Extending Christmas: Reviews of a Few More Christmas Books

There’s still a bit over a week before Twelfth Night marks the end of the Christmas season, just enough time to read one or more of the following Christmas books guaranteed to leave you smiling at the HEA.

Holiday for Two

By Maggie Robinson and Elyssa Patrick

Release Date: December 9, 2013

I love cabin romances, and I love Christmas books. Combine those two pluses with the fact that the authors of Holiday for Two are friends and former fellow Bon Bons, and I knew this one would be a winner. I was right. Both stories are delightful.

“All Through the Night”

This novella is Maggie Robinson’s first published contemporary romance. Thus, it seems particularly appropriate that the hero, Griffin Archer, is a viscount with an English accent and a likeness to Mr. Darcy that make him a fantasy come to life for the heroine. She is Carrie Moore, personal assistant to a successful mystery writer, who also happens to be the hero’s aunt.

The two miss the last ferry to an island off the coast of Maine where said aunt is expecting both her nephew and personal assistant. The snowstorm that closed the ferry makes travel hazardous, and Carrie and Griffin end up taking shelter from the storm in a carriage house conveniently winterized to protect a vintage Jaguar. A lot of chemistry and a bit of role playing make one snowed-in Christmas Eve a night to remember.

Both Carrie and Griffin are engaging characters. I found Carrie’s blend of pragmatism and imagination strongly appealing, and Griffin was a delightful mix of stuffiness and sexiness. I rank Robinson’s contemporary debut a smashing success, and I’ll definitely be among her eager readers if she writes more in this subgenre.

“While It Was Snowing”

Felicity Evans and Harry Walsh have been friends since they were children, but some looks Felicity has been receiving from Harry have her thinking there might be more than friendship to their relationship. Since Felicity is a confident, modern woman, she has no hesitation in deciding an intimate weekend in a Vermont cabin will be the perfect setting. But Harry, who has loved Felicity since he entered his teens, is a self-proclaimed geek who thinks Felicity deserves someone better.

Felicity is primed for seduction, and Harry wants to talk. Misunderstandings ensue, but the special connection these two have is strong enough to survive the awkwardness, the missteps, and the risks of friends becoming lovers.

A beta hero par excellence, a friends-to-lovers plot that is endearingly credible, and an opening scene that ranks with the funniest I’ve read make Patrick’s novella a standout.  The epilogue is the perfect finishing touch. The author says that this is a standalone work, but I bet I’m not the only one who would love to read Nora and Ben’s story.

The Wrong Christmas Carol

By J. A. Ferguson

Publisher: Belle Books

Release Date: December 28, 2013

(Reissue of 2006 novel from ImaJinn Books)

Mr. Shepard has spent two years doing his best to foster a match between his tenants Gabby D’Angelo and Dr. Mike Archer, but they have stubbornly resisted all his efforts. His last resort is a prayer that arrives at the heavenly Prayer Care Center at a moment when the angel in charge is distracted. He sends an answer only to realize too late that he acted too quickly.

Gabby is surprised when the police recover her stolen car so quickly, but not nearly as surprised as she is when the officers also return to her an infant born one minute after midnight on Christmas Day. Her name according to the hospital bracelet she still wears and according to hospital records is Carol D’Angelo. Gabby knows that the baby cannot be hers; nevertheless, she feels an instant connection with her.

Life with a new born is more exhausting than Gabby expected, but she manages with the help of her landlord, Mr. Shepard, who ransacks his attic where his granddaughter has stored all the baby paraphernalia an infant needs; with the cooperation of all the people, staff and residents, of the senior center where Gabby works, who christen Carol “CeeBee” for “cute baby” and eagerly offer to take turns providing on-site childcare; and with the assistance of good neighbor, Mike Archer, who provides take-out meals for the busy mother, expertise as the oldest of a large family, and kisses filled with tantalizing promise.

The baby accomplished what Mr. Shepard’s efforts did not. It brought Gabby and Mike together, but a union between artist Gabby who has no problem believing in angels and miracles and medical researcher Mike who trusts only in logic and empirical evidence proves fraught with complications. Meanwhile the angel who made the error is sent to earth to correct the problems he created, but he only seems to complicate matters.

If this were not a Christmas story, I would label it saccharine, but my tolerance for sweet stories increases tenfold or more at this season. I loved the premise of the story, adored the baby, and found the conscientious, awkward angel with a fondness for chocolate cake and the matchmaking landlord endearing. I’m adding this one to my holiday reread list.

The Surprise Holiday Dad

By Jacqueline Diamond

Publisher: Harlequin (American Romance)

Release Date: January 7, 2014

Private detective Wade Hunter returns to Safe Harbor as soon as he learns that the mother of his son has died. There is nothing Wade wants more than to be a real father to his son, and he is determined to begin immediately. He may not have as much to offer as the doctor aunt who has been young Reggie’s primary caretaker and is eager to adopt him, but he can be the father his son needs, the one thing the doctor aunt can’t give Reggie.

