Christmas on Main Street
By JoAnn Ross, Susan Donovan,
LuAnn McLane, Alexis Morgan
Publisher: Signet
Release Date: November 5,
2013
Christmas on Main Street is a
holiday anthology, and, as the title suggests, the Christmas season in
small-town America is the theme that links the four novellas included in the
collection. Like the song “Home for the Holidays,” the stories range “from Atlantic
to Pacific” with a stop inland, and each offers the cozy comfort of a
small-town community, a love story with the requisite HEA, and Christmas
settings to cheer the hearts of readers.
“Christmas in Shelter Bay” by
JoAnn Ross
The wedding of Cole Douchett
and Kelli Carpenter takes place in The
Homecoming, the first book in Ross’s Shelter Bay series and the story of
Cole’s brother Sax and Kara Conway. This novella is a prequel that gives fans
of the series back story for characters for whom they have developed affection,
and it can also serve as an introduction to the series for readers who have
never visited Shelter Bay.
Cole, the eldest of the
Douchett brothers and the sensible, responsible one, is on leave from the
Marines and uncertain about the direction of his future. But he is certain
about his desire to repair his friendship with Kelli Carpenter, the younger
sister of his best friend. Cole is not sure what caused Kelli to explode last
Christmas, but he’s confident he can regain his place in her good graces. Maybe
he can also convince her that the dull school principal that she’s spending
time with is not the man for her. Meanwhile, his father and grandfather have
persuaded him that time alone at the family cabin is what he needs to get his
head straight.
Kelli has been in love with
Cole ever since she was old enough to notice boys. She has always believed that
one day he would wake up and see that they are meant for one another. But when
he showed her the ring he had bought for another woman last year, he shook her
faith in their future. Now she is determined to get over her feelings for him.
Maybe some time on her own will allow her to start that journey. When Cole’s grandmother
offers the Douchett family cabin, Kelli jumps at the opportunity.
The whole town is invested in
seeing Cole and Kelli find their way to an HEA, and a snowy Christmas in an
isolated cabin may just be the perfect setting for that to happen.
“A Seaside Christmas” by
Susan Donovan
Annie Parker runs a shop on
Bayberry Island in which she sells mermaid memorabilia including her
self-published erotic romance novels about mermaids and sea captains. Although
Annie is affectionately tolerant of the island’s mermaid worshipers and makes
good use of the legend of the sea captain whose ship was supernaturally saved
by a beautiful mermaid, she puts no credence in the magical properties of the huge
mermaid statue for which Bayberry Island is famous. Each season when the
tourists arrive, Annie selects a lover from among the sexiest male visitors,
making sure that he understands her no-man-past-Columbus-Day rule. Annie’s
routine changes one stormy winter solstice when the ferry delivers a stranger
to the island.
Nathaniel Ravelle has come to
Bayberry Island from Los Angeles to do some preliminary work for the cable
paranormal reality show, Truly Weird.
For the past four years, he has served as a segment producer on the show, but
this assignment on a mermaid statue who has been granting HEAs to true lovers
since the nineteenth century may be one show too many for Nat, who doesn’t
believe in lasting romantic love with or without supernatural aid. Ruing the
day he left sunny California for icy Massachusetts, he begins to fight his way
to the B&B where he has reservations, only to be distracted by the unusual
wares in the window of Annie’s shop. The distraction is just enough to cause
him to slip on the ice and fall unconscious at Annie’s door.
Whether it’s mermaid magic or
just love’s magic, Annie and Nat are soon breaking all their rules and acting
out fantasies that rival the activities of Annie’s characters. Christmas
promises to be merrier than these two had even dreamed.
“Mistletoe on Main Street” by
LuAnn McLane
Toy store owner Ava Whimsy
has been Mrs. Claus in Cricket Creek, Kentucky’s annual Christmas parade for
the past ten years, but this year the parade holds a big surprise for her.
Santa is not tavern owner Jack Scully but his son Clint, who hasn’t been back
to Cricket Creek since he left fifteen years ago. Not even a fake beard is enough to prevent
the sight of her high school sweetheart from speeding up Ava’s heartbeat.
Clint has found nothing in
California to compare with the beauty and warmth of the girl he left behind in
Cricket Creek, and there’s nothing he’d like better than a second chance with
Ava. But can she forgive him for leaving, especially when his dreams of playing
major league baseball never progressed past the dream stage.
One kiss under the mistletoe
is just the beginning of a reconnection that holds the promise of a lifetime of
Christmases together.
“The Christmas Gift” by
Alexis Morgan
Bridey Roke left her
unfaithful, verbally abusive husband and her job as pastry chef at his family’s
fancy restaurant to start a new life in Snowberry Creek, Washington, a few
miles from Seattle. She has found contentment in the small town and in creating
new pastries for the patrons of Something Brewing, her coffeeshop/bakery. A new
man in town has become a regular at Something Brewing, and Bridey admits to
herself that he certainly adds interest to the local scenery.
Seth Kyser is burned out from
his high pressure, high profile life as a well-known wood sculptor. He has lost
not only the joy he once found in creating his sculptures; he has lost the
ability to envision the shape in the wood and free it. He bought a log cabin in
Snowberry Creek, hoping that the slow pace of life in a small town where nobody
knows who he is will restore his creative powers. Finding Bridey Roke is an
unexpected gift, and Seth can only hope that offering to build the new cabinets
she needs in the kitchen of Something Brewing will give them a chance to become
much better acquainted.
This Christmas may just be
the merriest Bridey and Seth have ever known, but only if they don’t let his
secret identity and her ex-husband sound sour notes in the midst of the beautiful
holiday music they are making together.
Three of these authors share
Christmas in fictional small towns which will already be familiar to some
readers. JoAnn Ross’s Shelter Bay story follows six novels, the fifth book in
LuAnn McLane’s Cricket Creek series was released the same day as this
anthology, and Alexis Morgan’s Snowberry Creek serves as the setting for one
novel with two more in the series to follow in 2014. Only Susan Donovan’s
Bayberry Island will be new to readers. (Her first Bayberry Island novel will
be released December 3.) While familiarity will doubtless please fans of the
series, a reader can enjoy all four novellas without having read the novels
that precede them.
All four stories have the
charm and warmth readers anticipate in Christmas romance fiction. They are all
low on conflict and high on Christmas festivities and sweetness. Donovan’s
story predictably is the sexiest of the four, but even it is has a relatively mild
level of sensuality. The anthology is designed to be a quick, easy, feel-good
holiday reading experience for those who like celebrating the season with
Christmas romances. It satisfies on all those counts. I recommend it served
with your beverage of choice and Christmas tree lights twinkling in the
background.
~Janga
http://justjanga.blogspot.com
