Love for the Holidays ★★★★☆

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Anthology
Authors: Noelle Adams; Rachel Curtis; Samantha Chase; Zoe York
Genre: Contemporary Romance
583 pages

From fake relationships to secret affairs to best friends falling in love, everything changes at Christmas.

This holiday bundle includes five stories, from steamy to sweet, including two new, exclusive stories from New York Times bestselling authors.

HOLIDAY HEAT by Noelle Adams – After being hit with heartbreaking tragedy, Carrie has thrown herself into a hot, secret relationship with Matt. With Christmas approaching, she realizes she might want even more from her sexy, damaged artist, but the boundaries around their relationship make anything deeper than sex impossible. A new, steamy romance.

MISTLETOE BETWEEN FRIENDS by Samantha Chase – Lily and Cam have been friends all their lives, and their relationship has never been romantic. But when they pretend to be dating so they can spend the holiday with their families in peace, they realize their fake romance might actually be real. A new, sweet romance.

THE CHRISTMAS COTTAGE by Samantha Chase - Spending the night trapped by a blizzard in a romantic Christmas cottage with the man she’s loved for years has Lacey wondering if fairy tales really do come true. A sweet romance.

EIGHT CHRISTMAS EVES by Rachel Curtis - One Christmas Eve, Cyrus Owen, the over-indulged teenage son of a wealthy businessman, finds ten-year-old Helen on the side of the road. Eleven years later, he is desperately in love with her. This is how it happens... A mostly sweet romance.

WHAT ONCE WAS PERFECT by Zoe York – For Laney, the worst part of returning to her hometown for Christmas is confronting Kyle, the man who broke her heart twelve years ago. When they rediscover their perfect chemistry, Kyle has to convince Laney to let him back into her heart. A steamy romance.


First, let me say that this anthology exceeded my expectations by far. These aren't short stories... they are more like short books or novellas. Normally with anthologies I can read each story in one sitting, but with Love for the Holidays that wasn't the case. It took me 3 days to read all 5 stories! Now that's an anthology for ya! If you are looking for some holiday stories to read I would highly suggest Love for the Holidays. Especially since it's only 2.99!  (Beginning on December 11, Love for the Holidays will be on sale for just $.99!)

★★★★☆

Holiday Heat:

It's a great title because this story is hot!  It's a really touching story about two people that meet after tragedy has destroyed them emotionally.  I loved both Carrie and Matt.  After meeting at a group therapy session they decide to have a steamy affair.  Neither thinks it will go any further than cheap hotel rooms until it does.

★★★★★

Mistletoe Between Friends:

I also loved Lily and Cameron.  They have been best friends their whole lives and have decided to keep their mothers from introducing them to a lineup of terrible dates to pretend that they are dating instead.  But they have to make it look real.  Which means kissing under the mistletoe and much more.  The only problem is once they realize that they feel more than friendship they are afraid to ruin the friendship by saying so to each other.  The ending really had me laughing!

★★★☆☆

The Christmas Cottage:

Ugh another story with my name.  Reading this drove me nuts, not sure how people with really popular names can stand it.  Lacey has to go to the cottage to get everything perfect for her bridezilla best friend.  Ean has decided to go to the cottage to get away from work for a bit.  They weren't expecting each other and end up snowed in.  I loved the parts with just Lacey and Ean but whenever the story involved the upcoming wedding I just got annoyed.  It was a good story altogether though.

★★★★★

Eight Christmas Eves:

This was a very unique story spanning 12 years time.  Each chapter was another Christmas Eve in the lives of Helen and Cyrus, starting with the day that they meet.  When I started this story I really didn't know where it was going.  But by the end I was ready to bop Cyrus on the head with something.  I haven't read anything like this and so I am giving it 5 stars because it is so different and kept me up reading.

★★★☆☆

What Once was Perfect:

The story was cute and I liked Laney and Kyle but it wasn't anything great.  They were practically engaged in college when he broke it off.  They meet back up 12 years later during Christmastime and the sparks are still there.  But they live 5 hours apart and don't know how they can make it work.  There's a lot of insecurities on both sides because of the way things ended.

Buy links:

Beginning on December 11, Love for the Holidays will be on sale for just $.99!

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A Christmas to Remember ★★★☆☆

Anthology
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: NetGalley- Forever (Grand Central Publishing)
136 pages

Curl up with this heartwarming Christmas collection!

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?

Plus: Excerpts from upcoming novels!

Carniepunk Anthology ★★★☆☆

Carniepunk by Rachel Caine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The thing I love about anthologies is discovering new authors. I found a couple good ones. I got this audiobook for the Iron Druid story. There were a couple by authors I am familiar with too. My suggestion: get it at the library... the book, not the audio. Read the stories you are interested in and take it back. I listened to a story or two a day and it took almost 2 weeks. It was a nice diversion and it was worth it because I did like the Blud book that I read because of this one. I'm not sure that I'd get another audio version of an anthology though since I could not skip ahead if I was bored with the story.


Rob Thurman “Painted Love"- It was just rambling and boring. The language was terrible. The concept of Doodle would have been interesting in a different story. 1 star

Delilah S. Dawson "A Blud Shortstory"- Charlie Dreggs was cool. I liked Lydia. I haven't read any Blud books yet but fully intend to now. I hope the series is as good as this short story. It had a good narrator too, I loved Charlie's voice. I was very dissapointed with the ending. 3 stars

Kevin Hearne “The Demon Barker of Wheat Street”- This is the story I got the anthology for. Despite the narrator getting Oberon's voice wrong I still enjoyed the story. I did find it a bit gruesome though. 4 stars

Mark Henry "The Sweeter the Juice"- Wow umm this is so weird. Confusing as hell and lots of gore. It was funny for the most part when it wasn't grossing me out. 2 stars

Jaye Wells "The Werewife"- Pretty entertaining. I especially liked the ending. 4 stars

Allison Pang "A Duet with Darkness"- Imagine the song The Devil Went Down to Georgia... but with violins at a carnival. Umm yea. This story was very confusing. Then once it started getting good it just ended! 1 star

Hillary Jacques "Recession of the Divine"- This one was ok, nothing exciting really. It had a pretty good ending but nothing very exciting. 3 stars

Jennifer Estep "Parlor tricks"- Woopsie! I guess this is farther ahead than the books I have read in the Elemental Assassin series. So I found out some stuff that happens in books I haven't read but I expected it to happen sooner or later so it's no big surprise. The story was ok, not as funny as Gin usually is. 3 stars

Kelly Meding "Freak House"- I really liked this story. The world building was done fairly quickly without any of the rambling that is in some of the other stories. I was ready to find the series but according to the author's website: "STRAYS is a new world for my readers... Stay tuned for word on when these new books will be coming your way." Until then she has some other series that sound pretty good. 4 stars

Nicole Peeler "The Inside Man"- This one is from the Jane True series, which I've never heard of but will be looking into after this story. If you weren't afraid of clowns before, you will be after this one. Some sexual parts may be upsetting to some people, just fyi. (rape memories) 4 stars

Jackie Kessler "A Chance in Hell"- Aaand I mentioned sexual stuff, wow does this one start up very sexual! Well, she's and ex-succubus so I guess that's expected. This story was boring as hell though and I just waited it out until it was over. 2 stars

Kelly Gay "Hell's Menagerie"- This story is about a little girl that has to save her pet hellhound's puppies from hell. This is also a very boring story. 1 star

Seanan McGuire "Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea"- This was slightly more interesting than the last 2 stories but still not worth the time it took to listen to it. 2 stars

View all my reviews