Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Short Story Anthology / Christmas
Approximate word count: 60-65,000 words
Availability
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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
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