Tag Archives: short stories

Book Review: Christmas Lites II, edited by Amy Eye

I won a Smashwords copy of Christmas Lites II, several years ago. I kept meaning to read it and then it would get re-burried in my TBR. But this year, I made sure it was part of my Christmas Reading Challenge.

Join us this Christmas season as authors from across the globe unite to spread holiday cheer and raise money for a very important cause. You will delight in the various stories these authors have created in order to take you on a journey from inside their heads and into your heart. Fairy tales, mysteries, journeys with zombies and monsters, vampires, angels, trips to the North Pole and much more await inside the covers of this book. All proceeds from the book are being donated to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Not only will you get a taste of the spirit of the season, but you will do so knowing you did your part in helping a very worthy cause. Merry Christmas!

These are all really short. There are 20 stories here, in a 197 page book (including front and end-matter). That’s, an average of less than 10 pages apiece. So, I’ll just give each a couple sentences as review—basically just my general thoughts—and then finish with my overall thoughts on the collection.

Santa’s Ninja Elf: Hunter’s Revenge, by Lizzy Ford

This was super cute in a silly, don’t think too deeply about it sort of way. I liked it.

A (Not) Very Neighborly ~~Christwitchas~~, by Patti Larsen

Cute, with a conversational tone. But I’m not sure I got the point. I expected it to culminate into something and it never did. Still cute though.

A mermaid for Christmas, Nichole Chase

Cute, but maybe a little too cutesy for my. Though I liked getting to see the perspective of Christmas in the islands.

Ugly and the Prince, by Monica La Porta

This one I didn’t like at all—problematic in too many ways. The implication that women can be beautiful or intelligent, but not both (or that learning and/or intelligence is something you receive in exchange for beauty). The implication that a woman (or person) can’t be loved it they’re not physically attractive. The ending that makes her lack of physical attraction acceptable only because it can’t be seen. The suggestion that the love of a man is enough to ease her into society, while nothing she did on her own was. Most old fairy-tales are problematic, if you really think about them, but new ones don’t have to be.

The Light of Truth, by Lynn Rush

Meh, I wasn’t thrilled to find such a blatantly religious story included. And it tried to cram too much into too few pages.

A Fading House, by EC Stilson

Meh, not enough to it to really accomplish what it set out to and the God bit felt unneeded.

The Hunt: Vol II, by Amy Eye

Meh. Fine, but prosaic.

Wishmaster 2000, by JG Faherty

This reminded me of a Christmas Goosebumps story. I imagine my kids might like it, but it was a little juvenile for me.

The Christmas Parrot, by Vered Ehsani

Not so much a story as a small vignette that happened to have Christmas tacked on to fit the anthology. It did remind me to go check if my daughter’s chameleon had water though.

Rent-A-Christmas, by Kimberly Kinrade

This is a short in The Forbidden Trilogy world, and while it was follow-able I didn’t appreciate not knowing the rest of the series. Beyond that, I thought it super sappy (too sappy for me), but not bad.

The Locket, by JA Clement

This one packs quite a lot of worldbuilding into a short story (enough that I have to wonder if there isn’t a longer work somewhere that it ties into). It was pleasant, but more a vignette than a story.

Joseph, by Melynda Fleury

Literally just the birth of Jesus from Joseph’s perspective. Far too religious for me.

Table Five, by Misty Baker

A sweet little reminder to do nice things.

Momma’s Last Christmas, by Cassie McCown

Sad, but one of the best stories in the collection. It creates such a sense of place without ever telling where it is.

A Monstrous Christmas, by Frank W. Smith

I didn’t particularly care for this one and if “frank W. Smith” is male as the name infers, I wouldn’t be at all surprised. The idea that deep-level contempt can be erased by a single kindness is farcical and the characters little bit of later self-awareness did nothing to overcome my dislike for them formed in the beginning of the story.

The Loving Dead, by Angela Yuriko Smith

I really liked the beginning of this and was kind of ‘meh’ on the second half. But, overall, it was pretty good.

Merry Christmas, You Guys, by S. Patrick Pothier

This felt like a Halloween Horror – Christmas mash-up. But I found it amusing all the same.

Accidentally Smitten, by Tricia Kristufek

I was pretty ‘meh’ on this one. I thought the guy felt a little skeevy, so I didn’t really feel the spark. But I understand what the author was going for.

