Romance Annotation

Author: Debbie Macomber
Title: Alaskan Holiday
Genre: Romance
Publication Date: 2018 in hardcover, 2019 in paperback
Number of Pages: 203 (paperback)
Geographical Setting: Ponder, Alaska and Seattle, Washington
Time Period: Modern-day

Plot Summary:
Josie is a recently-graduated aspiring chef spending six months in Ponder, Alaska before returning to Seattle, Washington to begin her dream job in a brand new restaurant being opened by a renowned chef. While in Alaska, Josie develops an intense connection with local resident Palmer, who hopes Josie will choose to stay in Ponder with him forever rather than return to Seattle. However, Josie values her career and the dream job waiting for her in Seattle, and she is not willing to give those up to remain in Ponder. But a missed trip on the last ferry out of town before winter causes Josie to remain in Alaska longer than she had intended, and makes her decision between Palmer and her dream job even more difficult.

Subject Headings:
Alaska
Chefs
Swordsmiths
Small towns

Appeal:
The following appeal factors/characteristics of the Romance genre were retrieved from The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction (Third Edition) by Neal Wyatt and Joyce G. Saricks.

1.     “Well-developed, interesting secondary characters” (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, p. 218).

            Older Ponder resident Jack is a secondary character who appears frequently throughout this novel. His insatiable appetite and obsession over Josie’s cooking, his lack of social awareness at times, and to a lesser extent his own troubles with love, are recurring themes throughout the book. Josie also becomes friends with a woman in Ponder named Angie, who turns out to be an author whose books Josie has actually read before. This friendship allows Josie to see how another woman similar to her in age has been able to make a career for herself while also living in Ponder.

2.     “The story features either a misunderstanding between the protagonists or outside circumstances that force them apart, followed by the satisfactory resolution of their romantic relationship” (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, p. 216).

            When Josie and Palmer’s relationship begins, Josie is already set to return to Seattle in a few months, which is a separation neither of them desires. However, when Josie does return to Seattle, her new job turns out to be very demanding and toxic. She has little time or energy to keep up communication with Palmer, which causes some strain between them. Additionally, a misunderstanding occurs when Palmer sees a photograph of Josie and her new boss, a man he is jealous of, posted on her Facebook page. Despite these setbacks, in the end Josie and Palmer end up living happily together in Ponder, Alaska.

3.     “Readers appreciate the emphasis on heroines and their professional lives in Contemporary Romance…” (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, p. 219).

            Josie is ambitious and career-driven. She does not sacrifice her dream job opportunity in order to stay in Ponder with Palmer, but they instead try to maintain their relationship long-distance while she pursues her career in Seattle. Although Josie ends up returning to Ponder in the end, it’s not before going after her career opportunity first. 

4.     “[Heroines] are bright, independent, strong...Heroes are typically strong, powerful, and slightly dangerous. But times are changing here as well, and heroes are also supportive and appreciative, accepting of the heroine’s right to her own life” (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, pp. 217-218).

            Josie is bright; she creates her own recipes and later becomes a popular food blogger. She is also independent and decides to return to Seattle even though it is not what Palmer wants her to do. Josie shows strength when she stands up to her toxic new boss and quits her job on the spot.

            Josie describes Palmer as “the epitome of how one would define an Alaskan man. Independent. Self-sufficient. Stubborn. Rugged” (Macomber, 2019, p. 19). However, he is not necessarily exceedingly confident, but rather actually feels some insecurity in his relationship with Josie due to her decision to return to Seattle and his jealousy of another man; he is also nervous and socially awkward when he proposes to Josie the first time. Although Palmer doesn’t want Josie to return to Seattle, he accepts her decision to do so and understands that it is important to her, even though he is still unhappy about it.