Adrienne Cavill, an obstetrician at the Safe Harbor obstetrical hospital, loves her sister’s son as if he were her own child. She has already begun the adoption process to make him hers by law as well as by love. She is shocked when Wade Hunter turns up demanding to be part of his son’s life. Frightened that she will lose Reggie to his father, she prepares to fight—only to discover Wade Hunter is quite different from the man she has been led to believe he is.

Given that the protagonists are both good people who genuinely love Reggie, the plot of this story is predictable from the first. But it is a pleasure to see characters who really do place the needs of the child first and who learn that compromise is possible. This is a sweet story, the twelfth in Diamond’s Safe Harbor Medical series—with three more in the works. I had no difficulty following the story, and I liked it well enough that I plan to check out others in the series.

This week I’m reading some spring 2014 releases and rereading some favorites by Georgette Heyer. What are you reading during the last days of 2013?

Bonus Review: Kisses, She Wrote

Kisses, She Wrote

By Katharine Ashe

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: 

December 3, 2013

Charles Camlann Westfall, the Earl of Bedwyr copes with a painful past by living life on the surface. Incredibly handsome, with more than his fair share of charm, he has found this strategy a viable way of life as he moves lightly through ballrooms and gambling dens and through the hearts and bedrooms of willing widows and dissatisfied wives. Only a few close friends realize that there is more to Cam than the witty charmer the ton knows. For a variety of reasons, Cam finds it convenient to make an extended stay at the Brittany chateau that belongs to his cousin Luc, the Comte de Rallis. Life is much quieter there than in Cam’s usual haunts such as London and Paris. It is restlessness that sets him looking for a deck of cards. Instead, he finds a diary belonging to Jacqueline, Princess of Sensaire. He can’t resist reading a few pages, and once he begins, forgetting all notions of honor, he continues, uncomfortable and intrigued to discover that he figures prominently in the princess’s thoughts.

Jacqueline may be a princess by birth, but she has little in common with princesses of fairy tale fame. She is plain of face rather than beautiful and straight in body lines rather than curvy. Shy and bookish, she also lacks the social skills expected of a princess. There is no villainous stepmother in her life, just a determined mother who has always found Jacqueline less than satisfactory as a daughter and a princess. Jacqueline knows that regardless of her lack of feminine allure and accomplishments, she will soon be wed to an English lord of her brother’s choosing. Reiner loves his sister, and Jacqueline is confident that he will choose a kind husband for her, but he also expects the alliance to be one that will benefit Sensaire. And he has warned Jacqueline that while the Earl of Bedwyr may be a friend of the Prince of Sensaire, he is not husband material for the princess. But Cam, who is her opposite in every way, captures Jacqueline’s heart and imagination. He may have no place in her life, but he has a central role in her fantasies, the ones she records in her diary.

As Cam becomes more and more captivated by Jacqueline’s diary, he makes a point of getting to know Jacqueline the woman and comes to appreciate her intelligence and her honesty. A friendship of sorts develops between the two. When the Brittany party moves to London, Cam finds himself seeking out both Jacqueline and her diary, which is growing more and more filled with sensual details of her fantasies. Jacqueline’s fantasies feed Cam’s own, and they inspire him to capture the story in verse form. Meanwhile, his great-aunt offers him the one thing from his past that he associates with happiness. All he has to do to claim it as his own is marry the coldly proper beauty that his aunt has chosen for him. Separate paths are clearly marked for Cam and Jacqueline, but their fascination and understanding of one another deepens with every encounter. Is the shared world their imaginations create for them individually strong enough to withstand the expectations of reason and reality?

This is a near perfect novella. Part of Ashe’s Prince Catchers series, it can be read as a standalone but will be especially appreciated by readers who liked Cam and Jacqueline in I Married the Duke. Novellas can seem padded as if an author is stretching a slim story to fit the form. I find more often, the story seems too large for the form, leaving the reader, no matter how engaging the characters, longing for more chapters to give a satisfying conclusion. Ashe avoids both these traps. Her novella feels fully developed, and it offers readers a wonderful, sigh-worthy conclusion. Even the title and the cover fit!

Kisses, She Wrote is also a deeply romantic story. I loved the use Ashe makes of the diary and the fact that the seductive hero, who is articulate and graceful in speech, is himself seduced by the power of the written words of the heroine, who can find speech awkward. And I loved that the thread involving the power of the written word is introduced in the beginning and runs through to the end.

I’m adding this to my list of favorite novellas. If you are looking for a quick read with a Christmas setting that features likeable, interesting characters and a sweet, sensual romance with a different twist, you can’t do better than this one. I highly recommend it.

I was thrilled when Cam was revealed as a poet. I’ve known some sexy poets, and I think it’s only just that one gets his day in romance fiction’s hero spotlight. How do you feel about poets as heroes?

