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My Review:Title: Christmas With You: A feel-good holiday romance anthology
Author: Heidi McLaughlin, L.P. Dover, Cindi Madsen, R.J. Prescott, Amy Briggs
Published by: Forever
Release Date: November 20, 2018
Format: eARC
Pages: 335
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Holiday
Source: NetGalley
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 12 Books of Christmas Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 Author Love Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 New Release Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Winter 2018
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks
My rating:
Blurb:Bestselling authors Heidi McLaughlin, L. P. Dover, Cindi Madsen, R. J. Prescott, and Amy Briggs invite you to celebrate the holidays in small-town Friendship, Massachusetts, where a mysterious newcomer decides to play matchmaker for five lucky couples.
Snowflake Lane Inn by L. P. DoverThe owner of a picturesque inn gets a holiday surprise when a well-known fashion designer comes to stay and redesigns his future.
Runaway Christmas Bride by Cindi MadsenMaking a new life in Friendship certainly wasn't the plan, but the spirit of Christmas - along with the rugged local sheriff - leads to a change of heart for this runaway bride.
Christmas Lights by Amy BriggsA visitor to Friendship learns the true meaning of Christmas from a single dad and his young daughter.
Christmas Encounter by R. J. PrescottA famous Formula One driver finds all roads lead to Friendship -and love - this Christmas.
It's a Wonderful Holiday by Heidi McLaughlinA workaholic finds just the right Christmas magic to remind him about the most important thing in life: spending time with his wife and family.
I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.
Overall: 4 stars — Overall a pretty successful Christmas anthology. I liked that Gabe and the town of Friendship were both commonalities to each story, though that can sometimes cause continuity issues, because it’s hard for different authors to present the same things. Most of them seemed to fit, it was just the final story that felt a bit out of place with the others. But all captured the magic of Christmas and gave quick satisfying HEAs!
Snowflake Lane Inn by L. P. Dover
3.75 stars — This was super cute, but almost too cute. Like there wasn’t a whole lot of conflict, everything happened really easily. The roadblocks were really superficial, and it was just like reading a really long epilogue or something… Which is not to say I didn’t get happy butterflies for Layla and Colin! Their romance was seriously adorable and happy smiles. It just felt unfulfilling a bit I guess. I loved Colin’s sister and the machinations of Gabe.
Runaway Christmas Bride by Cindi Madsen
4.5 stars — OK, this is more what I was looking for! It was still super fast in terms of romance, but there’s an underlying push and pull between Regina and Emmett that keeps it from being a sugar overload. I LOVED Regina’s sass, and how she tried to coax smiles out of Emmett. And Emmett was simply adorable with his crush. Very satisfying.
Christmas Lights by Amy Briggs
4 stars — Jason totally made this one for me, he was super sweet! I loved the romance that developed between Samantha and Jason, it had all those first crush butterflies. I thought the whole story of bringing back Christmas magic to Sam was kinda sweet, though occasionally I didn’t always get Sam’s attitude. There was a LOT more Gabe in this story as well, and I’m on the fence about that! But all in all a satisfying Christmas read.
Christmas Encounter by R. J. Prescott
4.25 stars — Another super cute one! I loved the romance between Jensen and Lauren, it was just endearing and sweet and butterfly inducing! Lauren seemed a lot younger than the characters in the other books, but that’s partly just her life experience.
It’s a Wonderful Holiday by Heidi McLaughlin
3.5 stars — This was a second chance romance, and I think it just wasn’t quite what I was looking for. It looks at how marriage takes effort and time and care. Rory was pretty sweet, even if he was a bit clueless at the beginning. I occasionally had less patience for Gwen, though I appreciated that she tried not to let Ruby get caught up in their problems. There was just something forced about the story, especially with Gabe. He felt different than in the other stories, but that sometimes happens with anthologies. And as silly as this may seem, this one had a continuity issue with Christmas Lights…but maybe that was caught before the final copy.
I love R.J. Prescott! I’m so happy you liked her novella. I also usually like Cindi Madsen’s stuff usually. I think I might have to read this anthology. I’m going to make note of it. Great reviews! 🙂
I don’t think I’ve ever read R.J. Prescott, but hers was really cute!! I do like when anthologies are more hit than miss!
Oh really? She has a new adult boxing series I love called The Hurricane.
Damn girl, you are breezing through these anthologies!