Book Review: Small Town Christmas

Three heartwarming holiday stories 
to prove that love is the greatest gift of all 

Kissing Santa Claus 
NASCAR driver Logan Perrish returns to Lucky Harbor, Washington, with love in his heart and a ring in his pocket. But can Sandy Jansen forget the past and give him a second chance? Or will Logan be spending another Christmas alone?

I'll Be Home for Christmas 
After ignoring the advice of Miz Miriam Randall, local matchmaker, Annie Roberts expects another hum drum holiday in Last Chance, South Carolina. But when a stray cat arrives in the arms of Army sergeant Matt Jasper, a calico named Holly just may be the best matchmaker of all.

O Little Town of Bramble 
All Ethan Miller wants for Christmas is to celebrate in Bramble, Texas, with family and friends. But when his childhood neighbor, Samantha Henderson, comes home for the holiday, Ethan realizes that the girl-next-door could be the girl of his dreams

I know it's not December, but for those of you who like to plan your reading list ahead, here's a good option.  It's a collection of short stories by Jill Shalvis, Hope Ramsey, and Katie Lane.  These stories are about just what the main title proclaims - Small Town Christmas.

I like my Christmas stories quaint and homey.  These three stories deliver that!    Yes, they are romances, which I don't read much of anymore, but they gave me such a warm glow inside as I was reading, I couldn't put the book down.

Each story has characters that are charming and quirky, from the main characters to the friends and family.  Christmas is such a focal point in each tale that I could almost smell the cookies and see the tinsel falling from the book as I opened it.

This book is a quick, easy read.  There are no in-depth plots as they are short stories.  I found myself wanting more, but that will have to be found in the other books from these three lovely authors.  Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read the book.

I give this book 3 Christmas Penguins!

Book Review: A Clockwork Christmas - Anthology

Changed forever after tragedy, a woman must draw strength from her husband's love. A man learns that love isn't always what you expect. A thief steals the heart of a vengeful professor. And an American inventor finds love Down Under. Enjoy Victorian Christmas with a clockwork twist in these four steampunk novellas.

Anthology includes:

Crime Wave in a Corset by Stacy Gail
This Winter Heart by PG Forte
Wanted: One Scoundrel by Jenny Schwartz
Far From Broken by JK Coi

I know it's past Christmas, but I prefer to think I'm early for Christmas 2012!

I was really excited to get this collection of Steampunk stories to read for Christmas.  I just discovered the genre last year and was looking for any good stories I could find. I found this on Netgalley and was given a copy for review from the publisher. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed in this collection.

First off, there was little to no Christmas anywhere.  One of the stories just mentioned it as the heroine was ill and slept through it.  If a book is going to be called a Christmas Anthology, then Christmas needs to be the main theme throughout.  It wasn't.  Bah Humbug!

Then there's the fact that these stories totally put the "steam" in Steampunk!  Every story had fairly explicit sex scenes in them.   I'm not a prude, but I prefer my literature without the sex.  I like the romance that just hints at it and lets me imagine the rest.  Nothing in the synopsis led me to believe there would be such steamy scenes.  I worried about any teens who might grab the book because of the steampunk genre.  

The stories themselves weren't captivating, so with the two strikes against them already, I just didn't really enjoy this anthology.

I give this book 2 Christmas Penguins!

• File Size: 691 KB
• Print Length: 353 pages
• Publisher: Carina Press (December 5, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005Z1C47Q

Christmas Book Review: A Christmas Secret: A Novel (Christmas Stories #4) by Anne Perry

Just in time for the holidays, Anne Perry gives her fans a marvelous gift: a new yuletide yarn full of light celebration and dark mischief.

Dominic Corde is thrilled to “fill the robe” as substitute vicar in the village of Cottisham, while the Reverend Wynter is away on a three-week Christmas holiday. Glad to escape his dreary London flat and a less-than-satisfying job as church curate, Dominic and his beloved wife, Clarice, set off for what they hope will be a lovely winter getaway.

