The Christmas Promise — Gini Athey

Can a failed promise open hearts and renew a family? Charlotte Wilson has always lived by the adage, promises made, promises fulfilled. As a successful defense lawyer, she's in great demand and takes on many high-profile cases that send her all over the country. Now, a jury has found a defendant guilty because she missed a critical piece of evidence. With her world crashing around her -- and a video clip of her running from the courthouse to prove it -- Charlotte hurries to Willow Birch, Wisconsin, where her husband, a popular novelist, is with his ill mother. Her school-teacher daughter is there, too, with a surprise of her own.As the holidays approach, Charlotte confronts decisions that will change her marriage and her bond with her daughter and her mother-in-law in big ways. Maybe even for the better.