Takeover Tuesday: A Merry Navidad

Happy Tuesday, Reader Friends!

Today we have a Takeover Tuesday post by Allison K. García. Read more to find out about A Merry Navidad box set collection.

A Merry Navidad: Celebrating a Latino Christmas

By: Allison K. García

Love. Family. Forgiveness. Overcoming. These are the themes portrayed time and again throughout the four Latino Christian Christmas novellas in A Merry Navidad. That…and a surprising amount of tamales!

The fun thing about writing a boxed set is that when each of you are working on your separate stories, you never know until the books are put together how similar they might be. In our case, each story spoke about family and love, and three out of four of us wrote very specifically about tamales!

Food is a huge part to any culture, much like music, traditions, and language. In Mexico, where characters from “La Familia Es Todo,” “Navidad & Familia,” and “A Tamale Christmas” are from or who’s ancestors are from, tamales are a huge tradition for Christmas, along with other traditional food, drinks, and desserts like romeritos, champurrado, bunuelos, and ponche. In Puerto Rico, where several characters from Cynthia Marcano’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Cocoa” have roots, some traditional Christmas dishes are pernil, pasteles, arroz con leche, coquito, and pastelillos de queso o guayaba.

Drooling yet? Wait ‘til you read the stories! You’ll be able to satisfy your hunger, because at the end of each story, we added recipes for food from each book. So you can make your Navidad a little extra merry this year with authentic Latino Christmas cuisine!

But, it isn’t all about the food. We all came together for a purpose, to focus our stories on Jesus during the Christmas season and to celebrate Latino characters who are Christians. While there are millions of Latino Christians in the U.S., there are very few Latino Christian fiction books, and we happy to represent this category with our novella set, A Merry Navidad.

Each book has a unique storyline but is especially connected with the themes of family and love. Family is very important in Latino culture.

• In Kathi Macia’s “La Familia Es Todo” (which literally means, “Family is Everything”), a family puts aside their differences to make a traditional Christmas meal of tamales.
• In Allison K. Garcia’s “Navidad & Familia,” a blizzard knocks out the electricity and a family is forced to put down their devices and remember why they love each other.
• In Linda K. Rodante’s “A Tamale Christmas,” college students rely on their family away from home to buy a new nativity set for the school.
• In Cynthia Marcano’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Cocoa,” the main character, Izzy, tries to manage her eccentric family during the holiday season.

The theme of love, especially in terms of loving God and family love is woven into each novella. Plus, Cynthia and Linda’s stories also have romantic love.

So, if you are looking for stories that will make you smile, cry, swoon, and get into the kitchen all while reminding you about the real reason for the season, pick up your copy of A Merry Navidad today for only 99 cents.

About the Collection

La Familia Es Todo — Kathi Macias — A large, once-close family that has drifted apart for various reasons. Will their longtime tradition of making tamales on Christmas Eve be enough to bring them back together?

Navidad & Familia — Allison K. García — When a blizzard traps the Campana family in their trailer on Christmas Eve with no electricity, internet, gifts, or Christmas decorations, will they drive each other crazy or will they discover the true reason for the season?

A Tamale Christmas — Linda K. Rodante — She’s an unwed mother at a Christian college. He’s a Latino student who left home and career to attend. Will the secret one of them carries keep them apart or will God perform another Christmas miracle?

Have Yourself A Merry Little Cocoa — Cynthia Marcano — Every Christmas, Isidora Lopez tries to spend her way into the hearts of those she loves, while Firefighter Gabriel Ramirez has spent his, trying to move on from a lost one, until a chance encounter unexpectedly sparks both their lives.

About the Authors

Kathi Macias is an award-winning author of more than fifty books, including Red Ink, 2011 Golden Scrolls Novel of the Year. A popular speaker at retreats and conferences, Kathi Lives in Southern California with her husband, Al.

Allison K. García is a Licensed Professional Counselor with a passion for writing. Latina at heart, Allison has absorbed the love and culture of her friends, family, and hermanos en Cristo and has used her experiences to cast a glimpse into the journey of undocumented Christians.

Linda K. Rodante is a lover of sweet tea and lives in Tennessee—a Florida transplant, who loves the seasonal changes in her new state. She’s married with two sons and three grandchildren! Her work with crisis pregnancy centers and anti-trafficking groups gave her a heart for hurting women and a respect for the role God has given men. Her books wrap sweet romance in real-life issues then adds an edge of mystery and suspense. She desires to entertain with a good story while encouraging others in their walk with God.

Cynthia Marcano is a native Jersey girl enamored of Jesus, reading, and cake. Her writing incorporates South Jersey culture blended with life as a Christian and Hispanic woman. When she isn’t writing, designing graphics, or reading a Christian Fiction book, you can probably find her volunteering in ministry, blogging for Healing Heartbreak Ministries, praising God, or at home avoiding the dishes. Her three beautiful and loved children have made it their life’s mission to drive their mother crazy but luckily enough for her those apples don’t fall far from the tree and she understands them perfectly.