I’ll Be Home for Christmas

Remember those “what doesn’t belong” SAT questions? When the biggest reaction I have to an anthology is wondering what kind of reader this bizarre and decidedly schizophrenic collection is targeting, this is not a good thing.

I’ll Be Home for Christmas is all over the place with a corny Linda Lael Miller story featuring an older heroine and no sex, a 25-year old and a 26 year-old super-achieving (and nauseatingly unrealistic) hero and heroine in Catherine Mulvany’s contribution, a hip thirty-something Latina and her stuffed shirt boss from Julie Leto, and, last but far from least, another thirty-something heroine and a former KGB double-agent Russian millionaire from Roxanne St. Claire. The Leto and St. Claire seem like they’re hitting the same vibe, but the Miller and Mulvany are so out of the ballpark – both from each other and from the remaining two stories in the collection – I can’t imagine what the publisher was thinking.