You Had Me at Christmas Anthology
Releases: October 17, 2016
Holiday Contemporary Romance
Self Published

Reviewed by Mandi

PLAY by Karina Bliss

Jared and Kayla were high school sweethearts, and Kayla always encouraged Jared to follow his musical dreams. Now with two young kids, he has achieved fame. Jared finds himself on tour constantly, and trying to manage his home life without guilt of being away all the time weigh him down. This story presents a marriage in trouble trope, one of my favorites. Jared deeply loves his wife, and she loves him, but they have to confront the fact that the dynamic of their relationship has changed. Jared used to be a stay at home dad as Kayla supported the family. Now he is off being a rock star and she is home all day. They have disconnected and they don’t know how to fix it.

Jared decides to make it a point to woo his wife again – but there are obstacles. I thought their marriage woes felt very genuine.

Her beta mate had turned wolf. Every time he returned from touring it took him longer to re-assimilate into real life.

He’d become more confident but less patient, more passionate but less tender, more self-centered and less considerate. Less hers.

Kayla is also struggling with being in the spotlight. Worried about her weight, she hates it when people immediately judge her on her appearance. I loved their journey to finding peace again. It’s rough and bumpy – and well done.

Grade: B+

ONE NAUGHTY LITTLE CHRISTMAS by Stephanie Doyle

Kate owns her own successful business and is proud of it, but she is also a work-aholic with no time for dating. Alone on Christmas, she feels sad and depressed and takes a chance with a dating app. SHhe finds a man on the app that is attractive, and sends him a chat (and then drinks a lot of wine to cope with what she just did). To her surprise, he writes back, and they start a long conversation that turns into a sexy end.

They decide to meet in person, and they have a disastrous first date. John is an ex-con, having hit a police officer, and serving time. Now he runs a commercial fishing boat and when Kate walks in for their date, he doesn’t feel worthy of her. They try again though (whew!) and things work better eventually. Cute and sexy – I enjoyed Kate and John a lot.

Grade: B

TWELVE KISSES UNTIL CHRISTMAS by Jennifer Lohmann

Jennifer Lohmann is a new to me author and I like her voice. Selina has an abusive step-father who comes drunkenly knocking on her door one night – and Selina knows something very bad is about to happen. She escapes and runs  and is just super down on her life. She is trying to go to college, but she barely has any money and her home life is something she can’t return to. She works at a local diner, and one evening a handsome man comes in. Marc just sold a phone texting program to a huge company and is now a millionaire. After working so hard, Marc decides to retire and travel. But after just a little while on the road, he realizes how lonely he is. He is also worried about the program he sold and how he could make it better. He starts to become obsessed with it. When he meets Selina at the diner, he spontaneously asks her to travel with him, as she needs a new start and he craves a companion.

I enjoyed these two so much. Selina is so tired of her home-life and feels so trapped in her small town in Idaho. Her emotions feel so heavy and genuine. Marc comes along, and even though he is lonely he is very careful about not taking advantage of Selina. He knows of her situation and how vulnerable she is, and he is nothing but a gentleman. And he says swoony things like this:

“In case you had any doubts…I mean every word I say to you. The past couple of months have been a series of ups and downs for me. They’ve been mostly ups, really, but I’m feeling a bit lost with myself right now. I’m still floundering around in my life and in my head, but in that diner, I found you, and I can tell that you are worth knowing.”

She is worth knowing!!! I love that line so much.

Marc is flawed. He has a propensity to obsess over his work – but they acknowledge it and decide to work through it together. For a shorter story. I feel like this still felt like they slowly get to know each other and then fall in love. Well done.

Grade: B+

SNOW-KISSED by Laura Florand
(previously published as part of the Snow Queen Series)

I read and reviewed this in 2013 and loved it. I’ll copy and paste my review here:

I really enjoy marriage in trouble themed romance books. It is a different dynamic than boy meets girl and fall in love. These books usually have older characters and always seem more…mature. And the pain – oh the pain. I love to torture myself with a very painful book and hope to be rewarded with warmth at the end. Laura Florand does a nice job with this.

Kai and Kurt were once happily married but three consecutive miscarriages put Kai over the edge. It wasn’t just the loss of three babies, but the sever post-partum depression she started to endure. She starts to lash out at Kurt, refusing any help he tries to give her. She feels unworthy to be loved and eventually walks out of the marriage. With no contact from him for a year (maybe even a year and a half) she winds up at her mother in-law’s cabin one winter day. At this point, her and Kurt are still legally married but he did sell the house and quietly put half of the proceeds into her bank account. Kurt shows up at the cabin, as he expects his mother to also come for a meeting. Kai creates food segments for her mother inlaw’s magazine. But the snow starts to fall and Kurt’s mother doesn’t show up. What unfolds is a day of Kurt and Kai coming to terms with the why’s and the how’s and the what’s next.

What really shines in this book is the way Laura Florand gets us really into the characters heads. Especially into Kai’s. We can feel her pain and her anxiety. Florand really goes deep and it’s very raw in some places. Kai feels like she failed everyone and that too much time has passed to try to mend anything. Her anxiety over being alone with Kurt is so palpable. That feeling that it is just too much emotion for Kai to deal with really comes across.

I also think there is a fine line in this book placing all the blame at Kai’s feet. And I’m not saying that is the case. But a lot of it falls on Kai, and I think this author does a nice job with how she delicately works Kurt’s feelings and his past into the story.

On top of all the pain is hope and a calm that eventually settles. And in between the intense pain and the eventual calm are some super sexy sex scenes.

Laura Florand picks up her readers and gently places them into the extremely turbulent, painful lives of these two characters effortlessly. I feel like I’ve been with these two a lot longer than 130 pages.

Rating: B+

CHRISTMAS EVE: A LOVE STORY by Molly O’Keefe
(previously published in the Sweet Dreams Anthology benefiting Diabetes research)

I felt a little disconnected to this one. It takes place over a few years of Christmas Eves. Dean and Trina have grown up together and are fond of one another but their fathers are in a horrible feud, which drives Dean and Trina apart. Trina leaves for college but Dean is more interested in learning land management. They meet on Christmas Eve and we get to see how their relationship evolves. It’s an interesting style – a glimpse into their lives during different years – but not my favorite.

Grade: C+

Only $.99, I highly recommend this. Kindle l Nook