Review: Christmas in America by Holly Bush, Piper Huguley, Joanna Shupe, and Donna Thorland

This is a compilation of short historical romance stories set during Christmas time. Since each story is independent of each other with what I felt was varying degrees of writing quality, I'll do a short review of each one.

Into the Evermore started off really well with a great hook to catch your interest but after that it was a little boring. It was like it climaxed at the opening and then nothing really happened after that. Additionally the writing quality wasn't great and probably needed an editor, or a better editor. Particularly in the beginning, there are a few paragraphs where literally every sentence in the paragraph starts with the same pronoun.

The Cowboy's Christmas was also a little lack luster. The characterization seemed good on the surface but I felt like there wasn't much depth. The writing was okay but the dialogue could be a little hokey sometimes.

Miracle on Ladies' Mile was an excellent Mr. Selfridge-esque story set in the Gilded Age. Great writing with compelling characters you just want to know more about. Just the right amount of humor in it too.

Christmas at Mount Holly. No surprise I loved this one. Donna Thorland is a great storyteller and she did not disappoint. We finally get a bit more of a glimpse into The Widow's backstory, an absolute must read for anyone following Thorland's series.

There's some very sexy scenes in here so not one for the clean romance fans (I say bring it on though).

So although I didn't love the first two stories, I adored the second two, and I guess that means the rating averages out to about 3 stars.

Review: 1066 Turned Upside Down by by Joanna Courtney, Helen Hollick, Annie Whitehead, Anna Belfrage, Alison Morton, Carol McGrath, Eliza Redgold, G.K. Holloway, Richard Dee

It appears that another group of authors has attempted to do what the H Team has done in compiling short stories from each author on a major event in history, except this group is doing it with an alternate history twist. These short stories explore how things would have gone down in 1066 England if Edgar was crowned instead of Harold, or if William of Normandy had lost at Hastings, and several other "what if" speculations.

It also differs from the H Team's books because these are truly individual short stories. Each tale has nothing to do with one another (apart from being based on the events of 1066), which in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. There are plenty of unrelated short story compilations out there which people really enjoy. But it's disappointing when you also consider that most of the stories are so short that you really don't get an idea of how history would have been radically different if these "what if" scenarios had happened. I felt like it posed more questions than it answered. I would have liked each story to not only present an alternate event, but also show us how the succeeding events thereafter would have been different as a result. Don't just show us how the Battle of Hastings would have been different if Harold had won, show us what would have happened after that - how would it have changed England? If they had done that, I wouldn't have minded each story having nothing to do with the next, as it allowed more than one alternate history scenario to be explored.

There were author's notes and discussion suggestions that attempted to explore the resulting events a little bit, which were informative and enlightening, but it just wasn't the same, and wasn't what I was expecting. I did enjoy them though, and actually wound up thinking this might have been a better project had they just approached it with academic essays instead of trying to make them into fictional short stories.

Don't get me wrong, the writing quality from all these stories is very good. But to me, the short stories felt like something that was just quickly thrown together to make each author a few extra bucks on the self published ebook sales, and give them some more exposure. I guess I was hoping for something a little more in depth. However, for only $1.99, it's probably worth the read for those really interested in this topic.

Review: A Day of Fire: a novel of Pompeii

You might think "a novel of Pompeii" is a little misleading, since this is not a full length novel but rather a collection of six short stories or novelettes, all set in the days leading up to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. But this is more than just a bunch of independent tales, each story is pulled together by overlapping characters. A side character in one story might wind up being a main character in another, so you're not left wondering what happened to this person or that (except Ben Kane's characters, of course), their story picks again up later on. This gave it more of a novel-feel, just as it's claimed to be. It also gave the reader more time to emotionally attach to certain characters, unlike most short stories, making it a much more powerful book.

At first, I was concerned that these stories would all wind up being more like young adult romance because the first two stories reminded me of this. A young man falls in love with a prostitute and is willing to sacrifice his integrity to win her. A young woman is in love with a man below her station while betrothed to an older man who practically repulses her. Such stereotypical tales, especially in young adult romance, are what greet you with the first two chapters. It occurred to me that one of the first two stories is indeed written by a young adult author though so I guess it's not surprising.

But the first two chapters wound up being more like a lead up. Unlike other short story compilations where each story may be set in totally different years, these tales are told chronologically so the first two stories are mostly set in the days before the eruption and the latter stories start at the beginning or in the middle of the destruction falling around everyone. The built up carries through the whole book, rather than there being a build up in each story. This too gave it more of a novel-feel than a collection of short stories.

It's also very impressive that this many established authors were able to collaborate to come up with overlapping characters and well written, interwoven stories. It was much more than I expected it to be.