Saturday Review: Two Heartwarming Holiday Tales from Harlequin

A Cold Creek Christmas Surprise

By RaeAnne Thayne

Publisher: 

Harlequin (Special Edition)

Release Date: 

November 19, 2013

The day after his only sister’s wedding to veterinarian Ben Caldwell, Ridge, the eldest Bowman sibling, is left with the detritus of the wedding and the empty space, literal and figurative, in his life now that Caidy will be living with her new husband and his two children. Ridge knows that he and his eleven-year-old daughter, Destry, will adjust. Perhaps he has depended on Caidy too much all these years since he was left alone with a baby to rear and Caidy stepped in to help. Eating wedding reception leftovers for breakfast certainly makes him realize how much he will miss the pancakes, bacon, and hash browns that Caidy cooked in the mornings. But he has too much work to do to get caught up in reflection. If only the clean-up crew he hired would show up to do their job, he could get started on his job. When the crew of one does arrive, however, the sight of her sparks an attraction that sends Ridge running scared.

First-grade teacher Sarah Whitmore is not happy about her journey to the Bowman ranch, but she has something that belongs to the Bowman family, one of their mother’s paintings, a particularly treasured one It’s not Sarah’s fault that Ridge Bowman jumps to the conclusion that she is employed by the cleaning company Caidy has hired, and he doesn’t really give Sarah an opportunity to explain before he disappears. Still, she didn’t have to start cleaning. If she hadn’t, she would not have tripped on the stairs and ended up with a concussion and a broken arm. Then Ridge would not have insisted that she recuperate at the ranch, and Sarah would never have fallen in love with Ridge, with his daughter, and with ranch life and the whole Bowman family and the Pine Gulch community. Ridge and his world offer everything Sarah has ever wanted, but the secret she is keeping means that she can never really belong in this world. Perhaps she can have Christmas, but only if she hides the truth a little longer.

A Cold Creek Christmas Surprise is book 12 in RaeAnne Thayne’s Cowboys of Cold Creek series that was introduced in April 2006. It also marks the conclusion of the four Bowman siblings’ stories (following Christmas in Cold Creek, A Cold Creek Reunion, and A Cold Creek Noel) and provides the resolution to the mystery of their parents’ murder. Fans of the series will be happy to see Ridge finally get his HEA—even if it does come with complications. For those new to the series, Thayne provides ample details to follow Sarah and Ridge’s story. And these two wounded, great-hearted people deserve happiness. It’s easy to root for them to overcome the one barrier that could keep them apart. This shorter tale lacks the substance of Thayne’s single titles, but it is a sweet, cozy Christmas read nonetheless.

Sugarplum Homecoming

By Linda Goodnight

Publisher: 

Harlequin (Love Inspired)

Release Date: 

November 19, 2013

Paige Turner, almost ten, and her eight-year-old brother Nathan know the legend of their hometown Whisper Falls, Arkansas: prayers whispered behind the falls are always answered. They have a really important request of God, so when their widower dad falls asleep on a family picnic, they take the challenging climb to the special spot and ask God to send them a new mom, one with brown hair like their first mom, and preferably by Christmas.

Lana Ross left Whisper Falls, back when the town was still Millersville and before the legend brought a name change and crowds of tourists. An eighteen-year-old party girl the small town expected to come to a bad end, she had dreams of hitting it big as a country singer and headed for Nashville as soon as she could legally leave home. Thirteen years later, she has returned to the house where she and her twin sister Tess grew up, a house haunted by memories darker than the haunted house tales the local kids tell to frighten themselves. The house her mother left to Lana and Tess is one of the reasons Lana has returned. Owning the house gives her a head start on giving nine-year-old Sydney the stable life she needs and deserves.

But memories are long in small towns. Lana knows that God has forgiven her mistakes, but she also knows human creatures are not so merciful. Some people don’t believe in second chances, and Lana has secrets to protect. Davis Turner proves himself a good neighbor, but Lana’s fears, Davis’s pride, and the relentless prejudices of some Whisper Falls residents threaten the new relationship that is developing between the two. Lana and Davis both must discover that God is bigger than all their fears and flaws before they can claim the happiness waiting for them

This is a tender story, the third in Goodnight’s Whisper Fall series, all of which center on the theme of a new life after an old one filled with bad choices. It is a Love Inspired book, so the Christian faith of the characters is central to their experience and to the story. But the story of a woman who turns her life around and the “Mr. Upright and Righteous” who discovers how far short he falls of his own standards is one that will touch hearts of readers regardless of whether they share that faith. The three kids are endearing without being unbearably cute and precocious, and the town is a believable mix of good people, small-minded people, and people who are a contradictory mix of the admirable and the deplorable.

I think have two more holiday reviews to write for this year. What is your favorite Christmas book of 2013?