I got a real holiday treat this year in the form of Kristen Bailey’s Big Nick Energy. This new-to-me author absolutely delighted me with a warm, sweet, funny love-triangle Christmas romance that explores a second chance with an old flame and a sweet discovery with someone new. Kay is a librarian and children’s book author…
Only December by Noelle Adams is a Christmas-themed novella featuring an age-gap romance between a widowed philosopher and a freelance housekeeper. It’s a sweet, low angst read with some spicy scenes but isn’t particularly memorable. Mona is a housekeeper who takes on a variety of jobs at will. Most of them are short term, many…
I picked up The Best Christmas Choir Ever by Elizabeth Hrib because the premise sounded interesting and second chance romance is a favorite trope of mine. After reading it I have to say that the heavy layers of grief overshadow the romance, but I enjoyed the warm holiday feelings it evokes and the senior characters…
AAR has reviewed several books by Jackie Lau and they’ve all garnered a grade of B or above, a good sign for anyone thinking about picking up one of her romances. And if you’re in the mood for a Christmas novella, look no further than Magically Generated, a self-described ‘cozy Christmas’ story that includes a…
Isabelle Taylor’s Christmas with a Chimera is the second book, a novella, in her Claw Haven series, a small town full of humans and monsters who live side by side as friends, neighbours and romantic partners. I haven’t read book one, so I’ll reserve judgement on that, but this second one has some flaws that…
Eli Easton’s standalone novella, The Curse Before Christmas, is a cute bit of undemanding seasonal fluff in which a lonely game designer finds love with an overworked ER doctor in a way that is more naughty than nice! Patrick Bocker moved from California to take a job as lead coder at Myth Monster Games in…
As with many Christmas romances, a bit of suspension of disbelief is required to accept the premise of Avery Cockburn’s The Christmas Curse – namely that a grown man could continue to believe he’d been cursed by a cranky elf at a shopping centre when he was a kid – but it’s worth getting past…
On Circus Lane is the prequel to 2020’s Merry Measure, in which the central romance unfolded against the backdrop of a trip to Amsterdam in order to celebrate the engagement of Tom Wright (older brother of primary school teacher Arlo) and his boyfriend, Bee Bannister. Readers were captivated by the pair – so obviously happy…
Saving Mr. Bell is a fluffy, snowed-in, only-one-bed seasonal romance featuring a burned-out concert pianist and a film-maker who decides it’s time someone stepped in to stop him going completely off the rails. It’s a quick and entertaining read with lots of snarky humour and two likeable protagonists; the inciting incident is a bit silly,…
I admit I’ve veered somewhat off course for this year’s December theme of “It’s a Party!” with this one; I usually read something festive/Christmassy for the final TBR Challenge of the year, and that’s what I had in my mind when I chose to read Avery Cockburn’s A Christmas Harbor. I suppose I could make…
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