The First Snow of Winter is a prequel to the other novellas in the Winterbourne series. After five years on the Continent, Captain Samuel Alderton returns to Alderton Hall a changed man. Weary from fighting, struggling with the loss of his left arm in Toulouse, and a bit depressed and uncertain about his future, the…
Note: There are spoilers for Introducing Mr. Winterbourne in this review. In Introducing Mr. Winterbourne we met Lysander Winterbourne, third son of the Earl of Winterbourne, and Adam Freeman, a wealthy mill owner whose younger brother married Lysander’s sister, Althea. The pair fell for each other after Lysander was tasked with introducing Adam to London…
I haven’t read anything by Julie Hammerle before but that will definitely change as I really enjoyed the setup and romance in this fun Christmas-themed story! Write Before Christmas is the type of story that would feature in a Hallmark Holiday special and would definitely be one I’d watch. When fantasy author Matt finds himself…
His Holiday Crush is a cute and very readable Christmassy romance about a workaholic lawyer who reluctantly returns to the hometown he’d intended never to go back to one Christmas, and finds love where he least expected it. It’s well written and the characters are likeable; it was a pleasant enough way to pass a…
A Retro Review originally published on October 11, 2013 My tolerance for treacle tends to be low, so it probably surprises no one when I say that small-town contemporaries tend to be a mixed bag for me. Happily for me, The Christmas He Loved Her ended up being both a wonderful read and something beyond…
Some of my favorite Christmas romances have a blend of darkness and light running through them. In The Queen’s Christmas Summons, Amanda McCabe does this very well. This book is filled with adventure and intrigue and yet, among all the plot action, we can still see her characters’ emotions shining through. The destruction of the Spanish…
My Christmas Charade, an-enemies-to-lovers trope story, is the final installment in Melanie Ting’s Holiday Hat Trick series and it’s my favourite of the bunch! Em works as an economic forecaster and she wants her love life to be as smooth and well-planned as her day job. She’s recently met Thomas, who fulfills all her checklist…
Lily Morton is one of my go-to authors whenever I’m looking for a sexy, funny, low-angst read, and in Merry Measure – a standalone Christmas romance – she delivers all those things and more. It’s a charming friends-to-lovers story that’s full of warmth, humour and Christmas spirit (the bottled kind as well as the other!),…
Nobody does holiday romance like Jackie Lau, and her fake dating, grumpy-loves-the-sunshine-one romance Her Pretend Christmas Date brings her talents for humor, warmth and wit to the fore. Flighty waitress Julie Tam’s roommate Bridget is a born matchmaker, which is how she ends up on a date with the far-too-formal and stuffy Tom Yeung. Julie…
Garrett Leigh’s Christmas-themed Angels in the City really hit the spot. It uses some of my favourite tropes, it’s got just the right amount of angst, just the right amount of humour and festive cheer, and an emotional, sensual, opposites-attract romance between two endearing and attractive leads. I practically inhaled it in one sitting. Jonah…