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.

Wild Embrace, by Nalini Singh

Wild Embrace, by Nalini Singh

This is the second all Psy/Changeling anthology, and the first with all new stories. (I reviewed Wild Invitation, the first anthology, here.)

Wild Embrace was released last year, after Allegiance of Honor came out; despite my utter disenchantment with that novel, I had already decided I would read the anthology, so I did at some point later in the year. I wasn’t awed by it, but I remembered enjoying it well enough.

After reading Silver Silence, I decided to re-read and review it, to satisfy my ‘completist’ tendencies.

I probably shouldn’t have done it so soon after, though, because I was hyper aware of all the worst of Ms Singh’s writing tics; none of these stories have aged well for me.

Reader warning: This anthology is part of a long series, so the review by necessity spoils some of the stories that came before. As with the rest of the series, there’s some adult language and explicit sex. Finally, I rant–a hell of a lot–about one of the novellas in this book.

Catify to Satisfy, by Jackson Galaxy and Kate Benjamin

This review is for our very own, awesome, Queen Librarian of the Universe, SuperWendy’s TBR Challenge.

The theme for this month is Something Different, and boy, oh boy, this is different.

How different? Well, it’s somewhere between interior design and self-help, neither of which I ever read.

(Spoiler: if you enjoy either of these types of books, or the show, you’ll probably want to skip this review)

Catify to Satisfy, by Jackson Galaxy and Kate Benjamin

A dude at work often gets print ARCs directly from publishers, and every so often he goes around the office, handing them over to people according to what he knows of their interests. This is…a very hit and miss way of giving books away.

Because I rescued two kittens. back in the fall of 2015, he just knew I would love this book, and so he handed it to me, with an admonition to let him know my thoughts.

Seventeen months later…::crickets::

But where are my manners? Here, allow me to introduce you to our characters, via the blurb:

Lone Wolf, by Jennifer Ashley

(I’m hoping to post this right before the deadline, so my apologies in advance if it’s even less readable than usual)

I had a lot of trouble reading something that qualified for this month’s TBR Challenge. Not, mind you, because I don’t have a TBR pile–physical and electronic–that can probably be seen from space, but because a) I didn’t realize until the weekend that today was the deadline for October’s review, and b) I started four different (new to me) paranormal stories and couldn’t get past the halfway point on any. Kill me now, please.

Also, trigger warning: a baby dies, though not during the story.

Lone Wolf, by Jennifer Ashley

Though I’ve yet to write a review of any of Ms Ashley’s books, I’m very much a fan of most of her Mackenzie historical romances. Long ago, Kristie(J) positively raved about the first in that series, The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie, over at her blog. It took me a while, but I finally managed to get my hands on that book (and the next, and the next, and…), and have since read everything in that series, most with great enjoyment.

Since Kristie(J) is also a fan of Ms Ashley’s paranormal romances, when this one was on sale somewhere, I snapped it up. It took me a while to get to it–did I happen to mention my TBR pile is positively scary?–but after four failed attempts to engage with any of the pile’s unread paranormal stories, I gratefully clicked on it on ye olde kindle app in my phone. Surely, it would be the one to break the streak, right?

Yeah, not such luck.