Recently, I received an email from D DiAnn asking me if I would like her to post a review of my novella, A Becharmed Callie Christmas, on Goodreads. Of course, I would! The review is as follows. This book is a side story that accompanies the Renegade Series and describes what Christmas 1862 was like for one of the minor characters in the series, Callie Mae Copeland. Callie has just turned sixteen and is looking forward to Christmas. But with the Civil War looming just outside her door, she wonders if it will be the last Christmas she’ll ever spend in her home, and if Christmas will ever be the same again. Thank you so much, D DiAnn, for your five-star review!
A Becharmed Callie Christmas (Renegade #1.5)
by J.D.R. Hawkins(Goodreads Author)
D DiAnn‘s review
Sep 24, 2026
It Was Amazing
This is a short one. Sixty three pages. But J.D.R. Hawkins packs a lot into those pages.
Callie Mae Copeland is sixteen, spoiled, and used to getting her way. The Civil War is in its second year but it has not touched her corner of north Alabama yet. She is more concerned with her Christmas gown and the annual Copeland party than with what is happening out there. She flirts. She schemes. She convinces her father to buy fabric they can barely afford. She wants everything to be perfect.
And then the war shows up anyway.
What I liked most about this book is how Hawkins uses Christmas as a backdrop for something darker. The party happens. The gown is beautiful. But you can feel the ground shifting underneath. Callie is not a hero. She is a young girl who has been protected from reality, and you watch that protection start to crack. By the end, you understand that nothing will ever be the same for her.
The writing is warm and detailed. Hawkins knows this world. She writes the South from the inside, which makes the story feel lived in rather than researched. The Christmas setting adds a bittersweet layer. You know what is coming. Callie does not. That gap creates real tension.
My only complaint is that I wanted more. It is a novella, a bridge between books, and it does its job well. But Callie is such a strong character that I wished the story had more room to breathe. Fans of the Renegade series will enjoy this. New readers can start here and get a taste of what Hawkins does best. A quiet, sad, lovely little book.
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