The Snowy Footprints

Can miracles come true even without shoes?

Evalie Makera is starving, but with only two coins left, there isn’t much hope that she’ll survive to see the Day of Giving. After her mother's sudden passing, their flower shop has withered, leaving Evalie with a roof over her head but nothing under it. In a world where everyone is born with a magical gift, Evalie’s ability to enhance an object’s beauty feels useless now that her life is void of her mother’s flower magic.

While her gift may be useless without flowers to enchant and sell, she’s still better off than the magicless shop boy down the street. Or, at least, she thinks so, until she spends her last coins on flower seeds instead of food. She’s going to waste away either way, so having one final flower to celebrate her mother’s life feels like a much more fulfilling end to her story. Until it’s not the end at all...

To Evalie’s surprise, the seed she plants before bed sprouts into a stunning bloom overnight. Is this her mother’s magic? Or is something else at play? It would be all too easy to sell the flower and run with the coins, but something about their sudden appearance doesn’t feel right... Maybe the shoeless new stranger in town knows something? What could possibly go wrong with such a beautiful miracle?

This book is a part of The Christmas Chronicles, a collection of festive novellas filled with clean romance, chilly weather, and cozy adventures.

Once Upon a Pen Book Awards 2024 Best Retelling of an Obscure Tale Winner