First up this week is the final book in May McGoldrick´s Highland Treasure Trilogy, The Firebrand (Onyx Historical Romance), and I´ll be sorry to say goodbye to this family. In this outing, Adrianne Percy must find a way to free her mother from kidnappers. But her sisters send her a Highland pirate, and Adrianne marries him to make her newly hatched plan work. But is Wyntoun hiding something from his new bride? Much as I loved all these books, this one was my favorite. Wyntoun is a wonderful hero, struggling with what he wants and what he knows he must do, and Adrianne is more than his match. This one earns four and a half of Cupid´s five arrows. A keeper.
My second read this week is "All I Want for Christmas" by Sheila Rabe (Jove). Susan Carpenter is in her glory at Christmastime, in her Suzi Christmas persona. Unfortunately, some of her neighbors have no holiday spirit, including Luke Potter. To get close to the woman his godfather is suing and convince her to shut the whole thing down, he pretends to be Nick Claus. And finds that things aren´t always what they seem and that he´s in over his head. While this story was enjoyable, I wasn´t crazy about some of the things that happen toward the end of this one that seemed a bit too convenient. This gets only three of Cupid´s arrows.
Last but not least, Regency Christmas Eve the Signet anthology by Nancy Butler, Diane Farr, Allison Lane, Edith Layton and Barbara Metzger. "Little Miracles" was cute, even though there were animal points of view, which you know by now I´m not fond of. Rev. Evan Merriweather loves the local lord´s daughter but cannot ask for her hand when his parish is so poor he´s barely eking out a living. "The Marriage Stakes" is a wonderful story, though I wanted to shake Damon for being so blind to what was in his heart and worrying so much about a curse that he knew wasn´t a curse. "The Gift of the Spoons" is also very good, with a young healer searching for a way to heal not only a broken young child but his bitter father as well. "The Reckless Miss Ripley" had its moments, but unfortunately too few for me. Miss Ripley is indeed reckless and in need of a bit of discipline, I think. Lastly, "The Christmas Thief" is a touching tale of a man down on his luck, but unable to do what he feels he must to make things right for a little girl´s holiday. I liked this one a lot. I´m giving the anthology as a whole three and a half arrows.
Till next week, happy reading!
