Christmas Past

September 29, 2008
Seven well-known authors contribute to two holiday romance anthologies.

Silver Bells
Fern Michaels
, JoAnn Ross
, Mary Burton
and Judy Duarte
. Zebra
, $7.99 (448p) ISBN 978-1-4201-0363-2

Bestseller Michaels (Hokus Pokus
) headlines a quartet of heartwarming Christmas romances. In both Duarte's “A Mulberry Park Christmas” (which shares a setting with Mulberry Park
) and Michaels's title tale, childhood sweethearts are reunited despite the pressures of adult life. In “Dear Santa...,” Ross (Impulse
) strands mystery novelist Holly Berry in a blizzard-swept town, where she meets hunky hotelier Gabe O'Halloran and finds his five-year-old daughter is a determined matchmaker. Burton (I'm Watching You
) contributes “Christmas Past,” in which widowed homicide sergeant David Ayden helps talented photographer Nicole Piper cope with the legacy of her late, violently abusive husband. It's a close fit, but each short story contains a full-fledged romance from first kiss to happy ending, both satisfying readers and encouraging them to seek out the authors' longer works.

October 15, 2008
This quartet of novellas features cozy, small-town ambience, a sadistic threat from the grave, and a touch of holiday magic. A jaded Hollywood star finds love with her high school flame in Michaels's "Silver Bells," while a mystery writer spends Christmas in Santa's Village when her car breaks down in "Dear Santa" by JoAnn Ross. A young widow is terrified when a letter from her abusive husband's attorney sets her on a deadly path in Mary Burton's "Christmas Past," and a young mother of two and her high-school sweetheart rekindle their relationship with the help of a mysterious "angel" in Judy Duarte's "A Mulberry Park Christmas," a story that fans of her series will enjoy. Although several of these stories could have easily been developed into full-length works, this is a satisfying anthology.

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.