The Rise of Rae, by Trish Thawer

This story was a fail for me. I didn’t understand what giving her the ostracizing name had to do with her eventual destiny. And the whole thing just felt a little too generic-fairy tale to me. Plus, the fairy grips an iron door handle, which threw me for a loop since fae are traditionally thought to be allergic to iron.

Someone to Love, by Addison Moore

Weird. The writing was pretty but the story was weird.

The Unicorn Who Saved Christmas, by Elizabeth Evans

Very childish…as in it is a children’s story, not as a criticism.

***

All in all, none of these blew me away but none seemed too horrible either. I do wish, at the collection level, the editors had decided to make it a religious anthology or avoided including explicitly religious stories. Yes, I know Christmas = birth of Christ, etc. But most of these stories are fairly agnostic, such that those that were explicitly about God or Jesus stood out and felt out of place to me. On the whole, it’s a fine collection of short stories.

Come back tomorrow. I’ll be reviewing Merry Elf-ing Christmas, by Beth Bolden.

Book Review: Holiday Haunts, by Imogen Markwell-Tweed & Wendy Dalrymple

Up to Snow Good

I thought this was super sweet. There was definitely some insider WLW humor. But being able to good-naturedly poke fun at yourself to an expected audience that can share the humor is a super relatable way to make something feel like a comfort read. It’s only a short story, so nothing is deeply defined or elaborately developed. But there is just enough to make you like both characters and root for their happy ending.

Heavenly Reads

I also thought this a super cute story. Jesse’s inner monologue had a lot of character and Angel fit his name. It was fairly obvious where the story was going, but it was fun seeing it get there.

Magic Mistletoe

I thought Nick’s absentminded pleasant demeanor super cute and Paige’s vegan, new age-ness suitably witchy. I like that the eventual age difference was of no concern. All in all a fine Christmas story.

The Assistant Manager and the Beast

Meh, I thought this the weakest of the bunch. I’m not saying it was bad; one of the four stories had to be bottom of the pile and this was the one for me. I really liked the idea of Krampus as a character, but nothing about Heidi stood out as notable for me. But it was a sweet story overall.

Come back tomorrow. I’ll be reviewing Christmas at Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop, by Jenny Colgan.

2021 Reading challenge: Short Stories (<100 pages)

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When I set out to clear my shelves of lingering Christmas themed books I didn’t realize how many short stories I’d gathered over the years. This is a little surprising, since I’m not a huge fan of short stories. What I am, however, is a collector. If I’m putting a series together I want ALL of it, including the shorts. As a result, I had lots of little extras lingering about on my kindle cloud.

Today I’m going to review several as the first post of my 2021 Christmas reading challenge (other than that initial set-the-challenge post). This is the list I started with:

Over all, I was more pleased with the bunch than I would have expected. There were very few total flops for me. I admit that I loved equally as few. But most were pleasant enough, which is all I really ask of a holiday short.

I decided to skip Careened (by Bey Deckard), Illicit Activity (by J.R. Gray), The Greatest Gift (by Felice Stevens), and Family (by Brigham Vaughn) since they were later in series that I’ve not caught up with and don’t stand alone. I didn’t have the time or inclination to read several full books before getting to the point where the short fit in, at least not during the time I set aside for this reading challenge. Hopefully I’ll get to them in the future.

That left 14 stories read, which is still a significant haul. Here, I made a little slide show of them as I read them, after which you can find the individual reviews.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CW8e5xUgrk4/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Haunted by the Holidays, Kathryn Blanche

Bonus stories for series are always a little chancy. Should they be read first, as an introduction to the series, at some point between books, or after the series to avoid spoilers? The way Haunted by the Holidays is labeled I wasn’t able to do more than guess. I chose to read it, even though I’ve not read the rest of the series. I wouldn’t advice this for others. I still don’t know if it needs to be read at the end of the series, or just after a certain point in the series. But I definitely think you need to know the characters to get the most out of their little holiday interlude.

The writing is pedestrian, but readable and the story is sweet. I especially appreciated that it references Christmas, the Solstice and Hanukah. So, it’s fairly agnostic on which Holiday is being haunted.

A Private Miscellany, by K.J. Charles

Not much to make this Christmasy excerpt one or two references in letters between parties. But oh well. Mostly I was utterly confused. I’d mistakenly thought this was part of the Charm of Magpie series (which I’ve read), but it isn’t. It’s part of the Society of Gentleman series (which I have, but haven’t yet read). So, little of it made sense to me. So, no real review at this time. I’ll just mark it as read and move SoG up my TBR, thank you very much.

