One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Paranormal Romance; Anthology
Series: Magnus Pack, Book 3.5
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 305 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle




I tried to avoid it. I don't really like anthologies much. I'd be perfectly happy buying individual novella-length ebooks all day long instead of buying an anthology. Problem is, I wanted to read one of the stories in this book more than I didn't want to buy an anthology.

It was worth it, though. I wasn't as pleased with Eden's Wicked Ways as I was with Laurenston's Miss Congeniality, but the two novellas combined for a solid read overall and I'm glad I read it.


It's 1984, and for seven long years the prince of the Van Holtz family, Niles Van Holtz, has shamelessly pursued brilliant Ph.D. and college professor Irene Conridge. A former child prodigy and world-renowned physicist but about as removed from socially adept as a person could be, Irene doesn't understand why Van Holtz bothers. It's not like she hasn't made her general annoyance with his existence perfectly clear. Nor is she any sort of beauty. Still, the man with enough females swooning after him to start his own cult just keeps popping into her personal space whenever she's at an event for the school. Him and that arrogance of his, which surely has its own zip code.

Van is quite happy being a total hound with the ladies. He has no intention of settling down and is quite content with his life, which is split between managing the top Van Holtz restaurant with his sister and making time with as many lucky ladies as he wants. Still, there's something about the pale-eyed, bitchy, brilliant Irene that calls to the wolf in him. Has ever since he first caught scent of her all those years ago. He can't help teasing her and poking at her at every turn. Her certainly wants to bed her.

When he's on his way home from an event that...well...didn't end so well considering the stitches he's going to have to have, he sees Irene's car parked near his pack's territorial borders. Borders shared with a pride of lion shifters and a pack of hyena shifters. And Irene is nowhere to be found. That's about when things for Niles Van Holtz, future Van Holtz pack alpha, and professor Irene Conridge, brilliant physicist, start to go to the dogs.


Here is incontrovertible proof of just how big a fan I am of Laurenston's work. I have no fondness for prequels, to start, and just the thought of reading a prequel after I've read other books in the series timeline makes my OCD-having butt breaking out in hives. I'm big on series timeline order. I find it comforting.

Still, here I am, gobbling up Miss Congeniality. And gobble I did. I squealed and laughed, giggled and gasped. For the record, Laurenston tends to have that affect on me. Hell, I even laughed over the reader's note she wrote for the forward! Her humor is just my kind of humor.

She's a damn good storyteller, too. I haven't been quite as thrilled with the romance threads in her last two full-length books as I have in all the others, but this one takes me right back to Happytown. I loved Irene and Van. I loved their characters (they have some great banter), I loved their romance, I loved the 80's flashbacks (though I could live my entire life cheerfully forgetting the hairstyles of the day), and I loved the few threads of danger and suspense that added some depth to the story.

In fact, I loved absolutely everything about this little gem, and I was very impressed with the seamless attention to detail as Laurenston bridged this novella to a scene in the second book in the Magnus Pack series. Everything fit perfectly. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Laurenston books (including those she writes as G.A. Aiken) are my crack and I'm happily addicted. She always leaves me wanting more.


As far as first dates go, Miranda Shaw has had better. Much, much better. The man she met online turned out to be worse than even the most horrific horror story. In fact, he's not a man at all, but a blood-thirsty monster. A monster that Miranda hadn't believed existed until he sank his fangs into her neck and started to drink. That's when Miranda started to scream.

He'd moved into his new house five days ago and Cain Lawson had been dreaming of his sexy neighbor since she introduced herself and brought him cookies. There was something about the pretty Miranda that draws him and strokes the fur of the jaguar inside him. Hearing her horrified scream, though, and busting into her house to see a vampire feeding from her, makes former FBI agent and shifter Cain go all kinds of primal.

The attack on Miranda takes on a more sinister meaning when the vampire who attacked her is identified and turns out to have a dark and deadly human past. Now that he's a vampire, he's infinitely more dangerous and harder to stop. And he's got Miranda in his sights.


I'm a long-time fan of Eden's dark paranormal world. I've always enjoyed how her multiple paranormal series and books exist within the same world with the same mythos, so just the stories and characters are changing. It makes it very easy to slip into a new story without needing too much world-building. That also benefited me in this novella, where I didn't need page time wasted on a lot of exposition.

Eden's edgy, sexy romance fiction leans towards a darker edge than Laurenston's, but Wicked Ways was still a good pick for the pairing. I just had trouble warming up to the storyline in this one. The characters were okay. Neither got on my nerves too much, but I wasn't totally sold on the supposed depth of their feelings for each other as their relationship evolved.

Without a doubt Eden writes smoking hot sex scenes, but in this case, one or two fewer would have allowed for a more well-defined suspense plotline, or there could have been room for added character development and more focus on the emotion of the romance instead of the sex. It's not that I actually disliked anything I read in this novella, but nothing really wowed me, either, and Miranda's involvement in capturing the vampire strained plausibility. This one was an okay read.

Genre: LGBT - M/M Romance; Anthology
Series: N/A
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 116,000 Words
Formats: Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Carina Press via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.


The fourth of the four holiday novellas I picked out was another fully satisfying read, and looking back - both over this holiday season and the sequence of anthologies - I can't help but wonder anew at the power of this time of year. Regardless of personal faith, beliefs, religion, race, gender, sexuality, or any of the other myriad divisive elements in the world that separate and segregate people from one another, there's something special about this time of year. And judging by the fifteen novellas I've read in these four anthologies, not the least of that something special is the inspiration it inspires; the hope, the love, the forgiveness, and the sense of family.

