Ember, a wolf shifter, is ready to tell Max, a bear shifter, that they are mates when she overhears him tell his friends that he does not like fat women. Devastated she leaves. On Christmas day her brother who is also her alpha locks her in a cabin with Max where they need to work things out. Once they overcome their pride and egos, they do work it out.

I liked this book. I loved Ember. I could identify with her. I liked that the story is told from her point-of-view. Max is a little too smug and needs the uncertainty that Ember brings into his life. It took a while, but they did begin communicating which led to a satisfying ending.

Sleigh Bride by Xavier Neal

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Sleigh Bride let's it all hang out. Neal gives the heart a reason to smile, while putting the moves on the senses. Lark and Da'Nika are the sunshine in a snowstorm of lies. It's fiery. It's funny. It's emotional. For me it was love. Too bad it ended far too soon.



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by Alison Littlewood

This starts out pretty depressing. Leah has bought a house her husband wanted, but the husband and children are dead. The first chapter doesn't reveal how that happened, but focuses on Leah and her internal processing of her grief.

The writing in this one is poetic, just beautiful. The early plot progression reminds me of Stephen King. Mysterious voices, snowballs thrown by invisible entities, mysterious visions, etc. A strange toy found in the barn adds a creepy factor.

Leah meets her closest neighbours, a divorced woman and her son, as well as a brother, and starts to feel like she can make new friends now who don't remind her of her previous life. Only other things do keep reminding her. A child's shape on the wall, the sound of a boy's laughter. Is it the ghost of her lost son or the spirit of a child who was killed on the property generations ago?

To make things more disturbing, Leah starts having visions when she touches objects that have some connection to the past. Not her past, but that of the house itself. About halfway through we learn what happened to her family and the mistletoe begins to feature strongly. The orchard is dying, but the mistletoe somehow keeps creeping into the house.

Lots of ghostly happenings in this one. The time slips are well done and there's an unexpected twist near the end.

As with just about all anthologies, some stories are better than others and that was the case with this one too. The 1st story- A Boyfriend by Christmas was the best and if I rated this story by itself, this would be 4*. Noelle and George have been dating almost 5 years. They grew up together, but didn't start dating until they were in college. Their parents are friends and next door neighbors. After having (finally) realized he really wasn't just that into her/right for her Noelle breaks up with him. On Thanksgiving. Her sister sets her up with a fake boyfriend app. Noelle accidentally texts the wrong person (Nathan) and a relationship begins. I thought Noelle was a little batty, but relate-able and I liked her. I also liked Nathan. The romance helps fast, but I didn't really have a problem with that.
All I Want for Christmas 2*
Didn't like Daniel.
Her Favorite Present 2*
Gabe is one of the founders of the fake boyfriend app. I couldn't warm up to him. He had a less than favorable opinion of the people (mainly women) who used his app.
For romance-opoly using this for the last mystery square (and only one more to go!)