Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Short Story Anthology / Christmas
Approximate word count: 60-65,000 words
Availability
Click
on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or
Smashwords store
Author:
Contributions
from ten different authors:
Barbra
Annino, J.R. Rain, Christiana Miller, Rose Pressey, Helen Smith, Heather
Massey, Liz Schulte, Toni LoTempio, Danielle Younge-Ullman and J.W. Becton.
Description:
“A mix of
magical, spooky, and romantic tales for the holidays.”
All
proceeds of this book benefit Kids Need to Read.
Appraisal:
A fun
collection of longer short stories (the longest actually novelette length) with
very little in common except they’re all good and the holiday season has some
role in each. Some have a supernatural or paranormal element. Some have
characters from one of the author’s novels, although I never felt I needed
backstory about those characters to understand or enjoy the story.
I
considered singling out stories that stood out as especially good or different
than the others and realized I couldn’t. Genres run the gambit from a cozy
mystery (Helen Smith’s Real Elves,
featuring characters from her Emily Castles series) to what might be described
as a psychological thriller in Barbra Annino’s The Perfect Gift. There are a couple stories where Santa Claus
needs some help (Krampus Klaus by
Christiana Miller and J.R. Rain’s The
Santa Call). The possibility of budding romance on Chinese New Year in
Heather Massey’s Fortune Cat’s Visit
has a lesson about giving that, while the story wasn’t about Christmas, might have
captured the spirit of the season best of all.
FYI:
Spelling
conventions vary and appear to be dependent on the residence of the author.
Format/Typo Issues:
A small
number of proofing and copyediting misses.
Rating: ***** Five stars
7 comments:
Looks good. I think I will head over and grab a copy. Happy Holidays, Al!
Thanks, Karen. Happy Holidays to you too. Let us know what you think of it. (I think you'll like it.)
Thank you for the review. I was delighted to be asked to contribute a story to this anthology. I have spent the last few days reading the other stories and I love them all! I'm happy to be in company with such talented authors, raising money for such a good cause.
Wishing you all the best for 2014.
And Karen - thank you! I hope you enjoy all the stories as much as I did. Happy Christmas to you, too.
thank you for the kind review. It was an honor for me to be in this anthology with so many other talented authors.
Toni Lotempio
Sounds like a fun read. I like that all the stories are eclectic in tone. :)
Thanks for the comments, Helen and Toni. It was an enjoyable read.
Yes, Vicki, I was surprised when I reflected back on the stories how varied they were without making me feel like they didn't belong together.
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