In this holiday anthology, four powerhouse authors of M/M romance spin their tales in four different sub-genres. Ava March gives us a delightful M/M historical romance. For a touch of the supernatural, Harper Fox tackles a mystical M/M paranormal romance. One of my favorite authors in M/M fiction, Josh Lanyon, offers up a contemporary M/M romance that warms the heart, and K.A. Mitchell, another author I've spent plenty of time enjoying, turns up the thermostat from warm to smoking hot in her roasty toasty M/M erotic romance.

Four authors, four wildly different stories, united by a holiday season and the love and joy it inspires. As this year draws to a close and a new year begins, we try to carry over some of the warmth and kindness that stirs in our hearts around whichever holiday each of us celebrates. These holiday anthologies do their part, because unlike the lights, ornaments, and decorations, they don't have to be boxed up and stored for another eleven or so months. They can be enjoyed all year long.

Happy holidays, Happy New Year, and most of all...happy reading to you throughout 2012.


At nineteen, Alexander Norton is in love. While the social obligations of the ton during the holidays are draining, he's excited by the plans he has with his best friend and love, Thomas Bennett. While at school together they had to settle for hidden touches, stolen kisses, and fleeting sexual encounters that did little to really expand either young man's horizons. Now, though, Alexander has convinced Thomas to spend the holiday alone with him at his father's house in the country. For the first time they will be alone together, away from society and all its expectations, regulations, and limitations. They will be free to love each other fully.

The plan was solid. More so, it turns out, than Thomas's spine. Before he even steps foot over the threshold, his fears, insecurities, and issues with his sexuality overwhelm him. He turns tail and leaves Alexander, leaves England. He flees from his desires. He flees from his heart. He flees from himself.

It takes him four years to accept himself, to realize that Alexander is the only person he'll ever truly love...to return home and beg Alexander for forgiveness. But four years may be four years too late.


This sweet historical romance made me smile. March struck a nice balance between the emotional and the physical aspects of the romance arc, and both Alexander and Thomas were sympathetic, likable characters. I don't have a lot of experience with M/M historical romance. I tend avoid them because I find them a little depressing, regardless of the story. For all the difficulties facing modern gay men and women, an historically accurate view of the regency era offers a far less tolerant landscape.

Still, I couldn't help but feel Alexander's pain and confusion when Thomas walked away from him, any more than I could help feeling his cynicism and derision when he returned. And poor, confused Thomas... The lengths he went to to convince Alexander of his regret and to apologize were impressive. I liked both men, completely understood both men, and thought their story was emotionally intense and very realistic.

I was a little put off by how much of the novella was set in the past before Thomas left, and at first Alexander struck me as a little too exuberant and immature for a man of his years in that era. By the time the story jumped forward, though, it was clear that both main characters were men, not boys. I also thought some of the shifts in the POV later in the novella were a little off-putting. Beyond that, this was a lovely tale, with a lot to recommend it on an emotional level.


With one of his ever-present migraines pounding in his head, Gavin Lowden struggles to work on his thesis as he waits for his lover to come out to his parents  about being gay, then join him in the Northumberland hotel room he'd rented. He had the holiday planned. This was the weekend he would tell Piers that he loves him. Then the phone rings, and Gavin's Christmas takes a dark and dangerous turn.

After Piers' call and wracked by the misery of his loss, Gavin stumbles from the hotel and heads out to the hills. Disoriented and confused, he ends up lost and banged up at the bottom of a crevasse. Fortunately for him, two rescue workers find him before he dies of exposure or hypothermia. The coincidences are shocking as he's pulled to safety by Art and Lance, so close in spirit to his imaginings of King Arthur and Lancelot.

Reeling from the experience, Gavin is introduced to a whole new world by these two men, and he learns a valuable lesson that he plans to use to convince Piers of his dedication to win him back. He'll have to put his very life on the line to have any hope of convincing Piers that he is completely committed to their future together. Whatever the cost.


I have to confess, I don't think I did such a hot job on my story summary for this novella. Mostly because there's so much going on in it that it's hard to summarize without giving away too much. Looking back, I'm actually a little stunned at how much was included in the plot. And none of it felt short-changed or glossed over for the expediency, either.

Of the four novellas in this anthology, this one is the most stylistic and artistically written. And I hated the beginning, where the majority of that artistry was in evidence. I can appreciate the skill of the writing, but I got lost in the haze of a nearly hallucinogenic narrative and felt saddled with a fairly unlikable lead character in Gavin. The combination of Gavin's migraine, the drugs he takes to deal with that migraine, his pain over the loss of Piers (which also struck me as a little too similar to the previous novella), and the misty edge of mystical oddities when he goes out to the hill left me feeling like I was trying to read through a bad acid trip. Or at least what I imagine a bad acid trip to be like. It was all a bit too surreal for my tastes.

And the more time I spent with Gavin, the more he seemed like a wanker.

Then something changed, and as if the mists surrounding the fabled Avalon parted, a new clarity warmed the story, pieces came together, the plot dropped a few major surprises on me, Gavin and Piers had a few scenes that made sense, and I was left feeling rather agog at how awesome I thought the second half was. I loved it, in fact. Especially as some rather pertinent aspects of Gavin's character came to light. Nothing was as it seemed at first, that's for sure. Saying more would ruin it.

So I hated the beginning, though I recognized the skill in the writing, and I loved the end. I should also confess that the first two sex scenes didn't sit so well with me. They crossed a couple of my lines relating to casual sex and open relationships. Though in retrospect... And again I can't say more without some major spoilers. Anyway, I ended up going with a little more than an average rating for the whole of it. I can't say the ending rocked my world to such a degree that I didn't mind how much I disliked the beginning, or it assuaged my initial discomfort with the sexuality, but I ended up feeling pretty impressed with how Fox turned it around.