Chasing Christmas Past, by Melanie Karsak

Enjoyable enough, though a little hard to connect to as I didn’t know any of the characters. This is a ‘prequel’ but I do wonder if it’s not meant to be read after the series so you know everyone. All the same, I liked the steampunk elements and the peak at what seems like a fun crew.

The Eighth Night, by Jenna Kendrick

I thought this was really sweet and well written. That things moved as quickly as they did stretched credulity a little bit. But it is a short story.

Christmas at the Wellands, by Liz Jacobs

This was pretty marvelous. There’s enough to it to develop a sense of setting, plot and character. And, oh, what characters! I don’t think it would be possible to not love Kev, Andrew, and the kiddos. There was a sense of predictability to it all, but generally enjoyable.

A Wizard for Christmas, by Dorothy McFalls

Meh, ok for a little Christmas short. There was nothing overly objectionably about it, but nothing I loved either. The set up was fun but the villain was defeated with unbelievable ease and the romance was rushed and cheesy. Could do with another round of edits, especially to look for missing words. But all in all, not bad.

The Christmas Prince , by Liv Rancourt

I liked this quite a lot. It’s admittedly been 4+ years since I read The Clockwork Monk, so Trevor was almost a new character to me. But I enjoyed him, his sisters (well, sister and sister’s BFF), the world and the romance. Though that last one was a tad rushed. It is a short story after all and quite a lot is squeezed in. As always, I’d have preferred a full length story, but I’ll take what I can get.

God Rest Ye Merry Vampires, by Liv Rancourt

I liked this a lot. As always, I wish it was longer. I’d love to see this as a full length novel or maybe a full length novel following after it’s events. But I think one of my favorite Rancourt shorts I’ve read.

The Santa Drag, by Liv Rancourt

I think this might have actually been a reread. When I opened it on my Kindle it was at the end and as I read it it was all vaguely familiar. Oh well. It was sweet, if a little insubstantial and unbelievable, with a cute little twist at the end to bring it all together.

The Ugliest Sweater, by Gillian St. Kevern

Two things you need to know about me. One: I absolutely believe some things can be so ugly that they transcend into glory. Two: I anthropomorphize inanimate objects and then try to rescue them from obscurity or destruction. So, buying and wearing an excessively ugly sweater because no one else would is exactly the kind of thing I would do. So, I could absolutely relate to Dan here. (I also have a Christmas and Christmas decorating obsessed friend who I would say fits Jake almost to a T. But considering all the sex in the story that assertion might be a little awkward.)

I thought the two men and their insecurities were cute together and it was a sweet, easily readable story in general. I’ll be giving St. Kevern another go in the future.

Fred and Ginger, by Isobel Starling

Meh, it was fine I guess (other than some rough editing). And it’s appreciable being about a gay baker/bakery after the American fracas of a gay couple being denied a wedding cake. But I just found I didn’t particularly care for the characters or the plot. Even as short as it was, I eventually started skimming. I think this is a ‘it’s me, not the story’ situation. Not overly christimasy either, which is only relevant since I read it as part of this Christmas themed reading challenge.

The Winter Spirit, by Indra Vaughn

I enjoyed this. I liked Nathaniel and Gabriel a lot and I liked them together. I appreciated the emotional complexity of the returning crush and how Nathaniel dealt with it. The whole thing is nicely written and enjoyable to read. I did wish it was a bit more bulked up so that it had enough pages to explain Gabriel’s situation more. The existence of a redemptive task with objectives and rules also suggests the existence of a judiciary. I wanted to know how that worked. All in all, however, I’m pleased with the read.

Twist of the Magi, by Caren J. Werlinger

This was very sweet. I found it a little predictable and clumsy at time, especially around the Candice character. And the making of Penny’s dream could be argued as the result of nepotism, instead of earned in earnest. Though I imagine that’s not how readers are meant to take it. But generally it was more sweet than anything else. All in all, I enjoyed it.

63 Days Later , by Adrienne Wilder

This took a drastically different tone than the full length novel that precedes it (Wild). But it was still nice to catch up with the guys and Daisy. I mean how could you dislike a short story full of puppies?! I did think the POVs were inconsistent and I had a little trouble knowing who was speaking sometimes, but sweet over all.

Ok, that’s a wrap. I’m thrilled to have gotten some these stories read and off my TBR. The oldest I picked up way back in something like 2013!

Come back tomorrow to catch day two of my reading challenge when I review Holiday Haunts, by Imogen Markwell-Tweed & Wendy Dalrymple. How about you, anyone else reading Christmas books?

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