Upon arrival, in the midst of a frigid, exceptionally snowy season, Dominic and Clarice are welcomed by warm, hospitable neighbors and enchanted by the cozy, inviting vicarage. Everything seems almost too perfect. Dominic’s only concern is how he will be received by the congregation, who hold the Reverend Wynter in such high regard. But as Clarice soon discovers, she and Dominic have much more dire matters to worry about. It turns out that the Reverend Wynter isn’t on holiday at all–and that something very sinister has transpired.

As a blizzard leaves Cottisham treacherously snowbound and the isolated village swirls with unsavory secrets, Dominic and Clarice suddenly find themselves in deadly danger.

This is the first Anne Perry novel I've ever read.  I had heard she was an excellent writer, famous for her period mysteries.  For several years, she has taken characters from those mystery novels and written Christmas mysteries.  This one is #4 in the series.  I normally will only read series in the order they are written, but all of these are stand alone novels, so it's ok to read them any order you wish.

A Christmas Secret is a light, easy to read mystery.  It stars the vicar Dominic Corde and his wife, Clarice, from the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series.  All the characters in this book are full of life, each with their own personality quirks.

I particularly enjoyed Clarice who, even though a female in the Victorian era, was a very strong lady and didn't rely on her husband for everything.  She did her own part in looking for clues in solving the murder.

This is a great Christmas book to pick up if you enjoy mysteries, historical fiction, and don't want anything too heavy. 

 

I give this book 4 Christmas Penguins!

Hardcover:  198 pages

Publisher:  Ballantine Books; 1st edition (November 7, 2006)

ISBN-10:  0345485815

ISBN-13:  978-0345485816

Paperback:  160 pages

Publisher:  Headline (October 31, 2007)

ISBN-10:  0755334299

Format:  Ebook 122 kb

Print Length: 208 pages

Sold by:  Random House Digital, Inc.

ASIN:  B000MAH7V8

Christmas Book Review: The Christmas Thief by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark

Alvirah Meehan, the lottery winner turned amateur sleuth, teams up with private investigator Regan Reilly to solve another Christmas mystery. In Deck the Halls, they rescued Regan's kidnapped father. This time they get in the middle of a case involving a beautiful eighty-foot blue spruce that has been chosen to spend the holidays as Rockefeller Center's famous Christmas tree. The folks who picked the tree don't have a clue that attached to one of its branches is a flask chock-full of priceless diamonds that Packy Noonan, a scam artist just released from prison, had hidden there over twelve years ago." "An excited Packy breaks his parole and heads to Stowe, Vermont, to reclaim his loot. Once there, he is horrified to discover that his special tree will be heading to New York City the next morning. With a bumbling crew consisting of Jo-Jo, Benny, and an unsuccessful poet, Milo, he knows he has to act fast." What Packy does not know is that Alvirah and Regan are on a weekend trip to stowe with Alvirah's husband, Willy; Regan's fiance, Jack; Regan's parents, Luke and Nora; and Alvirah's friend Opal, a lottery winner who lost all her winnings in Packy's scam. On Monday morning when they're supposed to head home, they learn that the tree is missing, Packy Noonan may be in the vicinity, and Opal has disappeared 

Mary Higgins Clark has long been a favorite author of mine.  Her daughter Carol Higgins Clark has been writing with her and alone for quite some time now, but I'm partial to Mary.  This book was a joint effort.  Unfortunately, I was disappointed.  

The main characters have been written about in other books, but in The Christmas Thief, they lacked substance.  The attempt to fill the reader in on them and their personalities from past stories was half-hearted at best.  The bad guys didn't come off any better, either.  I think they were supposed to be bumblers, providing comic relief, but they weren't very funny - just inept.

Worst of all, this was supposed to be a Christmas book, the main theme is about the tree which was earmarked to become the Rockefeller Center.  It didn't feel "Christmassy" at all to me.  Just because a book is set at Christmas time doesn't make it a Christmas book.  The author must add those bits of Christmas spirit in the writing, and the Higgins Clark ladies failed to do it.

I'm afraid I can't recommend this one.  It's a very quick read, so if you find it at your library and are curious, you can go that route.  Otherwise, keep looking.

I give this book 2 Christmas Penguins.

Paperback:  336 pages

Publisher:  Pocket (October 26, 2010)

ISBN-10:  1451609361

ISBN-13:  978-1451609363