This is a newer addition to my bookshelf - in fact, I just got it last week as a present while grocery shopping. I love romance anthologies, as I feel they offer more, and they are normally more romance-oriented over adult themes than other members of the genre.
Winter Wishes
Christmas Kisses by Fern Michaels, 101 pages
Blue Moon Harbor by Susan Fox, 104 pages
Second Chance Christmas by Jules Bennett, 81 pages
Finding Colin by Leah Marie Brown, 98 pages
Book total: 399 pages (there are some blank pages and after words in there)
Each of these novellas is an easy read. They are all relatively short, and each is different in it's own way. The first has a quirky, creative heroine starting over fresh, the second are old lovers reunited, the third are people who originally met in hard circumstances being reintroduced in a different light, and the last is a woman fixated on the unattainable setting out to find it, but finding something new that may be a better fit.
Nice taglines, huh? I'm proud to say those little summaries are my own.
While each of these shorts are similar in that they involve Christmas, they are all different, too. Personally, I got the least enjoyment from Blue Moon Harbor, but that is, conversely, because it seems the most realistic to me. In the heroine's shoes, I'd want to punch the male lead, which makes the fictional lead a better woman than I am... maybe a little too unrealistically so? My favorite is a toss-up between lead author Fern Michael's addition and then Jules Bennett's Second Chance Christmas. Of the two, Michael's is the more light-hearted read, and a little more traditional for a quick, neatly-tied romance offer, while Jules adds in a bit more weighty subject matter, dealing with loss and, of course, second chances. I found Finding Colin enjoyable and different, both in that it is the only of the four stories to use first-person perspective, and that the heroine is relatably realistic in her quirks, if a bit, um, fan-girl-extreme for my tastes.
I was open about the fact I like sappy romances, and this is in that category. I honestly love books like this, especially around Christmas time. I can't explain why, I just do. I've been looking for these at my local used book store, but haven't had much luck, so I was overjoyed to find one at the grocery store that I was allowed to splurge on for $5.99. I won't completely gender-lock this one, as I know some men who read romances, but I do think it's geared more toward female audiences. Anyone who wants romance without in-your-face adult themes and likes the holidays will get something from this book, with probably young-adults and up that are interested in the genre being the best audience for the collective work.
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