It isn't easy being gay in rural Texas, especially when your dream is to dance ballet. Mitchell Evans knew that intimately. He left his small town at eighteen, after a fight with his boyfriend led straight to an even more physically painful altercation with his father. He hasn't been back since. Not even six months ago when his father was buried. Not until he walked into the dressing room in New York and saw his lover getting serviced by the guest dancer...the female guest dancer...and learned just how oblivious he'd been.

Reeling and feeling lost, needing to reevaluate his life, Mitchell caught the first flight to Texas with the intent of at least dealing with his father's house and possessions. On the road into town, as his mind grows sluggish with exhaustion from the journey, Mitchell is shocked by what looks like a reindeer in the middle of the road. Swerving to avoid impact sends his rental car off the road and into a deadly roll.

He's lucky to survive the accident. When his ex-boyfriend, Texas Ranger Web Eisley, pulls up and steps out of the darkness and back into his life, Mitchell can't help but wonder just what sort of luck it was. Web hadn't been willing to come out of the closet all those years ago. Now he's a Ranger. In Texas. And Mitchell is a celebrated dancer and a rising star. In New York. Mitchell is openly gay. Web...well...Mitchell doesn't know. All Mitchell does know is that coming home for this holiday could either be the best decision he's ever made...or the worst mistake of his life.


I'm a Lanyon fan and have been for awhile. I love his Adrien English mystery series. When it comes to his writing, I consider him a sure bet. He's never written the sort of stories that reach in and grip my heart, twisting it into a big sloppy pretzel, but he writes solid, dependably entertaining stories that are easy to enjoy. And that pretty much sums up Lone Star. It's a compact and fulfilling contemporary romance with likable characters who are easy to root for. The plot isn't terribly unique or original, but there's enough meat on it to satisfy, and the evolution of the main character, Mitchell, is the driving force of the story.

Mitchell's past is rocky, his feelings for his hometown and the people in it are complex, and not surprisingly, colored by the misconceptions and pain of his angst-filled teen years. His coming to terms with his past, his relationship with Web, his career, his father's death, and his breakup with his live-in boyfriend are more than enough to fill this enjoyable novella to the brim.

I do wish the whole reindeer thing had been a little less subtle and obscure, because I'm still not sure what I was supposed to take from that, but this was a warm journey to a lovely HEA for two great guys who were made for each other. I enjoyed it a lot.


All Christmas tree farm owner Mel Halner wants this Christmas is to get the hell out of Pennsylvania. He's hours away from getting his wish and already picturing himself on a sunny beach in St. Thomas when his best friend's fiance calls him. The tropical island wedding they had planned, Mel's reason for one fabulous week of vacation away from the farm, is off. The wedding planner was a crook who had taken the money for all the reservations and package deals and disappeared. Including Mel's deposit.

Now not only was Mel not getting out of Epiphany, PA, but he's suddenly hosting the wedding at the farm and putting up some of his best friend's family while watching her turn from a fun, loving young woman into a Bridezilla from hell. And now he'll be coming face to face with millionaire Bryce Campion, the one man Mel hasn't been able to forget, despite the two years that have passed since Bryce left town without a word after an incendiary two-month relationship. Instead of being tanned and relaxed in St. Thomas, he'll be cold and bitter in his own hometown. Not exactly the reunion he was hoping for.

Thankfully, seeing Bryce isn't quite the torment he'd anticipated - quite the opposite, actually, and Mel is surprised to learn a few important truths about the man who makes his body burn and his heart swell. Trusting Bryce with that heart, however, is something that would truly take a Christmas miracle.


This sizzling erotic romance by Mitchell is a great way to draw this anthology to a close, and it sure did keep me toasty on a cold winter night. It's got plenty of hot sex between two gorgeous men and sometimes that's more than enough. In this case, there's also just enough going on beyond the sex to provide a decent story about the neurotic Mel, the intense Bryce, and Mel's wacky family and friends.

It's fun and flirty, filled with sexy moments, and it has a few serious threads that brush on some of Mel's insecurities, but mostly it's just a light, easy, hot read. Lets just say it stirs up enough open fire to roast more than a few chestnuts and leave it at that.

Genre: Steampunk Romance; Anthology
Series: N/A
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Length: 117,000 Words
Formats: Kindle

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Anthology
Series: N/A
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 313 Pages
Formats: Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Carina Press via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.


Four holiday romance novellas make up this seasonal delight, and they did a nice job of keeping me toasty on a couple of cold winter nights. Metaphorically, anyway, as southern Florida isn't exactly known for its brisk evening temperatures, even in winter.

This anthology didn't have the shared concept that united the three novellas in the previous anthology I read, but I'm perfectly happy without that. This one was a more consistent and entertaining read, each novella offering something for readers. And especially nice, Carina Press offers each of these four titles individually, for those who prefer to pick and choose. I appreciate that, even though in this case, the set together didn't have any that disappointed. For me, this anthology as a whole rated a little higher than four stars.


Brenna Keating curses the misinforming weatherman as the flakes begin to fall in earnest on her slow climb up the mountain to her grandmother's house. Her life is at a crossroads and the thought that this may be the last holiday she spends with her beloved grandmother makes this holiday both intensely bittersweet and vitally important. Her entire focus is on enjoying every single holiday tradition before she goes overseas for a year. She should have spared some focus for the deer that's standing in the middle of the winding, snow-covered road.

