Look Back Wednesday - December 14, 2016

LOOK BACK WEDNESDAY IS A FEATURE HERE ON MY BLOG.  I DECIDED TO  FEATURE BOOKS FROM DIFFERENT SHELVES ON GOODREADS.  SOME HAVE BEEN FEATURED ON MY BLOG AND SOME HAVE NOT.  

FOR DECEMBER I WENT TO MY CHRISTMAS ROMANCES SHELF.

  Christmas at Seashell Cottage by Donna Alward
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Christmas at Seashell Cottage is another of those heart-warming books that come out every Christmas season. If you are like me and love Christmas and the stories Christmas at Seashell Cottage is the book for you.

Charlie Yang and Dave Ricker are both great characters. Charlie feels like she has never fit in. She loves Jewell Cove but after a year still feels like an outsider. She meets Dave and a series of events start to change that feeling. Both have events from the past they must overcome to get to their HEA. That journey makes for a great story with a wonderful setting and side characters.

The story line is familiar but it is familiar because it works when used by an accomplished author like Donna Alward. Pick it up if you love Christmas Romances.

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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 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 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 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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Holiday Giveaway With Harlequin, November 5th - 12th.

Harlequin Holiday Giveaway!

Join me for a chance to win some great Christmas Stories from Harlequin.  The Prize Package is pictured and listed below.  Visit Rafflecopter at the end of this post for a chance to win.  North American mailing addresses only.  There are some great Christmas Romances this year.  You may win but if not you have great choices to purchase and read.

• One mass market paperback of each of:
  • Christmas with the Billionaire
  • Maybe this Christmas by Sarah Morgan
  • Snow Angel Cove by RaeAnne Thayne
  • The Heart of Christmas by Brenda Novak
  • The Lodge on Holly Road by Sheila Roberts
• One copy of Her Holiday Man by Shannon Stacey in the digital format of your choice
• One package of ornament charms
• One box of Harlequin-themed gift tags

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Little Christmas Jingle by Michele Dunaway

Christmas Contemporary Romance

What Goodreads says:

Kat Saunders needs a Christmas miracle. She’s expanded her vet practice to include a no-kill shelter, and she forgot to get the required permits. Now that a few neighbors have complained and she’s been summoned to court, she could lose everything she has worked for. When a gorgeous detective comes to her with an abused pit-bull, she does everything she can to save the puppy and soon realizes that brooding Jack Donovan might just be the answer to her legal woes. Jack, or Mr. December to fans of the Sexy Public Servants Charity Calendar, hates Christmas. As head of St. Louis’s first Animal Cruelty Task Force, Jack has seen the worst in people, especially around the holidays. But one sexy vet is getting under his skin with her tireless holiday cheer, intent on proving to him that there is Christmas magic in the air.

A Little Christmas Jingle adds another book to the feel good romances that come out around Christmas.  This one features a dog but in a very different way.  Jingle has been abused and is in danger of dying when Jack Donovan gets him to Kat Saunders vet practice.   This is not cute dog story; in fact it is just the opposite.  There is a very strong message about how much pet abuse there is in the world.

Dunaway does a great job of getting that message across without it getting in the way of the romance that is also at the heart of the story.  Both Kat and Jack are easy characters to like.  Both are devoted to their jobs and the jobs are what bring them together.  While they have that in common their views on Christmas are very different.  Kat loves it and Jack really hates it especially this year when he is Mr. December on a charity calendar. 

One of the fun parts of the story occurs when Jack really messes up the relationship between he and Kat and has to prove he can get into the Christmas Spirit.  There are other problems as well but in the end Jack and Kat get to their HEA.

ST. Martin’s published A Little Christmas Jingle by Michele Dunaway in 2014.

I received an ARC of A Little Christmas Jingle from Netgalley in return for a honest review.