Christmas in a Cowboy's Arms

September 4, 2017
Greenwood takes top billing in a collection of six flimsy stories in which cowboys and pioneer women seek their soulmates against the backdrop of Christmas. In “Father Christmas,” the strongest of the collection, Greenwood introduces readers to Joe Ryan, who is determined to find the gold his mining partner, Pete, stole before Joe went to jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Surprised to only find Pete’s young daughter and his heavily pregnant and ill widow isolated on a poorly kept farm, he settles in to see them safely through Christmas, unsurprisingly gifting himself with a new family. Most of the tales suffer from a lack of character development, particularly Anna Schmidt’s “A Christmas Baby,” which recounts Louisa’s determination to get her family to accept her marriage to Rico, a Mexican-American ranch hand. Louisa and Rico share so little conversation that it’s impossible to discern their love connection. Fans of Rosanne Bittner’s Outlaw Hearts series get a glimpse of the Harkner family in “A Chick-a-Dee Christmas,” which benefits from significant backstory. Character development, plot, and dialogue all fall by the wayside in these Christmas clunkers.

October 15, 2017

The Old West takes on a holiday glow as six of the genre's favorite historical authors join forces in this delightful anthology of short stories and novellas (some linked to the authors' other series) overflowing with cowboys, family, and a welcome sparkle of festive warmth. A man on the run finds love--and more--in "Father Christmas," Greenwood's clever spin on the Christmas story; in Rosanne Bittner's realistic, child-centric "A Chick-a-Dee Christmas," a notorious fast gun-gone-straight keeps his family safe and a young hothead from going astray; a disillusioned drifter finds belonging when a young woman drags him in from the snow in Linda Broday's poignant heart-warmer "The Christmas Stranger"; a Texas Ranger and a widow who vows never to marry another Ranger find each other in Margaret Brownley's touching "A Texas Ranger for Christmas"; Anna Schmidt's insightful novella "A Christmas Baby" sees a young couple fight family and prejudice; and a pair separated by treachery years earlier sort out the past in "A Christmas Reunion," a spirited entry by Amy Sandas. VERDICT Rich with Old West flavor, this gathering of Christmas tales has something for everyone and is just the thing to curl up with on a cold winter's night. Greenwood, Bittner, Broday, Brownley, Schmidt, and Sandas live in Charlotte, NC; Michigan; the Texas panhandle; Southern California; Wisconsin; and the Milwaukee area, respectively.

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