Number eight in the Elm Creek Quilts series, The Christmas Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini was not exactly what I was expecting. I thought it would be a book about the characters I had come to know and love putting together a quilt at Christmas and in a way, it was. Ms. Chiaverini's novels don't always follow a straight time line. Occasionally, a novel will jump far into the past and explore the lives of the people who lived in Elm Creek generations before the current residents. This book took the current characters and went back only a couple of years. The time line for this book is set between the first novel and the second in the series. It revealed some history that hadn't been discussed earlier, which I enjoyed, but I found the flashback a bit disturbing. It was odd for me to hear a character talk about being alone when I know full well she marries in a later book or about a disagreement that seems unresolvable that I know improves. It was rather like reading books out of order and it bothered me. That aside, it was still a fun book, but for any of you out there who are about to begin the Elm Creek Quilts series, I would really recommend reading this book immediately following The Quilter's Apprentice. It doesn't give anything away that is written in the later novels and it just makes a little more sense.
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