Welcome to Reading Over the Weekend with D.L. Finn’s Miracles & Ghosts Past: A Christmas Collection Two, an exciting set of stories where Christmas magic is found not in glitter and tinsel, but in the quiet places where grief, loneliness, love, and hope meet.
Some books ask to be analysed. Others ask to be noticed. And then there are those that make you pause halfway through a page and say, I want to remember that.
Ahead of each weekend I will share books that have caught my attention: what I enjoyed about them, what surprised me, and occasionally the memories or questions they stirred.
Miracles & Ghosts Past: A Christmas Collection Two is a collection of eight Christmas stories, but don’t expect a world made entirely of cheerful decorations, easy happiness, and neatly wrapped endings. Finn takes us somewhere deeper—into the raw corners of the human heart, where loss and hope can exist side by side.
The stories move across different times and places, from a 1920s farm to a California mansion in the 1980s, yet they share a common thread: hope refuses to disappear.
The collection opens with The Christmas Train Mystery, its longest and perhaps most ambitious story. Rita has spent thirty years shaping herself around her husband’s expectations, maintaining the appearance of a perfect life while quietly losing herself within it. When the story places her aboard a train, the journey becomes more than a physical one. It becomes a departure from the life she has known and, perhaps, the beginning of something she has almost forgotten how to imagine—a choice of her own.
And this is where Finn’s Christmas magic becomes particularly compelling. Her miracles do not simply descend from the sky. They emerge from adversity, courage, compassion, and the moment when an ordinary person decides that perhaps there is still something worth reaching for.
The remaining stories continue this tapestry of quiet marvels. A widower struggles to hold his family together in Is There a Santa?; a family attempts to rebuild in After a War Comes Christmas; and in Elevator Santa, two strangers rediscover a little joy. Ghosts appear throughout the collection, but they are not necessarily there to frighten us. Instead, they seem to remind the living that love does not always vanish simply because someone is gone.
Why I enjoyed Miracles & Ghosts Past: A Christmas Collection Two by D.L. Finn
What I enjoyed most about Miracles & Ghosts Past is its honesty. These stories don’t pretend that Christmas magically erases grief, betrayal, loneliness, or disappointment. Instead, they suggest something far more believable—and, to me, far more beautiful: that light can exist alongside the darkness.
I was particularly charmed by the way Finn juxtaposes humor with pain, skepticism with yearning, and the ordinary with the extraordinary. Her characters are flawed and recognisable, and their struggles feel intimate rather than theatrical. Even the ghosts have a tenderness about them.
There is also something wonderfully reassuring in the collection’s recurring message that we are not as alone as we sometimes imagine. A stranger’s kindness, a journey taken at the right moment, a memory, a small act of courage, even a mysterious presence from the past—any of these can become a quiet miracle.
And perhaps that is what Christmas stories should do at their best. Not convince us that everything is perfect, but remind us that even after loss, hope can survive.
Recommended to:
- Readers who love heartfelt Christmas stories with emotional depth.
- Fans of supernatural elements, particularly ghosts who bring comfort rather than terror.
- Readers who enjoy stories about second chances and new beginnings.
- Anyone who appreciates characters facing grief, loneliness, betrayal, and adversity.
- Book-lovers looking for Christmas fiction that feels genuine rather than sentimental.
- Fans of stories where small acts of kindness become unexpected miracles.Anyone who needs a little reminder that hope can still be found in difficult seasons.
Miracles & Ghosts Past is a balm for the soul precisely because it does not shy away from what hurts. Its eight stories remind us that miracles are not always spectacular events; sometimes they are as simple as finding the courage to begin again, accepting a stranger’s kindness, or discovering that hope has been quietly waiting for us all along. A lovely collection to curl up with over a winter weekend—and perhaps a reminder that even in our darkest seasons, light still finds a way through.
D.L. Finn has a NEW BOOK coming out soon: When There’s Only a Christmas Wish (I’m looking forward t reading it!).
COMING SOON: 7 November, BLOG TOUR and GIVEAWAY:
On Saturday 7 November I’ll join Denise’s When There’s Only a Christmas Wish BLOG TOUR by sharing my impressions on her new book. There will be an exciting GIVEAWAY organized by Denise, so bookmark the day and come back to win! 🙂
Discover D.L. Finn’s literature on Goodreads as well as her author website and blog or my review for A Long Walk Home, Christmas Novelette by D.L. Finn or her paranormal romance A Voice in the Silence.
Reading Over the Weekend is a blog series celebrating the joy of reading. Not every book I read will be new. Not every book will belong to the same genre. Some may be historical fiction, others memoir, crime, biography, or something completely unexpected. What they will have in common is that they have stayed with me after I closed the book. Perhaps they taught me something. They made me laugh. They opened a door into a world I had never known. Or perhaps, like a forgotten scent, they brought back something I thought I had lost.
I believe that reading is a form of travelling. We can cross centuries without leaving our chair, visit countries we might never see otherwise, inhabit lives entirely different from our, and sometimes return to our own childhood through somebody else’s memories.