears throughout the day. When Lauren ends her shift one night, she finds herself driving aimlessly in order to avoid returning to her lonely apartment. And when she witnesses a car accident she is suddenly pulled into the small town of Grandon, first as a witness but then as a volunteer for the annual fundraiser for Glory’s Place, a center for single mothers and families who need assistance. Could this town and its people be the home she has always longed for? Praise for the Novels of Donna VanLiere The Christmas Shoes : "A heartwarming story." ― Publishers Weekly "Has precious gifts for all of us." ― The Washington Times The Christmas Blessing : "Sweet and emotional...A perfect holiday gift." ― BookReporter.com "A story of tragedy and, of course, ultimate triumph." ― New York Daily News The Christmas Secret "…a sweet story that celebrates love and generosity of spirit.” ― The Boston Globe “Tired of sugar plums and impossibly perfect families? Consider this tale with its appealing heroine who struggles against losing faith in herself and in God.” ― USA Today The Christmas Hope "A magical story of second chances that will stay with readers long after the ornaments have been put away."-- Bookpage The Christmas Light “Full of heartache and promise...VanLiere touchingly induces Christmas spirit and tears that will satisfy her many readers.” ― Library Journal Donna VanLiere is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Her much-loved Christmas Hope series includes The Christmas Shoes and The Christmas Blessing (both of which were adapted into movies for CBS Television), The Christmas Secret, The Christmas Journey, and The Christmas Hope , which was adapted into a film by Lifetime. She is also the author of The Angels of Morgan Hill and Finding Grace . VanLiere is the recipient of a Retailer's Choice Award for Fiction, a Dove Award, a Silver Angel Award, an Audie Award for best inspirational fiction, and a nominee for a Gold Medallion Book of the Year. She is a gifted speaker who makes regular appearances at conferences. She lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with her husband and their children. The Christmas Town By Donna VanLiere St. Martin's Press Copyright © 2016 Donna VanLiere All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-250-01067-4 CHAPTER 1 November 2010 Lauren Gabriel slides her card into the time clock and punches out of work at 6:02. It would have been six o'clock exactly if her last customer hadn't taken a minute to dig through her purse for seventeen cents in change and then another minute to tell Lauren how annoying it is to find those last few pennies at the bottom of her purse. She grabs her bag from her locker before pushing open the double doors to walk back through the grocery store. "See you tomorrow, Lauren," Jay says, bagging groceries for a mom with two young children. She smiles and waves as she walks through the front door to the parking lot, wishing she did not have to come here tomorrow. She had wished a few weeks ago when Gordon's Grocery was transformed from Halloween to Thanksgiving and then to Christmas in a matter of days that she could work somewhere else. Someplace where what to cook for the holidays wasn't first on everyone's mind. Lauren hadn't celebrated Thanksgiving or Christmas in two years, since leaving her last foster home. She had been with Jim and Lori, her final foster family, for three years and although they were good people, after ten years of being in the system, she had had enough of foster homes. She started working at the grocery store during her junior year in high school and had been there for four years now. She'd do anything else but can't imagine what that would be. The streets glow with Christmas lights and Lauren feels that hollowed-out place behind her ribs again. Images, snapshots really, of being with her mom on Christmas cross her mind from time to time but the recollections are so short (the man who was her father smoking on the couch, her mom petting the cat, sleet tapping the window) that she can't piece them together into any sort of memory. Her father, Victor, would come and go out of her life until she was four when he decided to go for good. Her mother lived trapped in some sort of romantic haze, thinking that she could attract a good man, but managed to hook up with a string of users and losers. She was sentenced to f