Rating: 3 Stars
Genre: Romance
Summary: This is a collection of 5 short stories followed by excerpts from each author's latest book.
Jill Shalvis's story is entitled "Dream a Little Dream" this story is about Ian, a fire fighter, and his long term friend/friend with benefits Melissa. Ian and Melissa had recently ended whatever relationship they had but that didn't matter when Melissa's apartment building goes up in flames with her inside it. Can this damaged couple find their way back together and rediscover their joy in the season?
Kristen Ashley's story "Every Year" involves 2 brothers, Shy and Landon, who are spending their first really good Christmas with Shy's girlfriend's family.
Hope Ramsay tell the story of a mother and infant in very desperate circumstances who end up in just the right barn on Christmas Eve in "Silent Night"
Molly Cannon starts off with a professional organizer turning up on the doorstep of a not so organized single guy in "Have Yourself a Messy Little Christmas."
The collection wraps up with Marilyn Pappano's "A Family for Christmas" which tells the story of a doctor who has agreed to spend 2 years in a small town and finds himself spending a lot of time with the town's favorite elf Ilena and her little boy.
My Impression: I probably liked Shalvis's story the best of the 5. I thought she made a smart decision in writing about a couple that already had history. I liked that they each had something to give each other and that they had so much of a backstory. The stories by Cannon, Ramsay and Pappano were all good but involved strangers meeting and falling madly and permanently in love in a very short period of time. This is something I really dislike in most romance short stories. Despite that, these were 3 entertaining and Christmas-y stories. I especially like the story by Pappano which is set in a small town full of likable people. I can easily see several books coming from the "Margarita girls" that get mentioned in the book. I'm definitely going to hunt more of her books up. The main flaw in this series was Ashley's story. I'm really not sure what it was really about and to be honest nothing about it interested me enough to reread it to figure it out. It involved a large family that all had an assortment of nicknames and 2 brothers who hadn't come from good situations. I think this is a continuation of one of her full length books but nothing about the story made me want to read any more of Ashley's work.
*I received this book through Netgalley for review purposes.
I agree with all of that. I liked the Cannon one too because it didn't end with an implied HEA.
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