In Romancelandia, Christmas means brand new romance anthologies. The folks at St. Martin’s Paperbacks have collected stories by some of their best-known historical romance authors into a single anthology, and they’re here to warm your hearts. For the most part they succeed, although one of the stories is rather cheesy. Great Scot! by Suzanne Enoch Grade: B- …
Window Shopping is a sexy holiday romance that will most definitely put the jingle in your bells. While it’s not the best example of Bailey’s spicy style, it’s a welcome addition to the generally low-sensuality Christmas subgenre, and it’s nice to see a heroine in need of redemption instead of the hero. Stella Schmidt finds…
A Winter’s Earl is a big, loud, crashing melodrama of a book. The romance between our heroes is, to a degree, disappointingly gaslighty – and you’ll have to accept a number of things about their relationship if you want to fully indulge in this story. A few redemptive touches keeps this away from D territory,…
I’m not much for holiday romances, mainly because the limitations of the season and especially the sentiments surrounding the holiday often stifle authors’ creativity and the result turns out to be hackneyed or cookie cutter-ish. Since all the stories in this anthology are related by time and place, something I didn’t know when I offered…
Annabeth Albert’s The Geek Who Saved Christmas is a charming confection of seasonal goodness featuring a sweet and steamy grumpy/sunshine romance and lots of warm and fuzzy Christmas feels. It’s a light-hearted, undemanding read, but the low-angst nature of the story don’t mean it lacks depth or a bit of bite; even when she dials…
The Christmas Escape is one of those ‘just okay’ novels in which plot developments are heavily and irritatingly influenced by a lack of communication between the multiple leads. If people communicated forthrightly here there wouldn’t be much of a story, but at least the verbal scenery porn is nice. Christy Sullivan is plotting a trip…
I think of Debbie Macomber’s Christmas stories as being like packaged hot chocolate. They are sweet, warm and festive and nice for a quick fix of cheer. That’s certainly true for her newest novel, Dear Santa. Lindy Carmichael thought this would be her year but her dream job at Media Blast has proven to be…
My love of Carla Kelly Christmas novellas means of course I was going to give this anthology a try. While her novella is solid, it isn’t her best, and the other stories are so lackluster that A Victorian Family Christmas is simply a disappointment. A Father for Christmas by Carla Kelly Grade: B …
The Lights on Knockbridge Lane is a cute, fluffy (well, mostly) Christmas-themed story that is the very first male/male romance to appear in one of Harlequin’s main category lines. It’s the third in Roan Parrish’s Garnet Run series, and although characters from the earlier books do appear, they’re cameos and it’s not essential to have…
A Yuletide Kiss features three interwoven stories about a group of travelers who find themselves stranded at a rural inn at Christmastime by an unexpected winter storm, and the romances that follow their forced proximity. When We Finally Kiss Good Night by Sabrina Jeffries Grade: B+ …