Rescuing a woman Dr. Dillon Craig knew could only be Brenna Keating from her wrecked car in the middle of a worsening winter storm was just the first good deed the reclusive doctor would be doing this holiday season. Once they're safely back to his mountain home, he's forced to acknowledge how appealing the young woman is. Not that he has any intention of acting on the attraction. He's got far too many of the sorts of wounds that scar the soul, for one. And he knows she's up here to see her grandmother before leaving the country. Messing with the woman in any way, shape, or form would be courting disaster.

With Christmas just days away and the attraction between them heating up the cabin more effectively than a roaring fire, the love that builds between them may be just the Christmas miracle they both need...and deserve.


I enjoyed this holiday novella. It was beautifully written, and in places emotionally powerful beyond my expectations. The messages of love, healing, and finding your heart's home aren't limited to holiday stories, but they certainly did fit well.

Brenna and Dillon got involved a little quickly for my taste, and I would have preferred the ending be written out a little differently, but this was a lovely novella with two great characters who had genuine chemistry and a relationship with enough depth to appeal. I enjoyed it quite a lot.


Wyatt Kent has nothing but bad memories and regret from the marriage that ended three years ago. Now he's got to face a construction job contracted by his ex-wife's sister. He'd rather be nailed to the frame of the room addition for day care owner Calliope Andrews than deal with the sheer physical lust the feisty woman inspires in him. And when did the little girl he knew become such a pushy, gorgeous, sexy creature intent on driving him out of his mind...or his pants?

Callie has loved Wyatt since she was a socially awkward college kid, and even she had known that he and her sister were a bad match long before they even tied the knot. It's been three years since the breakup, though, and Wyatt has become a grouchy, grim, stick-in-the-mud. She is just who he needs to give him the love he deserves. And with winter wrapping tight around them, she has every intention of doing just that...just as soon as she convinces him she is nothing like her sister.


While Burton writes a perfectly cohesive, well-developed novella with believable characters and lots of sizzle, I can't say I was thrilled by every aspect of this one. I have to give credit to Burton, I enjoyed Wyatt and Callie together by the end, and that was pretty impressive considering how much I disliked the premise of Wyatt being previously married to Callie's sister. Which was a lot. I really don't like inter-familial relationships.

I also could have done without the "knocking up" conversation and I would have happily exchanged a sex scene for a more complex and significant confrontation between Wyatt and Cassandra. After three years of the sort of negative emotions that were generated by that divorce, the resolution seemed a little too easy and superficial, even for a novella. Still, the story definitely had it's good points, and I really enjoyed Callie's feisty spirit. This one may not have been my favorite in the bunch, but it was better than okay, even with my issues.


Missing and loving on-again, off-again boyfriend Austin Thomas was never the issue for Carrie Anders. That's why she took her dream job at the museum in D.C. and that's why she made the painful decision not to return to her hometown in West Virginia for the holidays. Even her determination to live her life to the fullest couldn't withstand her heart's desire for Austin when she is with him. He just can't seem to understand how desperate she is to not live a life of regret. To not turn out like her mother.

Austin has always known that he and Carrie were meant for each other. They have the sort of love that lasts a lifetime. All he has to do is remind her of that, which is why he is dragging his brother and a bunch of Christmas trees into D.C., camping out in the vacant lot across from Carrie's apartment, and staying until he can convince her to come home with him. Because one thing he knows, Carrie isn't like his own mother, who walked away from her family without a backward glance and put a career first. She couldn't be. And this Christmas he'll finally convince her of that.


HelenKay Dimon is a new author for me, and that brings up one of the best things about anthologies...exposure to authors you may not have read before. I loved her breezy, humor-rich writing style and the clever way it lightened the tone of some fairly serious relationship issues. Austin was a wickedly charming guy who was utterly clueless about Carrie's needs, but he sure did try hard. Carrie was equally lovable - if a bit too self-absorbed to the detriment of Austin's issues. I can't say much for their ability to communicate effectively, though.

Dimon managed to tell a lot of story in the space allowed. I especially enjoyed Austin's brother as a secondary character, and the backstory of Austin's issue with alcohol added some nice depth to his character and the overall romance arc. The entire novella had a very complete-story feel to it that is often lacking in stories of this length. I wasn't totally thrilled with the logistics that Austin and Carrie worked out at the end, though. It was a little too nebulous for my HEA-loving heart.

Overall this was a wonderful, fun, and funny novella with charming characters. It touched on enough serious issues to have weight and offered enough holiday-flavored romance to warm up the most Scrooged heart. It's definitely put me on the lookout for more stories by Dimon.


When Claire Rutledge's husband died two years ago, the grief and guilt would have crippled her if it hadn't been for her husband's best friend, Justin McCormick...now her best friend. In the two years since, they have relied on each other, spent time together, worked together, crashed at each other's homes, doing everything two best friends do. Until Justin shows up in the last place Claire was expecting him...her dreams. The sort of dreams that she hasn't had since her husband died. Hot, sensual dreams that leave her wanting.

He can't do it anymore. Can't be with Claire, see her look at him as a trusted friend when he aches for her so badly, yearns for her so damn much. It's Justin's private shame, his deepest secret. He is in love with his best friend and has been from the moment he saw her...even before she'd gotten married and slipped beyond his reach forever. He is going to have to give her up, because the one thing he can't do is dishonor the memory of the man who trusted him to watch out for her.

