Authors: Maggie Shayne, Erin McCarthy, Nalini Singh, and Jean JohnsonCategory: Paranormal Romance
Rating: 8/10
Rating: 8/10
The cover says that this is a holiday collection, but I didn't get much of a holiday feel from the stories as I read them. The season was more of a passing background detail and I wouldn't have missed it.
Melting Frosty by Maggie Shayne
This is one of those romances where a lot of cliches are thrown in. Complete strangers who are totally opposite of each other are stuck in a remote location due to the weather. A Serendipity-like coincidence shows that the two were meant to be together. I didn't really feel the romance, as the characters slept together because there was nothing else to do in the middle of a snowstorm, and the fact that she had his father's long-lost hat meant that they were supposed to be together.
Charlotte's Web by Erin McCarthy
This story was pretty amusing. Charlotte and Will love each other, but they don't know the other's feelings. Charlotte's two younger sisters convince her to give in to her witchy heritage and construct a lust spell for Will. The younger sisters can see Charlotte's and Will's feelings plainly even though the two are so oblivious to it and tell Charlotte this. She goes along with the plan but tells the truth to Will, only to find that her sisters are right about his feelings. This one was sweet despite the steaminess, and comes in second to Beat of Temptation.
This was my favorite of all the stories. In Singh's Psy/Changeling series, Tamsyn and Nate are already mates and have a family. Beat of Temptation is the story of their tumultuous courtship. Tammy and Nate are both members of the DarkRiver leopards, and have been lucky enough to find each other as mates. However, when the mating bond appeared, Tammy was only fifteen, and Nate waited for her to grow up. After several years of distancing himself from her, he's used to ignoring the bond, and tells Tammy that she needs to experience life for herself before they become mates. However, Tammy has loved Nate for so long that she doesn't need to go anywhere else to be truly happy. All the relationships in the series so far have been psy-changeling, so this story really gives you insight into the mating bond between two changelings. The fact that it was Christmas during the story didn't affect the plot. It could've been any time of year and the story would've been fine.
I was a little confused by this one. An engaged couple run an inn that has run into some financial trouble. A few men trying to make trouble for them are stuck in the inn as well, when three odd travelers show up needing rooms. During their stay, the couple's financial troubles are solved and they make friends with the jerks who were threatening them at the beginning of the events. It was weird and I wasn't really interested in this assortment of characters. Miracles seemed to happen with these three travelers, and the characters were puzzled, but didn't think anything of it. To be honest, I was really bored, and it wasn't much of a romance and not sure if it really counted as a paranormal either.
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