Good Spirits

A Christmas Carol gets the Hot Frosty treatment in this zany and lopsided contemporary from bestseller Borison (First-Time Caller). It centers on antique store owner Harriet York falling hard for the Ghost of Christmas Past, aka Nolan Callahan, an Irish fisherman who died a hundred years ago and has been sent to help her mend her wicked ways. This goofy but undeniably fun premise is unfortunately undermined by the fact that, as flashbacks to Harriet’s past Christmases reveal, she’s not actually a bad person. Indeed, Harriet soon realizes that Nolan has been assigned to her not because he can help her, but because she can help him: her antique shop may hold the key to freeing Nolan from the ghostly plane and helping him move on. Borison’s cloying commitment to painting people pleaser Harriet as a quirky, put-upon saint, more sinned against than sinning, is often at odds with the irritating incompetence she displays and misses the central appeal of Dickens’s redemption plot. Die-hard fans of the original will be frustrated, and even those drawn in by the absurdity of Borison’s conceit will struggle to root for the central relationship. This disappoints. Agent: Kim Lionetti, BookEnds Literary. (Oct.)