If he can get through the holidays, he'll do the right thing and walk away. His resolution gets tested, though, the night of the Christmas party. The night his best friend and the woman he's loved for years looks at him across a crowded room with a glint in her eye that he recognizes for the frequency he's felt it within himself. It's desire. For him. Maybe this holiday will see all his Christmas wishes granted, after all. Maybe.


Neither the shorter length nor the less complex plot prevented this novella from being my favorite in the bunch. Not only is the friends-to-lovers theme my favorite of the romance tropes, but Stacey imbued this story with some very painful but emotionally honest moments that resonated with a level of realism I appreciated. Both Claire and Justin struck me as earnest and believable, and while their short journey didn't have room for much depth in plot, it packed a punch and carried me right along with the story.

This one made me feel good as I rooted for Claire to embrace her new leash on romantic life, as I watched Justin come to terms with the understanding that being with Claire doesn't make his guilt go away. Though, to be fair, I wanted to bop him on the head a bit for that. Still, I loved when Justin admitted the full scope of his feelings for Claire and let her know just how long he'd loved her. I melted a little at that. I even enjoyed the method Stacey used to get the two crazy kids together for their HEA. Just about everything in this short, sweet novella appealed.

Genre: Contemporary Romance; Anthology
Series: N/A
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 320 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this Harlequin Anthology was provided to me by Harlequin via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.


In a cozy cottage overlooking Lake Tahoe, married sociology professors from University of Nevada rekindled the romance in their rocky marriage. It was such a tremendous experience for them that they bought the cottage and rented it out when they weren't using it. After several letters left by thankful renters, the professors noticed a trend.

Rocky relationships were smoothed, new relationships were kindled, and love was a rental agreement away for the lucky couples who spent time at their cabin.

The trend was so fascinatingly obvious the professors couldn't help but test out the wild theory that there was something truly magical about their cabin. So they decided to study the phenomena. And with three holidays fast approaching, there was no time like the present to see if three separate couples could find their forever love in a small cottage by a large lake.


Beth Tierney has decided she's had enough of her family's matchmaking attempts. Taking control of her life, she's eschewing the family gathering for Thanksgiving and spending time alone at the Lake Tahoe cabin owned by her favorite professor from college. She is a self-sufficient woman who neither needs nor wants a man to fulfill her life and her holiday is going to be all about embracing her single status and focusing on her career.

Handyman Mac McFarland is dreading the trip to his parents house for the holiday. His mother has invited yet another young woman to parade in front of him in the hopes he will finally get married. He's so focused on the impending disaster that he doesn't question the oddness of the phone call he gets from his friend Jillian Vickers. She and her husband are professors at the state university but own a cabin on the lake, and she asks him to go over to the cabin and check on a pipe leak she's worried about.

Mac shows up at the cabin and meets the gorgeous Beth and suddenly all their best intentions are tossed out the window as sparks fly. The heat between them is instant and intense. Two people least interested in being a couple could take coupling to a level that will give them both an entirely new home for the holidays.


Architect Jason Monroe doesn't know the meaning of Christmas spirit. He's too busy keeping the family home out of the hands of the bank, running herd on his younger brother, and competing fiercely with brilliant architect Zoe Anders. The beautiful, brilliant Zoe who makes his pulse race as often as she annoys him.

When the senior architect at the firm challenges all the associates to come up with a dazzling design to land a whale of a client and offers a choice promotion as the prize, everyone in the room knows that Jason and Zoe are the two he's really speaking to. They are the best at the firm. Now they'll be pitted against each other far more directly than they ever have before.

As Christmas approaches, neither Jason nor Zoe are having much luck with their designs. Little did either of them know that a few helpful elves...Jason's brother being top mischief-maker...have conspired to push them together over the holiday break. Two brilliant architects stuck in one snow-bound cabin on Lake Tahoe for Christmas. By the end of their stay they'll either have killed each other, or realized that a little bit of collaboration...in all things...is even better than a visit from Ol' St. Nick.


Five years ago their dreams and ambition sent college sweethearts Cleo Daire and Josh Goodson in two different directions, ending a relationship that had meant everything to both of them. But they made a deal. They would meet up five years from that dark day to catch up and see if there is still something between them.

Josh loved Cleo but his duty was to his family. Cleo hated seeing Josh subjugate his dreams but wouldn't try to stop him from following his heart, even as hers was broken.

Now it's five years later and Cleo's career is hitting a great stride. Josh's life is over a thousand miles away. She didn't even know if he would remember their promise. He had. It was almost all he thought about lately. Still, regardless of their chemistry or the feelings still swirling between them, the fact remains that she lives on one coast and he on another. And he's still falling in line with the bonds of obligation to his family business.

Still, could the magic of one special cabin strike gold once again? Is five years long enough for them to get another chance, or are they both too caught up in the lives they are living in the present to worry about what could have been in the past?


I don't read many anthologies. Too often I find the stories uneven and the overall expense not worth the hit-or-miss reading from story to story. Still, I was feeling festive this holiday season and decided to devote some reading time to four of the holiday anthologies that were available. So begins a short jaunt down a frosty lane bedecked with holly and fragrant boughs of pine, twinkling lights, hot chocolate, hot sex, and, of course, love.

The premise for this contemporary romance holiday anthology, the cabin-of-love in Tahoe, connects each of these three seasonal novellas and gives them a sense of cohesion that goes beyond the holiday theme. Authored by three widely popular writers, each story is well written. All three are creative craftsmen when it comes to building their plots and getting their characters together in the limited and limiting space allotted to them in their individual novellas.

