This is one of those hidden gems that once you pick it up, it is hard to put back down. It's a romance, a mystery, a traveloge, and a portrait of American people - all wrapped up in one nice package.

I enjoyed every minute. There were some real 'I certainly wasn't expecting that' surprizes throughout the book that turned it into a real page turner.

Although not the typical David Baldacci thriller, I consider 'The Christmas Train' to be one of his best works. I would recommend this book to everyone.

what can i say about this wonderful book? it is perfectly lovely!
it is about faith and romance and love and Christmas and trains and adventure. it's about finding yourself and your life, it's about knowing who you are and deciding what you want and settling for nothing less. it's about maturity and true, commited love.
on the first page it says that this book is for anyone who loves Christmas and trains. that just about says it all.

I choose The Christmas Train one of 10 Christmas Theme audio stories from all different authors. I wanted to get into the happy festive season mood.

The thought of an AMTRAK transcontinental ride, what a great idea. A train ride compared to the frustrations I have experienced with air travel, I settled down for a great ride. What a disappointment. I felt some of the characters didn't seem real enough and seemed to be lacking flesh and blood.

The first third of the story was slow and introduced so many characters.

a Hollywood director and his LA young assistant
a retired railroad employee riding for nostalgia,
a boys choir,
a thief,
a reporter and his ex girlfriend
a clairvoyant,

Add to that a mother of all snow storms, an avalanche and multiple diesel engines running out of fuel.

In the middle of this story things improved and clipped along quite nicely.

Then kaboom, the ending twist was so pathetic. My jaw hit the floor and I said your kidding. I walked out of the room. If I had been reading the book it would have been thrown across the room.

I gave this 2 stars. It would have been 3 (an OK read) if the ending wasn't so unbelievable.

Out of the 10 Christmas Stories I have listened to only 50% I have given a 4 or 5 star rating. There is a shortage of good Christmas stories out there. Authors please don't publish unless the story is good.

My top ones were
THE GIFT by Richard Paul Evans
SKIPPING CHRISTMAS by John Grisham
CHRISTMAS JARS BY Jason F Wright

A friend who is "into trains" recommended this book by an author I don't usually read. I was reluctant, but finally agreed to read it. It is a great Christmas story that had me laughing out loud. I am going on a long drive to visit family at the holidays, and ordered it on CD for some light-hearted entertainment. It is worth a second 'read' even if this time someone will read to me.

All through this fairly short book I thought it was good. Definitely a change of pace for the author. This is very light hearted, whimsy, set aboard a train during the Christmas holidays going from the east coast to the west coast. I was enjoying myself while reading it because of its simplicity and shortness. Then we get near the end and WHAM!!!! I now have to elevate it to very good because the ending was well waiting for. Now I hope the author goes back to his drama which I really enjoy but this was a nice change of pace.