#TBRChallenge 2019: Holiday Kisses Anthology

The Book: Holiday Kisses by Jaci Burton, Shannon Stacey, HelenKay Dimon and Alison Kent

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Carina Press, 2011, three out of four stories part of series (exception: Alison Kent), stories available in anthology edition and sold separately.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I had a print copy of this, which means I must have picked it up at an RWA conference...but it's not autographed. Maybe I picked it up as part of a Carina/Harlequin spotlight? My personal cataloging notes are sketchy (to put it mildly).

The Review: I've always liked anthologies as a way to "sample" authors without having to expend a lot of time and energy.  I don't read nearly as many of them these days because thanks to digital many shorts are now available separately. I've obviously had this anthology languishing for a while, short works well for me this time of year (even more so than usual) so I landed on it pretty quickly for this month's challenge.

A Rare Gift by Jaci Burton kicked things off and suffered a bit because I personally have issues with the sibling's ex trope.  As someone who has sisters, the idea of boffing one of their exes (not to mention an ex-husband!!!) is an immediate no-go for me.  Calliope Andrews moved back home and started up a daycare center.  She's outgrowing her space though and wants to add an addition.  For that she calls Wyatt Kent, whose family runs a small construction outfit.  Wyatt was married to her sister, Cassandra, and they divorced two years ago.  It was not a happy fun-time divorce (are they ever?), he's still surly over it, and Calliope has had the hots for Wyatt since she was 15 (because, of course).

Cassandra isn't a dead ex (it works better for me when they're dead) and Wyatt, while not pining over his ex, still obviously has not "let it go."  So while I appreciated that Calliope was a heroine who knew what she wanted and went after it - the neatly tied up ending, the rushed "lets get married and start making babies yesterday" in the last chapter - it just didn't work for me.  Gurl, HE HAD A DISASTER MARRIAGE WITH YOUR SISTER!  Holidays are gonna be awkward.  But I'm a big enough person to admit that this is very much a personal preference thing and YMMV.

Final Grade = C

Mistletoe and Margaritas by Shannon Stacey was a novella that damn near ripped my guts out and was my favorite in the anthology.  Justin McCormick has loved Claire Rutledge since he first laid eyes on her.  The problem being that his BFF got there first. Brendan and Claire dated, got married, and had five years together before he died in an accident. Claire has been grieving for 2 years and during that time her and Justin have become inseparable BFFs.  It's getting harder for Justin to hide his feelings and Claire's starting to have very not-just-friend thoughts about Justin.  One holiday party, a couple of cocktails and some mistletoe kicks open the door.  This one features another fast marriage proposal, but works a bit better given the long friendship.  My only quibble in what is an engaging and emotional romance.

Final Grade = B+

The only reasons I didn't DNF It's Not Christmas Without You by HelenKay Dimon is because it's a novella and Dimon is an engaging writer.  Carrie Anders left her small West Virginia hometown for a dream job at a museum in Washington D.C. two hours away.  She broke it off with her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Austin Thomas, who runs a Christmas tree farm with his father and brother.  Austin thought that Carrie would get this crackpot idea of moving to The Big City out of her system and come home...but it's been six months.  So he drops serious cash, persuades his brother, and they rent a lot outside the heroine's apartment building to sell Christmas trees.  He's going to convince her to quit her job, come home, and marry him.

The hero in this story is a thundering jackass, borderline Neanderthal who completely disregards that the heroine has dreams and ambitions of her own separate from his precious man fee-fees.  To make matters worse, the heroine doesn't knee him in the giblets and send him packing. She puts up with his BS and keeps coming around the lot because she can't stay away.  I stuck with this story because I like Dimon's writing and it's short and it's kind of worth it in the end when the light finally dawns for Austin and he realizes he's an ass.  The problem being that I'm not sure I believe that he's reformed.  I mean, what are we talking here: a long distance relationship that consists of a 2 hour commute. This is not insurmountable IMHO and yet he's bound and determined to haul her home by her hair.  He sees the light but he's such a jackass for the majority of the story I'm not convinced they survive the first rough patch that happens after the happy ending.  And knowing Austin?  That rough patch probably happened within the first week.

Final Grade = C-

This Time Next Year by Alison Kent is a well done snowed-in-cabin-romance.  Brenna Keating is driving through the North Carolina mountains on the way to her grandmother's for Christmas when the predicted snow forecast shows up early. She's almost there when she swerves to avoid a deer and lands in a ditch. She's trapped, the snow is falling fast, and she probably would have frozen to death in her car if local doctor, Dillon Craig didn't happen upon her.  He's friends with her grandmother, and knows she's expecting Brenna. He frees her from her car and, the weather still terrible, takes her back to his cabin.  What you think happens next...happens next.