For me, though, neither the sense of cohesion nor the quality writing was enough to fully entertain me over the span of the three stories. Jill Shalvis' novella, The Christmas Setup, was my personal favorite, though as she's one of my favorite authors for light romance, that's wasn't a huge surprise. Her novella was a little sweet, a little spicy, and had some humor that made me smile. The first and third books in the anthology didn't have the same amount of appeal, but not because they're poorly written - they're not. The problem I had with each was the literary tropes they featured.

The anthology spans three holidays and the novellas span three separate tropes. Thompson's The Thanksgiving Fix is a lust(love)-at-first-sight story that has the main characters having sex within hours of meeting each other and working out the logistics of happily ever after two days later. That's one of my least favorite tropes in romance fiction because it's so rarely written in a way that I can believe. Maybe I'm a cynic...no, I know I'm a cynic...but I have no faith in the permanence of the relationships in these cases. And color me prudish, but shagging someone you've just met is neither romantic to me nor particularly festive...it does, however, put the 'ho in the Ho-ho-ho.

Shalvis tackles the enemies-to-lovers trope in The Christmas Setup, and that was another element in its favor, because it's one of my favorites in the genre, right behind the friends-to-lovers trope. I wasn't totally thrilled with the conclusion to the story; I wish the job had gone the other way and I would've liked a more detailed picture of the resolution of Jason's financial issues, but I enjoyed this novella quite a lot.

The New Year's Deal features the second-chance romance. Kenner's novella was probably the most expansively developed plot, and I don't have a problem with second-chance romance per se, but I never warmed up to Cleo in this story. She seemed fairly selfish and unbending in the initial breakup between her and Josh and she never really improved for me as the story went along. Plus, second-chance romances don't work so well for me when I actually read the first chance going splat. I find it depressing, and depressing in a holiday novella doesn't exactly keep my chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

Unfortunately, this holiday anthology sort of exemplifies why I don't read many of them. Three great authors whose books I've read and enjoyed, three novellas surrounding three separate holidays, and three popular tropes for the genre, yet I couldn't quite engage with all three stories. Still, there's that whole festive thing, and I've got three more anthologies to go on my journey to a very Merry Christmas.

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Anthology
Series: N/A
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 255 Pages
Formats: Kindle


While a bit uneven, overall these set of loosely connected novellas provided some entertaining hours. All set in Sacramento, you'll recognize a few recurring locations as four women and four men get set up for love.


Her best friend gives her The Boyfriend Bylaws.

Under penalty of losing her much beloved car, Melanie has to follow the bylaws to the letter. She would rather get a new best friend. When she starts to realize just how much a long-time friend and coworker means to her, though, Melanie finally understands that it's not a bunch of rules that will help her find her Happily Ever After...it's being true to her heart.

While the premise of The Boyfriend Bylaws is cute and the concept sound, I had several problems with this short novella from the start. I felt the first person point of view was too limiting a perspective and severely hampered the development of secondary and ancillary characters, including, to his extreme detriment, the male romantic lead. Worse, though, is that I found Melanie to be an unlikable and unsympathetic heroine, so a story told from her perspective was problematic.

Melanie's desperation and her shallow parameters for true love are a total turn off. Her issues with abandonment are valid motivators, but were brought up in awkward ways and didn't have enough room to develop to a point of satisfying resolution. She ended up seeming pathologically insecure and self involved, and very unhealthy emotionally. There were moments when a glimmer of sarcasm or sardonic humor showed through the desperation, which is always something I enjoy, but it was too brief for me to really warm to the character and she didn't have any other traits I found appealing.

I enjoyed what little I saw of Matt, though. He was cute, with his obvious attraction and dedication to Melanie, even as she was mentally criticizing him for assumed behavior that looked suspiciously similar to her own. They had a nice rapport as friends at the club, too, with their word of the day playfulness.

I wish the plot had developed a little differently. There were several plot threads that had potential but got snipped off at the end, and I felt like I'd been left hanging over the issue between Melanie and her sister. The ending was very abrupt and I was disappointed that there hadn't been more provided to redeem Melanie as a person or hold her accountable for some of her hypocrisy and shallowness.

Unfortunately, the problems I had with the story weren't improved by the manner in which it's told. The narrative and dialogue seemed stilted and jerky, and the inconsistent grammar made it often seem unwieldy. There were a couple of typos, but larger problems were the oddly disconnected thoughts from sentence to sentence, too many unsupported narrative tangents, and the inconsistencies in the timing of actions as they were described.

It was all just a bit too much for me to enjoy.


Nine years ago Shelby lost her high school sweetheart, Logan Starks, when his parents divorced and he moved with his father to another part of the state. A long distance relationship lasted for a little while, until a phone call that sent her dreams and their plans up in smoke and left her heart in tatters. Now, nine years older and wiser, she grudgingly accepts the blind date that her best friend sets her up on and comes face to face with a cold, hard, immutable truth: nine years wasn't long enough to get over the only man she's ever loved.

He thought he was doing the right thing for them both when he broke up with Shelby all those years ago, but Logan never stopped loving her. He knows now what a grievous mistake he made and it was one he had no intention of repeating. He was back in town, intent on convincing the woman of his dreams that nothing in his life was worth it without her. He knows she still loves him...but can she ever forgive him?

I've always been fond of romances like this, when the star crossed lovers get a second chance, and I thought this second story was more technically sound than its predecessor, with fewer grammatical errors and a smoother flow in narrative and dialogue. It has the same first person point of view as the first, though, and truly don't like that style for contemporary romance, especially those of novella length.

The plot was a little two dimensional, but pleasant, and I don't really expect much depth in novellas. That first person perspective is very limiting to character definition, and I didn't get much of an impression about any of the characters beyond Shelby. And that's a bigger problem than it could have been because I found her intensely unlikable.

