Kissing Santa Claus by Donna KauffmanMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
This month's prompt for #TBRChallenge was Festive. I'm not the best with shorter stories but for some reason I've really felt the need to collect holiday anthologies over the years, so I've been using this challenge and Dec. prompt to make sure I read one. Kissing Santa Claus had three authors that I've read before and two, Jill Shalvis and HelenKay Dimon, that have written some of my favorite or really enjoyed books. Overall, I'd have to say this was a bit disappointing. The short story syndrome really hit me hard and the stories seemed to lack some oomph. I'd give it a 2.5 rating as a collection.
Lock, Stock, and Jingle Bells by Donna Kauffman 3 stars
Holly Berry Bennett hated Christmas.
I think this was the longest story and definitely felt the most complete. Holly is heading back home after her mother dumps her Christmas themed store on her while she and Holly's father decide to enjoy retirement and take a cruise. Holly has never really enjoyed Christmas because of how she had to live it 24/hrs a day because of her mother's love of it. When she gets back home, Sean, who runs his family restaurant across street from Holly's mom's store sees her and is instantly drawn to her. Sean had a crush on Holly in school but was scared to be rejected. Guess what? Holly had a crush on Sean in school but was afraid to be rejected too!
Sean brings Holly food, they admit their crushes, Holly just wants to be friends as she figures out what she wants from life, and there's a historical secret baby. Record scratch! Yup, suddenly there's a mystery from an old journal Holly finds and it involves richie rich scandals and ties in with Sean's family. I feel like these characters are from a series and this was used to lead into the next in the series. Anyway, Sean was hot, nice, and could cook, I bumped it up a half a star.
Bah, Handsome! By Jill Shalvis 2 stars
Hope had always been a sucker for the bad boy.
This one was a rushed mess of bad '90s sexist takes and language. Hope runs a bed and breakfast and had taken out a loan from her step-brother. She's late on the payment and knows her evil step will end up taking the inn if he can. Winter's come and so has O Danny boy, who is the evil step's CPA. He's there to check on evil step's investment and negotiate a worse deal for Hope or just take the inn. Danny's a cute sweater adorned, glasses wearing geek that Hope can't help finding attractive. But he works for the enemy! Danny is also attracted to the flailing inn owner and has a crisis of conscious while he's snowed in at the inn.
They get locked in a cellar, there's mistletoe, meddling friends, forced proximity, an angry mama bear, and sex in a shed. Danny turns from heel to savior and I felt the love from the angry mama bear protecting her cubs more than I did between these two.
It’s Hotter at Christmas by HelenKay Dimon 2.5 stars
She was one good-looking woman under all of that bad luck.
This one was obviously from a series too. Ted (I feel like we don't get a lot of heroes named this) is the deputy police chief of Kauai and has been called to the hotel his sister manages to deal with a guest that has had some serious bad luck. Marissa is on a work assignment with a coworker and they're supposed to be in competition to produce the best marketing plan for the hotel. When Marissa tried to leave Kauai she realized her ID had been stolen and she had a run-in with TSA and they wanted to call the FBI on her but Ted came to the rescue and calmed it all down. Now Marissa's hotel room has been robbed and she can't possibly think of any suspects. The in competition with co-worker? No way. The same in competition co-worker who also has exhibited growing stalker-ish, I want you vibes over the year? COULDN'T POSSIBLY BE. Yeah, the “mystery” of Marissa's bad luck was obviously to put her in Ted's orbit; their instant lust felt empty of substance.
Ted's been divorced and felt lied to about what his ex-wife wanted, he's scared to trust. Marissa grew up with a mom that lead her to be scared to ever be reliant on a man. Ted doesn't believe Marissa could ever be truly happy in Kauai and Marissa isn't sure she should give up her job for Ted. It was insta lust, insta sex, fast, and had kind of a cranky tone, if you're into those sort of vibes then Happy Holidays!
I never much liked these sorts of anthologies to begin with, and they really don't seem to age well! Sorry you didn't have something better to end the year with.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why I collected and picked them up at garage sales like I did! I pretty much only like anthologies during Dec., I like that I can still get in some reading while I'm so busy and distracted.
DeleteThanks, I'll take the lump because TBRChallenge delivered a huge win for me this win otherwise. Can't wait to do the challenge with you again next year :)
Err, win for me this YEAR otherwise
DeleteI usually have the same issue with anthologies containing short stories, they just don't feel rich enough.
ReplyDeleteI keep thinking about Alpha & Omega, the novella which stars Anna and Charles' story in Patricia Briggs' books. Wonderful! For me the perfect pace and amount of elements! Too bad most authors don't plan the same way! lol
I feel like I can count on one hand the novellas/short stories that wowed me and felt complete, just not a format that really works for me.
DeleteHope you've had a happy holidays!
There was a time in the mid-aughts where a bunch of anthologies were basically "here's the first story/prequel for four or five new series". This could work really well, or backfire spectacularly, depending on the author. Because writing short yet satisfiying genre romance is really hard, and more so when one has to cram in the worldbuilding of a series!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I laughed, for I too have the problem of "I don't really like (X), why do I have so many of (X) in my TBR?"
I feel like those anthologies got me a couple times and I went and bought books in the series because I am an absolute sucker for that dopamine hit of a promised coupling.
DeleteHope springs eternal readers!