Book Review: Romancing the Holiday (anthology)

The Deal: Romancing the Holiday is a 3 story-anthology, so I'll summarize each of them separately.

In We'll be Home for Christmas by HalenKay Dimon, we meet Lila and Spence, two people who had a 3-day hook up a few months ago and then unexpectedly run into each other again when Lila moves into Spencer's town to manage a lodge a relative has left her. Spence and Lila haven't forgotten about each other, or their explosive chemistry... too bad Spence gave her his brother's name when they first met and now Lila is none too pleased.

Ask Her at Christmas by Christi Barth is about Kyle and Caitlin, who have been best friends forever. Caitlin has also been in love with Kyle for years but not willing to risk the friendship, not even when Kylie announces the sudden plans to marry a woman his father has selected for him, and asks Caitlin help planning the perfect proposal, unaware that her heart is breaking.

Finally, The Best Thing by Jaci Burton is about Tori who works for the Kent Brothers in their construction company (apparently there are other novellas about the other two brothers) while struggling with her crush on one of them: Brody. Last Christmas, Brody kissed her and that sent the office dynamics into a bit of a tail-spin, until it got so bad that the other two Kents  demanded Brody make things right with Tori, prompting them both to act on their latent feelings for each other.

My Thoughts: Romancing the Holiday was a mixed bag of nuts. I flat out didn't much care for the first story - We'll be Home for Christmas - I didn't particularly like the characters or care for what happened to them, and the whole thing was a little childish.

I enjoyed reading Ask Her at Christmas a lot more, I found the story fluffy and sweet even if the conflict was a bit silly and it got solved way too easily, and both Caitlin and Kyle were kind of wimpy. I liked the core of who they were. I think that if that had been more developed it would have been a sweet story, as it was it had a lot of potential and it was fun to read but far from perfect.

As for The Best Thing, it was certainly fun to read - probably the better story out of the three - and I actually got very intrigued about the other two Kent brothers and I look forward to reading their novellas (apparently I already own them in two different anthologies I got last year and that I haven't read). I liked Tori and Brody, and I could even understand what drove Brody to do certain things - his family could be fairly annoying sometimes - but I didn't like how the conflict was resolved so that kept the story from being a total winner.

As an Anthology, is not bad, I think it averages three stars all in all.

Book Review: A Flower in the Snow by Tracey Corderoy and Sophie Allsopp

The Deal: Luna and her best friend in the world Bear (who, yes, happens to be a polar bear) enjoy spending their days together playing in the snow. One day they discover a beautiful golden flower that brings even more happiness to their lives... until the flower dies and makes Luna sad. 

In order to see her smile again, Bear goes on a quest to find another flower for his best friend. 

My Thoughts: A Flower in the Snow is a very short but sweet picture book aimed toward the younger kids.

It's a lovely story about friendship and companionship, and the illustrations were adorable. I loved that Bear was Luna's best friend.

If you want to share with your young ones a story that's seasonal but not religiously oriented, then A Flower in the Snow is a very good option. 

1/2

Speed Date: Sophie & Carter by Chelsea Fine

The Deal: Every day, 18 year olds Sophie and Carter deal with things that most other high school seniors never even have to think about. Sophie is in charge of her three younger siblings (The Littles, as she calls them) and is trying to keep them afloat while their mother - who is a hooker - disappears for weeks and weeks on end. 

The abuse that his father dealt for years left Carter with scars all over his body, and left his mother a little out to of reality, so now he has to take care of her and help her fight the aliens and bunnies and bugs that haunt her every waking moment.

Sophie and Carter live right next to each other and are best friends - even if they pretend not to know each other at school - and, over the years, they have formed their own family unit. They are also deeply in love with each other, even if they haven't realized yet.

My Thoughts: I remember seeing Sophie and Carter around a while ago, and I bought it once that it was, like 99 cents, but it kind of fell off my radar, until now. I liked Sophie and Carter as a characters and the story was okay - even if it was a trauma porn - they have to deal with really stressful stuff but find comfort in each other and they don't shrink their responsibilities.

The thing was that, well, it read like a fanfic: from the length to the character development and the language, everything added to the feel of "this is a fanfic, a very good one but just that."

So, if you ever see it on sale at 99 cents, feel free to check it out, but at it's current price of 2.99 for the ebook or 7.95 for the paperback, it's just too much. It's not even that long. Honest. 100 pages tops. 