Not at first. At first I found her reaction to coming face to face with the boy - now a man - who broke her heart was realistic and understandable. But she was so inflexible and cold to him all the way through that I quickly grew tired of her bitchiness. And I found her actions hypocritical, criticizing the overtures he makes to her just as vehemently as she criticizes him when he doesn't make any; desperately searching for proof of his love, and denying it when she sees it. By the end, I was left wondering why Logan still loved her at all...and that probably wasn't what the author was going for.

There were a few plot holes and some things that didn't seem too logical, and I dislike when authors have their protagonists act duplicitous when they're trying to stand on their moral high ground, though that was an issue that was quickly resolved and lead to more evidence of the larger hypocrisy. The first few chapters of Logan's manuscript made no sense to me, unless that manuscript was an autobiography...which would have been pretty arrogant, really. That whole part seemed like an ill conceived plot contrivance to force the characters towards a resolution unsupported by previous character thoughts and actions.

Despite all of that, I don't believe this was a bad story, really, but for me it lacked a bit of sophistication and polish technically and had a female lead who I sort of loathed by the end.


Deputy District Attorney Bryn Donovan has the hots for the gorgeous Daniel Mays. He's good looking, charming, and judging by his apparent dating habits, a bit of a player. But that's not a crime...at least not the one that convicts him. The fact that he's a defense attorney, on the other hand... That's nearly a hanging offense, as far as Bryn is concerned. Driven by guilt and with a bit of a prejudice against criminals, Bryn has no room in her life for...well...much of anything beyond her work, and certainly no time to dally with a man who gets those same criminals out of punishment for their crimes. And if that zeal has segregated her, leaving her feeling lonely and unfulfilled at times, it's just the price she has to pay.

Daniel Mays had always known that the woman nicknamed Justice was a hell of a litigator, but he hadn't really thought of her as a woman until he overheard a conversation about him between Bryn and a friend of his. Since then, he hasn't been able to think of much of anything else. When he tries to court her, though, she shuts him down. But Daniel argues for a living, and he's determined to convince this particular jury of one to take a chance on love.

I really liked this novella! Both characters were well defined within the parameters of the story, and I found them both likable and sympathetic. I was impressed with the balance in Bryn's character, and appreciated her depth and the reasons provided to explain what has made her the woman she is. I also liked the fact that she's an intelligent, highly successful woman who recognizes some of her less beneficial traits, and takes steps...though they may be small...to change some of them. It showed a nice evolution in her character that's surprising in a story of this length.

The dialogue was solid, felt natural and organic to the characters, and was full of great repartee, especially between Bryn and Daniel. I was also impressed that DePaul managed, with seemingly little effort, to add that southern flavor to Daniel's dialogue. It provided a genuine feel to his character definition.

This was a novella that worked for me on just about every level, telling a solid story with believable characters in a realistic setting with an appealing style. The narrative had a typo or two, but the grammar was solid and overall it was technically sound.

I thought Bryn's stance was a bit too hard core sometimes, but it was so well tempered by the motivation for her feelings that she never became unsympathetic, and that was a surprising treat. I was also very impressed with the level of sensuality in this story that was lacking in the first two. I appreciated the sex scenes and thought they were very well written, though I did think it was odd how Bryn chose to initiate it. I loved how the ending evolved, and found the events leading up to the resolution to be gut clenching. On an emotional level, it was very successful, and I liked that by the end, both characters had been affected.

This was a very complete feeling novella and honestly, I wish it had been longer, just because I was enjoying it so much. Nice.


Rachel Price is dateless for Valentine's Day, but dateless has to be better than getting set up on another lousy blind date, right? Especially since she overheard that the man she's been dreaming about for two months, Noah Peterson, has big plans of his own. Talk about depressing news. Still, Rachel caves to her best friend and decides to show up. When she realizes Noah is the one waiting for her, Rachel knows it was the best decision she'd ever made.

Short, sweet, and so much fun! This short story was perfect. Characters were likable, plot was simple but sufficient, and the dialogue was quick and funny. Short stories falter when they're overdone, but this one was sleek, slick, and well written. I enjoyed it a lot. It ended the anthology on a very high note.

Disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided to me by one of the authors for the purpose of an honest review. All ratings, comments, thoughts, and opinions are my own.

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Anthology
Series: N/A
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 322 Pages, 4528 Locations
Formats: Mass Market Paperback
Note: This review is based on the Kindle edition, which no longer seems to be available.


Obviously I'm more than a little behind on my reading, as I had fully intended to enjoy this anthology of holiday novellas during the actual holiday season, but I'm glad I finally sat down to enjoy them. Sometimes funny, often sweet, and rich with the flavor of my favorite time of year, this anthology is definitely worth a read...no matter what month is face up on the calendar.


Getting caught speeding his way through Holiday, Florida on the way to Miami for a wild celebration of the Richmond Rogues latest World Series victory pretty much ruined baseball player Alex Boxer's raucous plans for the holiday. Sentenced to forty hours of community service as the small town's mall Santa, he's stuck in a hot, too-tight costume next to a flatulent deer and nut cracking nutcracker Holly McIntyre, faking a hearty ho, ho, ho...instead of sipping brews on a hot beach and using his yule log to give a pair of busty beach bunnies in thongs a very merry Christmas.

Holly sees right through Alex. He's rich, sexy, and entitled, and he'd do just about anything to get out of his Santa stint. She doesn't even blink when his sexually suggestive comments and behavior are aimed her way. She wouldn't have expected different. It's her reaction to him that concerns her. That he sets her body to burning isn't any surprise, but the longer he's in her company, the more her heart is invested...and that's scary enough to curdle her eggnog.

