A Christmas anthology featuring nine brand new, never-before-release novellas!
Available for a limited time only – download for free
Review (note – I only read four of these novellas)
Boyfriend by Sarina Bowen
This is a really cute read and an introduction to the upcoming Moo U series.
Abbi is a college student who works at a local sports bar where the college hockey team hang out – providing her with the perfect opportunity to perve on her crush, hockey player, Weston. When she learns that Weston hires himself out as a fake boyfriend for Thanksgiving events, she jumps at the chance and hires him to accompany her to an awkward family dinner.
Weston is thrilled to pick up his ‘date’ for Thanksgiving and learns that it’s the hot waitress from his local bar. Over the course of a car ride and a family dinner, the two of them banter and flirt, and Weston is the perfect ‘boyfriend’.
But how much is fake, and how much is real? And what happens when Thanksgiving is over?
It’s a quick read with a great set up and a nice amount of emotion. It’s not long enough for a lot of romantic development, but I was feeling the attraction, and I really enjoyed this one.
4 stars.
The Right One by Natasha Maddison
This is a fun and flirty brother’s best friend romance that made me smile, and it’s a complete standalone.
Leah’s life has just imploded – she’s been fired and come home to find that her long-term boyfriend has been cheating on her. It’s all too much to deal with so she jumps on a plane and heads home early for the holidays. She arrives at her brother’s bar planning on staying in the apartment upstairs, but her brother isn’t there, and his best friend is – now all grown up and pretty much unrecognisable from the boy she once knew.
Brett has been in love with Leah for as long as he can remember. He’s been living overseas for 8 years, and it’s been forever since they’ve seen each other, but from the moment she walks into his bar, he is smitten once again. Knowing that he has her to himself for the next few days, he goes all out to win over the girl of his dreams.
“I want you … I wanted you then, but I was a kid … now that I’m a man, I want you even more.”
It’s a fun set up, with lots of funny moments, and Brett is one confident, determined man. There is nothing subtle about his flirty winks and smiles or his brief touches, and he holds nothing back in letting Leah know how he feels. It’s refreshing and lots of fun, and Leah is powerless to resist.
I really enjoyed this story. I would have loved to have seen it as a full-length book, but it’s still a great read with lots of chemistry and the beginnings of a really sweet romance.
4 stars.
Christmas in Quincy by Devney Perry
This is such a cute read! A fun, feisty and sexy enemies-to-lovers romance that left me with a huge smile on my face. This the prequel to the upcoming Edens series, and as such is longer and more developed than the other novellas that I read in this anthology, and I loved it.
Cleo Hillcrest is escaping her life to spend Christmas in the small town of Quincy, Montana. She just can’t take another holiday with her smothering and overprotective father and her socialite step-mother, and she’s excited to be hiding out in a beautiful inn in the quaint and quiet town. But her father has other ideas, and sends his security guy to Quincy to drag her back home. And not just any security guy, but beefy bodyguard, Austin.
Cleo and Austin met years ago when her father hired him to protect her. Cleo didn’t want a bodyguard, and it seemed like Austin didn’t want to work with her either, and he was removed from her detail. But he’s still been around, tormenting her with his very presence, and she wants nothing to do with him. She also has no intention of leaving her holiday retreat. So, what is a bodyguard to do, other than bunk down with her?
It’s a great set-up and leads to lots of bickering, bantering, and fabulously snarky back-and-forth. But as they settle in together for Christmas, they relax around each other, they open up to each other, and suddenly everything starts to change.
OMG, I love these two together! It’s so much fun watching them constantly fight, knowing that there is so much more simmering beneath the surface. The story is written in dual POV so we know exactly what’s going on with both of them, and I was so excited to watch how everything would begin to change with them. And when it does, it’s sexy, swoony, and everything I was hoping for.
“Now that I’ve had you in my arms, I’m not letting you go.”
This novella is a great introduction to the small town of Quincy, Montana, and some of its inhabitants that I’m sure we’ll be reading about in the future. Rest assured it is a standalone that won’t leave you hanging, Cleo and Austin’s story is complete, and they are only holiday makers in town, but we get to meet a few other characters with the surname ‘Eden’, and I’m really excited to learn their stories.
It’s a quick read, but it’s got the feeling of a full story with great characters, and a well-developed, believable romance. There’s an epilogue which provides great closure for Cleo and Austin, and I finished this book with a huge smile on my face.
4 stars!
A Mayson Family Christmas by Aurora Rose Reynolds
This read gives us a very quick glance into the lives of each of the couples from the Until and Until Him/Her series. With each chapter written from a different POV, we get to see them all happy and living out their HEAs with their partners and children (and grandchildren!).
It’s little snippets rather than an actual story, definitely one for the fans.
3 stars.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!