Brenna, a nurse, is spending one last Christmas with her grandmother before heading to Malawi for volunteer work. Her grandmother and her parents have all done similar work - kind of like a family calling.  Yet Brenna knows that her grandmother isn't getting any younger and this could very well be their last Christmas together.  Dillon served in Afghanistan as a medic, haunted by his war experiences and the fact that he was thousands of miles away from home when his father (who left him the cabin) died of a heart attack.

This is a nice, emotional, engaging romance featuring two grown-up characters who talk to each other.  I liked these two kids together and they form a partnership that naturally makes sense in my mind.  I've read several stories by Kent over the years and this is probably my favorite to date.  It's a nice contemporary romance.

Final Grade = B

Whew! Another year and another TBR Challenge complete.  I hope you all had fun participating and/or following along.  We're doing this again in 2020!  Be sure to check out this blog post for more information.

Review: Call Me

I've known Alison Kent for about as long as I'm been kicking around online Romancelandia - so when her home was flooded during Hurricane Harvey I wanted to support her in the quickest way possible.  I bought some of her books.  I've read Kent before, but as incredible as this is going to sound - I've never actually read any of her early category romances.

I know, right?!  Me.  Wendy.  Category Queen. 

Call Me was first published by Harlequin Temptation in 1996 and Kent's path to publication is one of the more incredible "first call" stories out there.  She was featured on an episode of the CBS news magazine, 48 hours.  The quality isn't the greatest, but you can watch the clip on YouTube. 

Harley Golden is on a flight back to Houston when she makes eye contact with a devastatingly handsome man across the aisle.  As they're disembarking from the plane he hands her his business card with the words "Call me" scrawled on the back.  Things like this don't happen to women like Harley.  Her self-confidence all ready at a low ebb thanks to an ex-husband who couldn't keep it in his pants, the idea of calling a perfect stranger?  She's not that brave.

Gardner Barnes is one of those millionaire cowboys that crop up in category romance fairly regularly these days.  He's got a busy working ranch, an 18-year-old brother about to graduate high school, and an uncle who lives with them.  His parents are gone, his love life non-existent.  Gardner eats, sleeps and works the ranch.  He's not the kind of guy to toss around his business card in the vain attempt to pick up women.  It's not his style.  But he takes one look at Harley sitting across from him on the plane and he can't say no.  He doesn't want to say no.  So Gardner Barnes does something totally out of character for the first time in his life.

What happens next is that of course Harley calls and of course they keep on calling each other.  The conflict of the story is essentially the long distance nature of their relationship (they're on opposite sides of the state from each other) and that they both want different things out of life.  Gardner wants to find a wife to squirt out a couple of kids for him because he's concerned about "the legacy" of the ranch.  But he doesn't want to fall in love because he doesn't believe in it because his parents screwed him up.  Because of course they did.

Harley's self-esteem took a hit when she divorced Brad so she has decided that the next time around she wants it all.  The whole shebang.  A man who will be devoted to her, worship her, and love her with every fiber of his being.  Oh, and she's not wild about the idea of having kids because, you guessed it, her parents screwed her up.  Because of course they did.

This story starts out fantastic.  It's hard to explain to readers not entrenched in category, but when an author is firing on all cylinders, the tight, shorter word count really sings.  And it sings here.  Kent hits all her emotional beats.  You can tell this was a story where she had an ample amount of time to polish and hone her craft (no looming deadline) because it's very tight and very sharp.

What didn't work as well for me?  The conflict in the second half.  Frankly Gardner begins thinking of Harley as a potential brood mare and that's just about as sexy as it sounds. 

Harley Golden embodied everything female - from the mystery of innocence, to the madness of seduction, to the arousing potential to carry his child.

I liked the guy well enough in the beginning, but when he's all "give up your business and squirt out a couple of kids for me but I can't love you because I don't believe in it" I was hoping that a West Texas lightning storm would fry his behind back to the Dark Ages. 

