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In the Carla Kelly tradition of holiday shorts that make you smile, these three sweet short stories (set in the Edwardian Caribbean across Christmas, New Year, and Reyes Magos) are a lovely addition to any holiday romance fan’s library. These are gentle, realistic stories about the holidays of ordinary or even poor historical people; it’s an anthology that’s a warm joy to curl up with.
Miss Dominguez’s Christmas Kiss
Grade: B Sensuality: Kisses
Shopgirl Lourdes Dominguez has long been harboring a crush on her boarding house roommate, Marisol Pascual. Little does she know, the feeling is mutual. While this story is sweet (in sensuality and tone), it lacks any sort of forward momentum. The two young women confess their feelings and enjoy some (off-camera) sexual awakening, but there’s no conflict beyond Lourdes feeling sad that Marisol will be away with her family on Christmas day.
Mrs. Gomez’s New Year’s Surprise
Grade: A Sensuality: Warm
The manager of the boarding house, Genoveva Gomez, is a forty-seven-year-old widow and mother of adult children. She can’t decide if the interest of thirty-six-year-old American translator Tom Hale is a nuisance – or a holiday blessing. This was my favorite of the three stories, as I loved the natural, comfortable domestic dynamic between these two. Tom’s reaction to accidentally seeing Genoveva naked is hilarious, flattering, and completely real.
Miss Weiss’s Reyes Present
Grade: A- Sensuality: Warm
Teacher David Ramos needs to confess his feelings to the clerk at the children’s counter, Leticia Weiss, before he runs out of money buying gifts for his niece. And David isn’t the only person struggling financially. Can Leticia and David make holiday magic for Reyes Magos (Three King’s Day, or Epiphany) for some of the boys at the boarding house hoping for gifts their dad can’t afford? I liked this sweet courtship, punctuated by Caribbean holiday rain and a mature conversation around what could have been a Big Mis. It did, however, seem awkward to hinge the second half of the story on poverty when David was so profligate at the start.
People have been asking about good historicals published in 2019. Well, here’s one. Everything in this collection is good, and some of it is genuinely great. Pick it up for the holidays!
Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
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Grade: A-
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Varies
Review Date: 07/11/19
Publication Date: 01/2019
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
I'm a history geek and educator, and I've lived in five different countries in North America, Asia, and Europe. In addition to the usual subgenres, I'm partial to YA, Sci-fi/Fantasy, and graphic novels. I love to cook.
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You recced this to me on Twitter; I’m quite excited to read it!
It’s lovely. It was fun to have a Christmas story in a totally new setting with its own traditions – I’ve read so many “gathering greenery” scenes and “it never snows but THIS YEAR” scenes and someone singing “Lulla Lulla thou little tiny child” scenes so I was really down for eating grapes as the clock strikes midnight on New Years’ and leaving our grass for the camels ridden by the Three Wise Men. The non-wealthy non-titled characters are great too – the author can’t coast on “duke;” she has to make the characters personally appealing.
Thanks Caroline! This sounds like some lovely Christmas cheer. Adding it to the TBR list for the holidays. The second story in particular sounds like something new and different.