Sunday, November 6, 2016

Short and Sweet Book Reviews # 53 - It Must Be Christmas by Jennife Cruise, Donna Alward and Mandy Baxter, The Falls by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, The Adventuress by Tasha Alexander

It Must Be Christmas: Three Holiday StoriesIt Must Be Christmas: Three Holiday Stories by Jennifer Crusie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What it not to like when you get three novellas with a Christmas theme and a romance. All three stories were fun to read but Hot Toy by Jennifer Cruise was the one that made me laugh out loud through out the story. A really fun story with toys and spies at its heart. Christmas at Seashell Cottage by Donna Alward had me wondering if I had read it before. I had not but I had read the novel that came after this story. A nice sweet romance with a baby at the heart of the story. Christmas with the Billionaire Rancher by Mandy Baxter was the story with the most explicit sex as a big part of the story line. Since I usual just skin those part this was a very fast read. All three have been published before so check before you buy to make sure you have not already read them. If not pick up It Must be Christmas for some nice Christmas Romances that are fun. The nice thing about three stories in one book; you can sip them one at a time between all of your holiday plans and get the complete story in a much smaller time frame.


The Falls: A Diving Universe Novel (Diving Universe, #5)The Falls: A Diving Universe Novel by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For those of us who are fans of the Diving Universe and have read the series from the start The Falls will probably not be what you expect. No Boss in this one. Instead it takes the readers to a Fleet Base that is still active but about to close. There is a mystery that starts with a pair of shoes left at Flisker Falls on the same day that the final closing date for this Fleet Base was announced. While the mystery is center stage for the story it also gives a lot of backstory and world building for the rest of the series.
There are also some great characters and two events that turn out to be connected.

I enjoyed the story and wondered if it would have any tie in to the previous books in the series since this happened many years in the future, not in the time the rest of the story takes place. Listen and look careful for near the end there is something that ties the book to events in the past. Rush says in her comments she started this story to flesh out the Fleet and how it operated but she realized that she had written an entire novel to get all the information in she wanted so decided to publish it for those of us who love the series. I think it would also work as a stand-alone or an introduction to the series.
There is a new book in the series coming out in 2016.


The Adventuress (Lady Emily, #10)The Adventuress by Tasha Alexander
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love Lady Emily books and I call them a slow burn mystery. This one starts when Emily and Colin go to France for the engagement party for Emily's life long friend Jeremy. No one expected Jeremy to ever marry but it seems he has found the perfect woman and plans to make her his wife. Nothing goes as expected. People are dying and Emily wants to know why. There are a lot of red herring along the way. While I though maybe I knew who and why things were happening actions in the story kept me guessing. A nice addition to the series. You can read this as a stand-alone. It is a good introduction to the series but like most series it is much better if you have read the previous books.

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