Christmas from the Heart has a charming sense of humor, a do-right-in-spite-of-himself hero, an understandably – and yet totally annoyingly – pushy heroine who uses another man’s attention to get what she wants, and painfully outdated gender roles masquerading as unquestioned, unexamined reality. Sigh! Olivia – Livi – Berg, head of the Christmas from the…
This is a curious anthology because while two of the stories are Kelly’s usual fare, one is happy-ending fiction rather than a romance, and the other is a reprint of the novella which introduced Able Six, an eidetic genius very unlike Kelly’s general ordinary-folk protagonists. Boxing the Compass: A (NB: fiction) Captain Paul Fergusson is…
Shannon Stacey’s Cedar Street series continues along with this brisk novella, One Christmas Eve. Now that Zoe Randall’s divorce is over, done and in the can, she’s setting out to enjoy life for herself for once. Back in her home town, she and her cousin Carly have opened a bookstore together, and she seems to…
What do you mean, it’s awfully early for a Christmas-centric romance novel? Sourcebooks says hah, and have a slice of moldy, bricklike fruitcake, partner – it’s time for Cowboy Christmas Homecoming! Zach Garrett is trying to move on with his life after leaving the army and a hitch in Afghanistan. Still suffering from PTSD that…
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…
Romance and the 1991 family film Home Alone are unlikely bedfellows, and Megan Frampton’s The Earl’s Christmas Pearl isn’t even the first romance to give us a historical version of the plot. Her take is an amusing and breezy Christmas novella. Pearl Howlett has accidentally been left behind at her family’s London home by her…
#MeToo comes to the fluffy universe of Samantha Chase’s Montgomery Brothers series with A Dash of Christmas. So do busybody matchmaking grandmas, but that’s par for the course with a Chase novel. Emery Grace Monoghan is in a bit of a pickle. Her congressman fiancé, has been accused of rape and sexual assault by multiple…
Jackie Lau continues to surprise and delight me with her variety of romance novels and novellas, and when I heard she was writing a holiday novella series featuring the Wong family, (aptly named Holidays with the Wongs) I immediately added them to my to-read list. First up is A Match Made for Thanksgiving. It’s rare…
An Invitation to a Cornish Christmas is brought to us by Marguerite Kaye and Bronwyn Scott. The stories take place in Porth Karrek, Cornwall during the 1822 Christmas Season and revolve around the same cast of characters. The Captain’s Christmas Proposal by Marguerite Kaye Grade: B+ Sensuality: Warm Captain…
Some novels are five-course meals – some are boxes of petit fours. Royal Holiday is a petit four incarnate – sweet, light on disagreeable ingredients, simple, quick, fluffy and uncomplicated. But while Royal Holiday is a fun treat of a book, it’s not quite up to the high watermark of the rest of the Wedding…
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