Cricket in the Hearth - every time I hear that name, I always think of the animated Christmas special, though I never really realized it was meant to be a Christmas story until I did a little research about the story after I finished reading it.

At under 100 pages, the original Cricket in the Hearth was published as a short novella in 1845, unlike his usual serial formats for his longer works.

Cricket in the Hearth is a whimsical tale of lost love and found again, and the Cricket is the spirit of the season.

I can definitely say the book wasn't what I was expecting, and is probably the least favorite story / book I've ever read by Dickens. It was a nice story, but I found something lacking in the book.