Monday, 27 October 2014

REVIEW - A Christmas to Remember - A Christmas Anthology by by Jill Shalvis, Kristen Ashley, Hope Ramsay, Molly Cannon, and Marilyn Pappano

20454653


Synopsis
Curl up with this heartwarming Christmas collection!

Jill Shalvis, Dream a Little Dream: Melissa has kept every man at a safe distance-especially firefighter Ian, a sexy friend with sexy benefits. But Ian secretly longs for more. Luckily, 'tis the season for giving love a chance . . .

Kristen Ashley, Every Year: Holidays don't come easy for Shy and his brother, Landon. But with the magic of Christmas, along with a little help from Tabby and her family, the Cage brothers are about to get the gift of a lifetime . . .

Hope Ramsay, Silent Night: Down on her luck and evicted from her apartment, single mother Maryanne hopes to start over in Last Chance. When the snow begins to fall, it looks like her baby might literally spend Christmas Eve in a manger. And Maryanne might celebrate the holiday with a handsome stranger.

Molly Cannon, Have Yourself a Messy Little Christmas: Lincoln is a bachelor who's set in his ways-until a professional organizer dressed up as Mrs. Claus changes his life, one tip at a time. . .

Marilyn Pappano, A Family for Christmas: War widow Ilena doesn't mind spending Christmas alone. But when a new doctor blows into town with the winter wind, will she get her secret Christmas wish?

Review
A small-town-Christmas themed anthology with the stories slotting into the each of the author’s existing series. It's kind of like those round tins of Christmas cookies, each one is a little different but all good!

I’m a big Jill Shalvis fan, and a long-time follower of the Lucky Harbor series. Fortunately for me her ‘Dream a Little Dream’ [Lucky Harbor series] is the first story so I didn’t have long to wait. Take one lonely but hunky firefighter hero still grieving for his lost sister, add spunky but commitment phobic heroine. Heat well – and repeatedly – to produce a tasty romance. Essentially a second chance romance and a good read.

Kristen Ashley’s Every Year [Chaos Motorcycle Club series] is a ‘finding Christmas’ story that apparently contains characters from the series. Since I have missed this series somehow, I was pleased there was enough back story provided that I avoided those ‘huh?’ moments you occasionally find when entering a series in the middle.

Silent Night [Last Chance ] by Hope Ramsay has a ‘hard-luck Christmas’ theme with some nice echoes of the original Christmas story. Fate takes a hand to bring two hurting people together to find love and family under a Christmas star.

I fell in love with the title for Molly Cannon’s Have Yourself a Messy Little Christmas [Everson, Texas series ]. The hero’s mother hires a professional organizer and sics her onto the hero to clean up his act and decorate for Christmas. Needless to say the hero STRONGLY resents this. [As a piler myself I admit I sympathized with the hero, the rule at my house is touch my desk and die!] Of course she wins him over, eventually…

A Family for Christmas [Tallgrass series] by Marilyn Pappano  is an ‘opposites attract’ story – with a large dose of Christmas spirit provided by the heroine.

Like any anthology, there are stories I loved and those that were good but not great. Each story is augmented by a comment from the author and an excerpt of one of their other works is provided at the end of the story. [It was kind of like a TV show; ‘and now a word from our sponsors…’ but I did get some leads on other stories to pursue.] Since I need to give an overall rating I will have to go with ‘4’. It’s definitely worth picking up.



Copy received from NetGalley and publisher for an honest review.
 

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