Holiday 2019 Book and Audiobook Reviews
I only read holiday books in December. This year I decided to take most of December off to spend time with family, but I still managed to read some great holiday romances. Tara Sivec’s Christmas Cliche is now probably my favorite holiday romance (see my review), but there were some good ones this year too. Here is a quick roundup. All of these were short stories or novella collections.
The Reindeer Falls Collection by Jana Aston
Jana Aston is one of my favorite Rom Com authors and this collection of Christmas books demonstrated why. I loved every Christmassy word of it! There are three quick novellas featuring three spunky, quirky Christmas-loving sisters finding love over the holidays.
The Boss Who Stole Christmas
Holly supposedly hates her Scrooge of a boss, but does she really? She had me laughing out loud with her “Countdown to Dickmas” advent calendars and her supposed dislike for the boss she has been crushing on. Holly is a Christmas fanatic working for a Christmas toy company and I loved all of her silly, dirty, christmassy humor. This hate-to-love romance had me laughing out loud.
4.5 Stars
If You Give a Jerk a Gingerbread
Ginger is the sweet sister who is entering the local gingerbread bake-off series. When a famous TV baker who happens to be her celebrity crush enters the competition, they can’t help but be drawn to each other. This was the sweetest of the three, and was so much fun!
4.5 Stars
The One Night Stand Before Christmas
Noel’s story ended the book with a bang (literally) when Noel is helping a co-worker arrange visits to Santa with the kids. Teddy is a fantastic Santa, and Noel’s love for Christmas took over and she got to be Mrs. Clause for a night (if you know what I mean). This one absolutely made me laugh the most, but it wasn’t my favorite story of the three.
4 Stars
Erin Mallon was the narrator of all three and I think she absolutely made it even funnier, plus, her male voice is so sexy!
I loved The Reindeer Falls Collection by Jana Aston so much! I had a huge smile on my face and giggled the whole way through. I hope she makes this a tradition, but either way, I will be listening to this again next year.
Rating: 4.5 Stars, 4.25 Heat, 5 Narration
Christmas in the City Anthology
LJ Shen & Helena Hunting: Just the Tip
Instalove fun and flirtiness and it was real. I loved how normal they were (she was worried she smelled, his name was Horace). Naughty and Romantic!
4 Stars
Baby It’s Cold Outside by Melanie Harlow & Corinne Michaels
This one was fun. She tried to bring a tree through the building door and into her apartment when the hot neighbor went to help her. Sweet, cute and Christmassy, but it was a little typical.
4 Stars
Kissmas in New York by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward
She was dared to kiss a stranger in a coffee shop, and the kiss turned into more. This was my favorite in the book, in fact, after reading it, I listened in the audiobook Scrooged by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward and this was on there as well. I loved it just as much on audio.
4.25 Stars
The Christmas Crown by Sierra Simone & Kennedy Ryan, Songbird by Penny Reid & L.H. Cosway, EPIC by Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy
From what I understand, these 3 weren’t quite standalones, so I don’t feel bad that I didn’t get into them.
I thought it was fun to have all these stories written by author pairs, and perhaps I will read the rest next year.
3.5 Stars Total
The Christmas Pact by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward
Riley Kennedy and Kennedy Riley both work in different departments at the same company, but they aren’t in the same building so they never met in person. They often receive the other’s emails and Kennedy sometimes adds a few snarky comments before he forwards Riley’s emails to her.
This hate-to-love romance was a cute and fun read. It was fade-to-black as far as sex goes, but it was still implied. I found Kennedy to be a little bit creepy, but not terrible. There was a bit of a twist I could have done without, but all-in-all, this was a fun free Christmas listen.
You can never go wrong with Andi Arndt and Sebastian York narrating!
4 Stars
Scrooged by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward
A collection of three short holiday stories
Sexy Scrooge
I listened to this and knew it was familiar. I thought I was having a crazy deja vu at first, then I knew the rest of the story perfectly. It was in last year’s Naughty and Nice anthology. I loved it just as much this year as I did last.
“Apparently I have a magnet on my crotch, seeing as though it’s not the first time this morning you accidentally made contact with my groin area.”
5 Stars
The Merry Mistake
Cute and unique, Piper tried to do something good for someone and it bit her in the ass. This was a fun read with a pretty strong message.
4 Stars
Kissmas in New York
She was dared to kiss a stranger in a coffee shop, and the kiss turned into more. This was fun, but I had just read it in the Christmas in the City anthology.
4.25 Stars
Once again, Sebastian York and Andi Arndt were great narrators.
4.5 Stars
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