Title: A Christmas to Remember Series: Tallgrass (and others)
Author: Jill Shalvis, Kristen Ashley, Hope Ramsay, Molly Cannon, Marilyn Pappano
Read copy: eBook
Published: December 3, 2013
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 145554776X
ISBN-13: 9781455547760
Jill Shalvis, Dream a Little Dream: Melissa has kept every man at a safe distance—especially firefighter Ian, a sexy friend with sexy benefits. But Ian secretly longs for more. Luckily, 'tis the season for giving love a chance...
Kristen Ashley, Every Year: Holidays don't come easy for Shy and his brother, Landon. But with the magic of Christmas, along with a little help from Tabby and her family, the Cage brothers are about to get the gift of a lifetime...
Hope Ramsay, Silent Night: Down on her luck and evicted from her apartment, single mother Maryanne hopes to start over in Last Chance. When the snow begins to fall, it looks like her baby might literally spend Christmas Eve in a manger. And Maryanne might celebrate the holiday with a handsome stranger.
Molly Cannon, Have Yourself a Messy Little Christmas: Lincoln is a bachelor who's set in his ways—until a professional organizer dressed up as Mrs. Claus changes his life, one tip at a time...
Marilyn Pappano, A Family for Christmas: War widow Ilena doesn't mind spending Christmas alone. But when a new doctor blows into town with the winter wind, will she get her secret Christmas wish?
My rating:
***copy provided by publisher through NetGalley***
Dream a Little Dream by Jill Shalvis (❆❆½)
This was an okay story, I guess, since the trope of near-death experience changing a reluctant mind has been done so many times it's disintegrating at the seams.
There wasn't much of a backstory to give the reader the possibility of actually getting to know the characters...And figuring out why they actually love each other, but the whole story was pretty sweet.
Every Year by Kristen Ashley (DNF)
Oh, sweet baby Jesus. I haven't even finished chapter one and I was bored.
It had loads of my pet peeves: first-person POV, infantile narration, description galore just to have something to fill up the pages...
Next, please!
Silent Night by Hope Ramsay (❆)
Another snooze-fest of a story with both characters having a boo-hoo past, a meh encounter, and an improbable insta-love romance.
Have Yourself a Messy Little Christmas by Molly Cannon (❆❆½)
This was a cute opposites-attract story. It could've (should've) been longer, though, for the reader to get to know the characters better and for the romance to develop a bit more leisurely.
As it was, the action-reaction didn't wasn't really believable, since it was all rather rushed.
Still, it was cute and sweet.
A Family for Christmas by Marilyn Pappano (❆❆❆❆)
This was the best story of the bunch for me.
It felt "adult" both in theme, voice, narration and characters. I liked the flow of it, I liked how the relationship and romance slowly blossomed instead of instantaneously appearing out of nowhere, and I liked how, despite the shortness of it, I actually got to know and like the characters in it.
The only thing that bothered me was the final resolution. It came across rather abruptly, like made at the snap of the fingers without much background as to how the choice was made.
Still, it was lovely, mature, and definitely the gem of this collection.
2 stars, anthology, contemporary, contemporary romance, firefighters/EMT/ERU/SAR, freebie, Hope Ramsay, Jill Shalvis, Kristen Ashley, Marilyn Pappano, Molly Cannon, season greetings
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