The Christmas Train by David Baldacci

I'd waited a year to read this book.  My mother gave it to me last Christmas but I didn't have time to read it.  All year long I toyed with wanting to read it but it never seemed right.  My decision to read Christmas books during the month of December allowed me the opportunity.

I don't typically go for the sappy, feel-good Christmas stories.  Fortunately this book wasn't like that.  Yes there was a happy ending, but the characters were charming and flawed.  The book revolves around Tom.  He's a fortyish journalist who loses his patience with the TSA and ends up losing his flying privileges in the United States.  Needing to get from Washington, DC to California for Christmas, he decides to ride the rails.

I've traveled short distances by train and while they were good experiences, they weren't quite like Tom experienced on his long -haul trains.  The story brings up a whole host of quirky characters, like the young couple planning to get married on the train and Agnes Joe, a lonely but feisty woman who isn't all she seems.  The biggest surprise for Tom was running into his long lost love, Eleanor.

Tom and Eleanor face challenges as they try to get to know each other after so many years apart.  They struggle to face the past and why they broke up.  They also face the weather, when the train gets caught in a winter storm.  Christmas is nothing like any of them planned, but it was better than they ever expected.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a little love, and a little adventure at Christmastime (or anytime really).  If you love trains, you need to read this book.  If you don't love them, read it anyway!  You'll want to have your own cross country adventure.