A Christmas to Remember (anthology)

Over the years, I have realized that most genre romance Christmas stories are not a good match for me.

No, that’s not true.

Most genre romance Christmas stories at best irk me, at worst enrage me.

And yet, I have so many of them spread all over the TBR cordilleras of doom, both print and digital. (I blame poor impulse control when an author I’ve liked is involved, or if the blurb is clever.)

Anyhow, this anthology (one of several so named), was my choice for SuperWendy’s TBR Challenge for December 2022 (“festive”). I hoped that, being short stories, I could read it quickly (I did), and review it quickly (oh, sweet innocent past me).

For what it’s worth, here is the belated review. Beware: relentlessly hetero, relentlessly white; death of parents, death of spouse, death of child (all off-page, as character backstory); some sex, not terribly explicit, on page. Oh, and spoilers for a couple of the stories abound in the review.

Scoundrel, by Zoë Archer

Once upon a time, Zoë Archer (now writing historical romances as Eva Leigh), exploded into the readerly groups around which I circled, with the Blades of the Rose series. Given who was recommending the books and what they were saying about them, I promptly got them (in print) as they were released. And then I dithered for a couple of years. Upon finally reading Warrior, I confidently declared that I would read the rest in good order.

That was ::ahem:: over a decade ago.

Fortunately, SuperWendy’s TBR Challenge has come to the rescue! (again). Edited to add: the theme this month is ‘getaway’, and my brain immediately went to ‘escaping’, which this book fits perfectly.

Reader beware: explicit sex and some violence; the villains may seem over the top, unless you’ve been reading the news. Also, this book is fully 400 pages long.

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From The Making Of The Princess Bride, by Cary Elwes

In my original notes for this review, I had written that I got the book because SuperWendy reviewed it, but apparently I dreamed that part. What did happen is that, when I saw the kindle version was on sale in January 2018, I nabbed a copy.

Then there it sat, unread, in the humongous if nebulous digital TBR of doom, until June, when the TBR Challenge theme that year was “comfort read”.

Boy, did I need a comfort read! So I dived in and practically inhaled it, wallowing in all the sweet (and bittersweet) nostalgia it evoked.

After which I still managed to miss posting the review on time; in fact, the original draft was from January 2019, a full half a year later.

However, in the spirit of “better late than never” and “blog fodder!”, here is the finished, and hopefully more coherent, final version.

The Third Mrs Durst, by Ann Aguirre

(I read this book on time for SuperWendy’s November 2022 TBR Challenge (theme: lies), then never finished the review. As I’m struggling to read, I’m hoping writing this will help jumpstart the reading mojo, because the next TBR day is but two weeks away!)

I was in a panic about what to read, when I remembered I had this ARC. Given that I generally love Ms Aguirre’s voice, it was a no-brainer.