3 Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors

1.     Chasing Alaska: A Portrait of the Last Frontier Then and Now by C.B. Bernard

Much of Alaskan Holiday takes place in a remote area of Alaska. For readers interested in learning more about Alaska itself, this non-fiction book might be of interest. This book was found using NoveList Plus. I searched for a keyword of “Alaska” and limited the results to Adult, Non-Fiction, and published in the last ten years (EBSCO Industries, Inc., 2020a).

2.     Sous Chef: 24 Hours on the Line by Michael Gibney

Josie is a sous chef. For readers interested in learning more about being a chef, this non-fiction book might be of interest. This book was found using NoveList Plus. I searched for a keyword of “Chefs” and limited the results to Adult, Non-Fiction, and published in the last ten years (EBSCO Industries, Inc., 2020b).

3.     The Whale and the Cupcake: Stories of Subsistence, Longing, and Community in Alaska by Julia O’Malley

In the end, Josie returns to Alaska and creates a food blog “[featuring] recipes with ingredients local to Alaska” (Macomber, 2019, p. 197). For readers interested in learning more about food in Alaska, this book may be of interest. This book was found using NoveList Plus. I searched for the keywords of “Alaskan food” and did not need to set any limiters because this book was the top result (EBSCO Industries, Inc., 2020c).

3 Relevant Fiction Works and Authors
The following three read-alikes were retrieved from NoveList Plus. More specifically, they were retrieved from the Read-alikes list on the record for this book, Alaskan Holiday (EBSCO Industries, Inc., 2020d).

1. Spirit of the Season by Fern Michaels
2. Herons Landing by JoAnn Ross
3. The Lost Recipe for Happiness by Barbara O’Neal


*All information about Alaskan Holiday in this annotation came from this edition of the novel: Macomber, D. (2019). Alaskan Holiday. New York: Ballantine Books.

*The format for this annotation was adapted from Appendix A of the syllabus, which was from Saricks (Cataldi, n.d.).

Works Cited

Cataldi, E. (n.d.). SP20-IN-LIS-S524-22855 Syllabus. Retrieved from Canvas: https://iu.instructure.com/courses/1873760

EBSCO Industries, Inc. (2020a). Results for: Alaska. Retrieved from NoveList Plus: http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.ilibrary.org/novp/results?vid=8&sid=650c701f-2ce1-4665-a853-e108df0d3443%40sessionmgr4006&bquery=alaska&bdata=JmNsaTA9RFQxJmNsdjA9MjAxMDAxLTIwMjAxMiZjbGkxPVJMJmNsdjE9MSZjbGkyPUZDNSZjbHYyPShORitGaWN0aW9uLU5vbmZpY3Rpb24rT1

EBSCO Industries, Inc. (2020b). Results for: chefs. Retrieved from NoveList Plus: http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.ilibrary.org/novp/results?vid=10&sid=650c701f-2ce1-4665-a853-e108df0d3443%40sessionmgr4006&bquery=chefs&bdata=JmNsaTA9RFQxJmNsdjA9MjAxMDAxLTIwMjAxMiZjbGkxPVJMJmNsdjE9MSZjbGkyPUZDNSZjbHYyPShORitGaWN0aW9uLU5vbmZpY3Rpb24rT1

EBSCO Industries, Inc. (2020c). Results for: Alaskan food. Retrieved from NoveList Plus: http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.ilibrary.org/novp/results?vid=18&sid=650c701f-2ce1-4665-a853-e108df0d3443%40sessionmgr4006&bquery=Alaskan+food&bdata=JnR5cGU9MCZzZWFyY2hNb2RlPUFuZCZzaXRlPW5vdnAtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d

EBSCO Industries, Inc. (2020d). Alaskan holiday (Oct 2018). Retrieved from Novelist Plus: http://ezproxy.ilibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=neh&tg=UI&an=10692211&site=novp-live

Macomber, D. (2019). Alaskan Holiday. New York: Ballantine Books.

Wyatt, N., & Saricks, J. G. (2019). The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction (3rd ed.). Chicago: ALA Editions, An imprint of the American Library Association.