As a big fan of Kate Angell's Richmond Rogues series, I was looking forward to this short holiday novella, considered book 5 in the series. In many ways, it didn't disappoint. There was genuine humor, yummy sexual chemistry, and some sweet romance. There was a sexy if womanizing baseball player, and a plucky, strong female lead. I enjoyed Alex and Holly together, and I admired how Holly didn't take much of Alex's crud. I appreciated how she maintained a very realistic view of their relationship. I do wish the character definition had been given a little more attention, because they lacked a little of the spark of individuality I'm used to Angell imbuing in her characters.

The narrative got a little choppy and rapid fire as the story progressed, with more straight description of action and events as opposed to a more flowing narrative that includes a wider descriptive pallet of background, scenery, and emotion. It started to take on a bit of a rapid-fire recitation sort of feel that gave me the impression that the story was being trimmed to fit a certain length. The extremely abrupt ending and sudden resolution further cemented that feeling.

Despite that, I felt like this was an entertaining addition to the Richmond Rogues series and a nice representation of Kate Angell's lighthearted, very fun, sexy style.


Thanks to years of suffering nothing but bad luck around the holidays, Jessica Jones is convinced she suffers from a Christmas curse. Considering that this Christmas Eve she's had her car and purse stolen, forcing her to hold up a supermarket for the $39.95 she's owed...with a gun that she thought was empty...which then causes her to take a hostage to assure her freedom...and that hostage turns out to be a bodyguard who is ex-CIA, you can sort of see why she's under that assumption.

Said ex-CIA bodyguard and Brad Pitt look-alike Luke Carter mostly thinks Jessica is a harmless lunatic...until the gun goes off. Before he knows it, he's handcuffed to the crazy bird and has a gun pointed at his head - the one part of his body currently not covered by Kevlar. He's cursing his lackadaisical response when he gets his first glimpse of Jessica without her Santa getup...and tumbles head over heals down the daunting chimney of love. Convincing the determined if utterly inept criminal to walk the straight and narrow with him, however, may take a Christmas miracle.

This delightful comedy farce by Sandra Hill may be a little dated with the many references to a younger Brad Pitt and his cinematic accomplishments of the early to mid-nineties, as well as a reference to IBM computers, but it's a fast, fun romp that made me grin. Definitely do not take this one seriously, it's not meant to be, but its ridiculous exaggeration and silly buffoonery made me chuckle.

There wasn't very much in the way of character development or plot, but you could find some if you squinted and looked really hard. There were also a few tendrils of a more serious nature with mentions of Luke's deceased wife and a childhood that breathed distrust into Jessica. I thought the ending was a little awkward and too quickly resolved (so common in this format), and the emotions of a key scene during the resolution seemed discordant with the actions and dialogue. Oh, and no adult should ever refer to a thirteen-year-old as sexy for any reason. It's icky and disturbing, as is speaking of her and to her as if she were a prostitute.

Love-at-first-sight stories don't usually do anything for me, but this one didn't bother me at all in that regard. Maybe because the comedy was so exaggerated and it was so obviously not to be taken seriously. Naughty or Nice was absurd, ridiculous, and flat out fun, even with the flaws.


Casey was used to taking care of her flighty and irresponsible younger sister. She'd been doing it since they were both children. As a computer programmer, she knew she could work anywhere, so she even moved from their Florida home to the mean streets of New York City when Emma decided to try to make it as an actress on Broadway. Now, as a major New Years Eve promotion for a posh jewelry store approaches a critical technical deadline, Casey is working nonstop to get the programming set to roll out to the billboards in Times Square. Emma has other ideas.

Cajoled, begged, and practically dragged out of the apartment she shares with Emma, Casey finds herself taking Emma's newly ex-boyfriend's place at a remote Upstate New York lodge for a Christmas holiday away from it all. And the last place Casey wants to be is away from it all.

Within minutes of arriving, her gorgeous and selfish sister has hooked up with one of the two brothers who are working their for the proprietors, their Aunt and Uncle. Casey is locked out of her room with no place to sleep, and has to rely on the gorgeous but stoic Matt Van der Staapen for a place to lay her very weary head. Fed up with her sister, out of her element in the middle of a blizzard, cut off from the world she knows and loves, she has to rely on a man too gorgeous for her to trust. Merry frickin' Christmas.

I was so pleasantly surprised by this nifty novella. Less comedic than the first two in this anthology, Nash struck the sort of perfect blend of character definition and romantic development that so many authors fail to achieve in shorter-length stories. It was realistic, sweet, and tempered with just enough conflict to provide some meat without tilting into dramatics or becoming cloying. In fact, from a strictly technical standpoint, it was one of the most comprehensive and satisfying novellas I've read.

The narrative was smooth and sophisticated, well balanced, and full of the sort of details in scenery and Dutch holiday culture that add depth and dimension to the backbone of the story, and the dialogue was genuine and maintained a steady conversational flow. When you add in the character definition, everything pulled together quite nicely and provided a highly satisfying read.

I didn't like Emma, whose selfish actions and flighty behavior never lead to any of the consequences she deserved, and I didn't totally buy into the main romantic conflict towards the end, which seemed a little out of character for Matt in particular, but the thoughtful and mature resolution to that conflict was supremely satisfying and more realistic than often seen in contemporary romance. This was a lovely and surprisingly robust holiday novella that I would enjoy pulling out to reread around the holidays. It really closed out this anthology on a very high note.