Pam's Review: Unwrapped anthology

Unwrapped
~Erin McCarthy, Donna Kauffman,Kate Angell

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Brava
Publish Date: September 1, 2011
ISBN-10: 0758251327
ISBN-13: 978-0758251329
ASIN: B005CRY8JK

From Goodreads:
From the streets of Chicago to the back roads of Kentucky to the wild dunes of a Scottish isle, mistletoe and mischief are this season's hottest gifts...

Blue Christmas
While a blizzard blankets the world outside, Blue Farrow burrows into the arms of her highway hunk at the No Tell Motel. The road might be closed for dangerous conditions, but the couple navigates their own Kentucky Christmas curves. Nice and oh-so-naughty, Blue and her man open up to each other as they keep the Yule log burning.

Santa in a Kilt
The wind-whipped December sands of the isle of Kinloch invigorate Kira McLeod as she sets out to tame rugged Shay Callaghan, a Scottish bachelor as wary of a wedding ring as a snowman is of the hot sun. It'll take all the wiles of the canny islanders to weave a perfect Celtic Christmas for all....

Snow Angel
Snowed under in Chicago, free spirit Allie is trapped in Dutton's department store on Christmas Eve when the lights go off and the holiday romance heats up. Our snow angel finds herself face to face with the dashing Aiden, the heir to the retail riches and her host for a night of winter wonder...

Hmmmm, a Christmas anthology. Three romantic stories, one book, with Christmas as the theme? Sounds good right? Well, it mostly was; let me break it down by story:

Blue Christmas by Erin McCarthy
This was my first time reading anything by Erin McCarthy, but it most certainly will not be my last. I read Blue Christmas, approximately 90 pages, in one sitting. The main character'’s name is Blue, and she meets her leading man with fate’s help of a car accident due to a massive snow storm. (Fortunately no one was hurt). The storm is so bad that both of them have to stay the night at a local hotel. See where this is going? This was a great story with fantastic writing, and if I were to rate it by itself it would be a five star story.

Santa in a Kilt by Donna Kauffman 
The only reason I read this story all the way through was because it was only a hundred pages. I'’ll be honest; this one took me a few days to read because I was so bored. The story is about Shay Callaghan and Kira McLeod. They both have emotional baggage; Kira was hurt from a divorce, and Shay is wary of relationships because he sees couples downfalls in his profession as a divorce attorney. Not only is the story boring, but random things happened that had nothing to do with the plot, and left me saying to myself, why did I have to read those extra pages? Anyways, if I were to rate this story by itself, it would be a one.

Snow Angel by Kate Angell 
This is a Christmassy story that starts out on the ski slopes. Allie loves skiing and meets a handsome man named Aiden; they end up having a one night fling. Allie wakes up and gets scared; her feelings are way too strong for him. So she leaves him before he wakes up. Neither of them could find each other if they wanted to; they didn’t know each other'’s last names. Three years later they bump into each other and have a little snowbound time together. I really liked this story. It felt warm and romantic. This alone would be a four.

So, two out of three great stories is why this book only got a three star rating from me. It would have received a much higher one if not for Santa in a Kilt (the story, wink wink).



My Rating:3 stars Pam
Book received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Four Dukes and a Devil Anthology

I bought this book because I love Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series. I've never heard of the other authors.

Things I love about anthologies:

1. No long, boring back story. You jump right into the action.
2. Good way to "test drive" new-to-me authors.
3. If I hate the story, there are more to choose from.


Things I hate about anthologies:

1. You get into the story and suddenly it's over.
2. You can get characters from a series you're not familiar with.

Four Dukes and a Devil contains five stories. The first story, The Irish Duke, by Cathy Maxwell, was good. A 26-year-old spinster, Susan, starts a business (shocking!) as an advisor for young women in society looking to meet appropriate husbands. One of her selling points is "The Irish Duke" - it's a little known fact that the Irish Duke follow English and Scottish Dukes in order of precidence. The English families are horrified - they didn't know. Of course, she does not mention they are still titled and there are only two in existence. Then, at a dance with her "charges", she comes across a very irate gentleman - the Duke of Killeigh, and Irish Duke. He questions why no one will dance with him and learns Susan is indirectly responsible. He hatches a plan to make her renounce her story and ends up falling in love.

The second story, The Duke Who Came To Dinner, by Elaine Fox, was a contemporary romance that started out with a bang....a naked woman riding down the street on her bicycle! This story had two Dukes -a ghost that was a Duke and a Duke who is actually a dog, specifically the dog who stole the aforementioned clothes! It was a nice story about a normally shy woman who got out of her "comfort zone".

The third story is by Jeaniene Frost - Devil to Pay. Cat and Bones make a brief cameo, Mencheres has a bit more of a part. As you can probably tell from the title, this was the Devil section of the book. Elise is a vampire who is slowly losing touch with humanity. She runs across a man, Blake, who is in some sort of trouble. Turns out the trouble is he's posessed by a demon and the only way to get rid of it is to die; the only problem is that if he's near people the demon will pass to another person. Elise and Mencheres come up with a plan to get rid of the demon, but Elise is falling for Blake and doesn't want him to die. Is there any way to save him?

The fourth story, Catch of the Century, by Sophia Nash, is a historical. Victoria Givan is a 30-year-old spinster governess, traveling with three young charges to a new assignment. She has some difficulties and they end up walking along the side of the road when they are almost run over by a fancy coach. The owner, John Varick, gets out to apologize and ends up offering a ride to Ms. Givan and her charges thinking he's giving her a short ride, until he realizes her destination is 60 miles away! He feels obligated to take them and then deposit them at their destination, but once they arrive it's uninhabitable. He arranges for them to stay at his place, which is nearby, and attraction develops. Mr. Varick has a secret identity that is not revealed until later in the story.

The last story, Charmed by her Smile, by Tracy Anne Warren, is also a historical. I must say this was my favorite story. The young heroine, India Byron, is at a ball and grabs a stranger and implores him to kiss her...she's being hounded by an unwanted suitor and hopes that seeing her kiss someone else will put him off. It works, but she finds herself attracted to the stranger. They part after a second kiss, never to see each other again, so she thinks. A few weeks later she is at a friend's country home for a week, and her unwanted, very persistent suitor is there. He proclaims his love and tells her he will have her. She tells him she is almost engaged to the gentleman he saw her kissing earlier. Then, to her surprise, she runs into the gentleman at the country house! He agrees to her request to pretend to be courting her, then she finds out he's a Duke! Of course, there's attraction, but the Duke is not intersted in marriage and tries to keep his distance. Then, India gets into some trouble. What's a girl to do?

All in all, five very delightful short stories. I am a big fan of Jeaniene Frost but now I've also been introduced to some new-to-me authors and look forward to discovering more of their work.