The Temptation line was billed as Harlequin's sexiest line (at that time) and the heroines definitely tended to run more modern.  We have that here.  Harley is in her 30s, divorced, and runs her own antique business.  Gardner is a sexy, virile cowboy who helps her find her groove thang.  But then it devolves into more traditional roles.  While Harley says she doesn't want kids, but she really means is "Yes, I want kids but only with a husband who loves me" and Gardner is like the Regency era Duke who simply wants to find a woman to squirt out an heir and a spare without any emotional entanglements getting in the way.  The whole thing felt very 1990s.  One foot in "modern" and one foot in "traditional" roles. 

It's probably unfair for me to ding this story for that reason, but here I am - dinging away.  The further along I read the more annoyed I became.  Great premise, interesting characters, and then it devolves into this baby conflict which...ugh.  The long distance relationship, the fact they both have demanding businesses and screwed up childhoods?  Should have been enough.  So what started out as a solid B read slid downhill the further we descended into Baby Drama-Rama.

Final Grade = C

Poor Little Rich Boy

Undeniable by Alison Kent is the first book in a new series set in tiny Crow Hill, Texas and features three hunky BFF's known as "The Dalton Gang."  With small town romances currently still insanely popular and the uptick of interest in erotic romance, this book has all the ingredients to be a big success.  So it's really too bad I spent the whole novel wanting the bitch-slap the hero into next week.

Dax Campbell left Crow Hill at 18 and hasn't looked back.  His asshole Daddy was pressuring him to go to law school and take over the family firm, his mother was indifferent to her own children while taking up various social causes, and all he wanted to do was be a cowboy.  As a kid he worked for the Dalton's, a married, childless couple who really needed the help on their ranch.  Along with Dax, they hired on his BFF's Boone and Casper.  When Tess Dalton dies, she leaves the ranch to all three boys.

Making a go of the struggling ranch won't be easy, and now Dax finds his head turned by Arwen Poole, proprietress of the local saloon.  They went to high school together, and Arwen has a major unrequited lust for Dax.  When she hears he's back in town she decides to slake that lust and get him out of her system for good.  Dax has been celibate for far too long and a "just sex" affair seems like a good idea.  That is until their pasts and feelings get in the way.

Heroes like Dax annoy the ever-lovin' crap out of me.  They're hot, hunky, and good in bed - which means that apparently gives them a free pass when it comes to behaving like an asshole.  His answer is to use people.  Use women for sex, completely disregard his younger sister who was left to pick up the pieces after he took off, and run away when he can't deal with the fact that Daddy Doesn't Love Him.  So he'll take what Arwen offers and then flee the scene of the crime faster than a burglar hearing police sirens.  He'll leave town at 18, NEVER CONTACT HIS SISTER AT ALL!!!!!, then when he rolls back to into town it takes him weeks to CONTACT HIS SISTER!!!!!

ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

And the women in this story?  Keep giving this jerk-face a free pass.  Oooooh, poor Dax.  Daddy doesn't love him.  At least Arwen has the decency to be mad at him on occasion, but naturally the moment he takes out his Magic Penis all is forgiven.

Just shoot me.

So what are we left with?  Well, the positive stuff.  Granted Dax's sister Darcy is your classic Martyr Secondary Character, but I flat-out liked her, and her martyrdom is easier to swallow when you couple it with the fact that part of the reason she got that way is because Dax is a baby who perpetually runs away when there's even a whiff of conflict.  I also liked Arwen.  She has her own Daddy Issues, and while she ran away from dealing with that baggage, she at least carved out a life for herself.  The final showdown between Dax and Daddy I could have cared less about - but Arwen seeing her father again?  Oh man, great stuff!

The sex here is plentiful, steamy, and blessedly avoids being "trendy" for the most part (no BDSM, but Arwen does have nipple rings - which all I can say is OUCH!).  The way the condom issue was handled didn't work for me (especially when you factor in Dax's past man-whore shenanigans), but it was nice to read an erotic romance where, outside of some buttsecks, the sexy times were largely steamy and vanilla.  There ain't nothing wrong with vanilla folks - just saying.

The small town stuff is also quite good.  As much as I came to loathe Dax, I got sucked into the setting and various characters.  I can see myself reading other books in this series, and I can see lots of readers getting hooked as well.

The final word is that mileage is going to vary here.  I know a lot of readers who will have no problem with Dax's behavior because he's, to put it bluntly, the hero (now if the heroine behaved in this manner, that's another story entirely and don't try to deny it.....).  Given my distaste for one of the main characters that would normally mean a book landing somewhere in my D range, but outside of Dax?  I liked the rest of the book.  And even with me being annoyed, if I can see myself reading another book in this series?  Yeah, we're grading on a curve.

Final Grade = C-