1225 Mistletoe Lane
by Lenny Castellaneta
Publish America
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Reviewed by Connie Anderson
1225 Mistletoe Lane is the second book by a first-time author that I've picked up--and didn't put down until the last page.
This is a well-woven tale of grace, forgiveness and change, of being distrustful and guarded, and finally, about giving to others.
A school teacher in his day job, author Castellaneta introduces us to Jim (also a schoolteacher) who has no direction in his life. Once he trusted someone who took advantage of him, causing him great loss and preventing him from trusting again. One day Jim's unusual neighbor Galen made him an offer he couldn't refuse--because Galen "drugged" him with a magic potion that made Jim go back to 1963.
Why did this happen? Jim felt sorry for his ditzy landlady Molly who had been "odd" since her husband died in a car accident where she was badly injured. Galen told Jim he could go back to change the course of the accident and help Molly.
Love and friendship evolve as Jim picks up life in 1963. He is forever making references to musicians and TV shows have not heard of--yet. When he falls in love, the woman wants to know who he really is...like he could explain this adequately!
One fun thing was the people's reaction to Jim wearing a New York Yankee's warm-up jacket, all the rage in his present time, but in 1963, only the players wore those.
I'm not going to divulge anything else except the author hooked me enough to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon finding out what happened. I believe you will enjoy this story of redemption, love and serendipity. I'll be sharing this with my daughter as we need more "feel good" stories in our lives today, and this story is just that.
Armchair Interview says: This is one of the better "print-on-demand" books that I've read in a long time. The author writes a strong story line and does it with the skills one would expect of an English teacher. We can confidently recommend this book.