1/2

What's a Book Speed Date, you ask? It's a quickie review--about 150 words or so--of any genre book (variety is the spice of life, after all).

If you want to join in or just read other speed date reviews, check out The Book Swarm

Book Review: The Twelve Nights of Christmas by Sarah Morgan

At First Sight: Evie Anderson thought it was a little weird when her creep of a boss told her she could stay at the penthouse of the hotel where she worked for one night, since she had to be on-site so early in the morning. She usually wouldn't have agreed, but she had just been kicked out of her apartment and had no other place to go.

Rio Zacarelli - a successful, ruthless and super rich billionaire - has a very important deal on the making and, at the advice of his lawyer, decides to spend a really quiet Christmas away from women and other distractions, as he needs people to believe he has a clean reputation.

He wasn't counting on finding a naked woman on his bed at the penthouse suite of his hotel in London,  or to have a photographer ready to pounce and capture the moment in film. Now Rio is forced to do damage control, and figures that maybe finding Evie wasn't so bad as she could help him to project a more wholesome image.

So they are spending the days leading to Christmas together, trying to portray a happy couple for the media and for Evie's elderly grandfather. And Rio finds himself enjoying her company and everything, he just wishes she would forget it's Christmas all together. 

Second Glance: Well, I'm a little torn about The Twelve Nights of Christmas... and not only because each time I read Rio's name I kept thinking about that blue parakeet from the movie.

It's a very "Harlequin-esque" novel - you got the billionaire and the poor ingenue virgin and a rather unbelievable situation - and it works well in that format, but there were a bunch of little things that kept me from getting into the story: we aren't told why Rio hates Christmas until the last quarter of the book, same with what the mysterious "deal" he's working on. And the whole thing with Evie. What smart woman thinks "Oh, creep-o manager who tried to feel me up says it's okay if I stay in this crazy, expensive suite tonight! Good! I guess I'll sleep naked!"?

Other than that, it was a fun book and Rio did have pretty good reasons to hate Christmas, but everything to solved way too easily. 

Bottom Line: I like Sarah Morgan's style, but this one wasn't my favorite by her, I think I like her medical romance books more. But if you can suspend belief a little better than me, then this is a easy to read, quick Christmas story.

Book Review: A Tangle of Magicks by Stephanie Burgis

Warning, this review contains mild spoilers about Kat, Incorrigible (US)/A Most Improper Magick (UK)

UK Edition

Also, A Tangle of Magicks is the UK version of Renegade Magic. 

At First Sight: For a moment there, it seemed like things would finally take a turn for the better for Kat Stephenson and her family, as her oldest sister Elissa is about to marry her love, Mr. Collingwood; and her middle sister Angeline, has her Mr. Frederick Carlyle.

But everything goes wrong on the day of Elissa and Mr. C's wedding, when the ceremony is interrupted by an irate Mrs. Carlyle, Frederick's mother, who isn't so keen on her son's showing interest in Angeline, and drags him away leaving scandal and a heart-broken Angeline behind.

To top it all off, Kat has finally met the head of the Order of the Guardians, and he's none too impressed with with Kat, and that has put her admittance to the order in serious jeopardy. And that's before her stepmother drags them all to Bath, so Angeline can find a new suitor.

Second Glance: I was so looking forward to reading A Tangle of Magicks/Renegade Magic since I loved Kat during her previous story. And for the most part I really did like book 2 but I also struggled a lot to make my way through.

US Edition

I liked it while I was reading it but it was too easy for me to put it down; and I found some things that really irritated me, namely, Kat's family. They were nice for the most part but Angeline comes of as mean more often than not, and Charles as a bit useless and clueless, same with Mr. Stephenson who really seemed to be completely disconnected from what went on in his family.

Mrs. Stephenson was awful as usual, but at least she was trying, in a misguided way, to do something for her family. It's with her relatives - Mrs. Wingate and her daughters - that the Stephensons stay with at Bath, and some of them were just as horrid as her, though I did like Lucy, the youngest daughter of Mrs. Wingate for the most part.

Bottom Line: In the end I liked A Tangle of Magicks/Renegade Magic, but it didn't have the same spark that Kat, Incorrigible had. Maybe I just missed the balance that Elissa brought in the circle of sisters. I don't know. But it still was a lovely middle grade book with a magic bent; and I'm looking forward to the next book. 

2/3

Full Cover Image! Isn't it cute?