Customer Reviews

The Bite Before Christmas

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Gift by Lynsay Sands

Teddy Brunswick is snowed in at his holiday rental cabin and things start to appear bleak until he meets his beautiful, and too young for him, neighbor. Katricia Argeneau has lived a long time and is thrilled to finally have found her life mate in Teddy. Now she'll just need to convince the weary Teddy that what's happening between them is real and worth holding on to.

The Gift has a much slower pace compared to the other Argeneau books but it manages to capture everything I like about this series and has a cute story. Teddy is the police chief of the small town of Port Henry, a town that has several immortal (vampire) residents. Instead of feeling like an outcast at some holiday dinner one of his friends will invite him to, Teddy decides to head out of town to a rental cabin. After finding himself snowed in, he meets Katricia and despite feeling guilty for having sexual feelings for a woman who appears to be half his age, he and Katricia hit it off from the start. Katricia knows right away that Teddy is her life mate but needs to take it slow so she doesn't scare him off, which proves to be easier said than done.

I thought Katricia and Teddy made a solid couple and even though their relationship moves quickly, their emotions for each other still felt genuine. I think those who will enjoy The Gift are those who are already fans of the Argeneau series because Teddy is a reoccurring character and one you really want to see get his happily ever after.

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Home For The Holidays by Jeaniene Frost

Vampires Cat and Bones are enjoying a party when it comes to an abrupt end after receiving word of an attack against one their friends. Before their investigation begins, they learn surprising news that quickly turns the powerful pair against each other and threatens their unbreakable relationship.

As usual, Jeaniene Frosts packs a lot of story in just 100+ pages which is why I always look forward to reading her novellas. Home For The Holidays takes place a few weeks after the events in One Grave At A Time. Cat and Bones are celebrating his birthday with a few friends when they receive a phone call of an attack against Annette, friend and Bones' former bed mate. Well, one of them anyways. Before their investigation into the attack really starts, the couple meet another vampire who has an unexpected connection to Bones. It's not long before we learn that the mystery man has an ulterior motive that threatens Bones, Cat and the people they care about.

This was my favorite of the two stories. It was great seeing all my favorite characters again and as you'd expect to find in any Night Huntress story, action and creatures acting up. The best part about this short was Ian. He's in a lot of the scenes and shows, despite having their problems in the past, how much he cares for Bones and the lengths he's willing to go through to help his old friend while still being the sexual deviant we've all come to know and love. I really liked the story and was so interested in it, that I wouldn't have mind it being a full length book.

My Rating: 4 Stars

The Bite Before Christmas features The Gift by Lynsay Sands set in her Argeneau world and Home For the Holidays by Jeaniene Frost, a Night Huntress story.

The Gift by Lynsay Sands

Two days before Christmas, Teddy Brunswick finds himself in a cottage, away from his home town of Port Henry where he is a police chief because he has no family to spend the holidays with. But it has snowed a lot and his cabin has lost power. He also doesn't have much food stocked up, but after looking at the snow covered roads, he is not sure when he will be able to make it to a store. Luckily, he meets the person staying at the neighboring cabin, Katricia Argeneau. Katricia has food, but no heat. Since Teddy has a fireplace in his cabin, they decide, Katricia will bring food over to his place, and they can stay warm by the fire.

What Teddy doesn't realize is that Katricia is a vampire, who has just realized much to her surprise she has found her life mate.

I was very disappointed in The Gift. I will say, this is the first I've read of Lynsay Sands so I am not familiar with her Argeneau world. But this one reads very well as a stand alone. I understand the world, or at least the small glimpse we see in this book. Basically this book is Katricia meets Teddy and realizes she can't read his mind, which is a big signal that he might be her life mate. Teddy knows the existence of vampires, so her coming clean with who she is is not a big shock to him. I kept waiting and waiting for something to happen. Something, anything! But these two just hang out in the cabin. To me, they don't have a spark of attraction between them at all. Their chemistry totally falls flat. It is very much a case of telling us, rather than showing us:

***

The woman was just...Well, she was sassy as hell, smart as a whip, and had a killer sense of humor. He'd laughed more today during their snowball fight, card games, and talks than he'd laughed with any woman ever.

***

Really? Because we never see this fun, crazy side to these two characters.

And then when the big moment comes where Katricia admits to Teddy he is her life mate, it is very anti-climatic. All in all, a disappointing read.

Rating: 2/5

Home for the Holidays by Jeaniene Frost

It's Bones's birthday, and to surprise him, Cat has invited their close friends and family to their home for a party and to stick around for the holidays. Cat wants to have an old-fashioned Christmas. But trouble never stays away long from these two. As Bones opens his presents, they realize Annette, who has flown in from London is not present at the party. Ian offers to go back to the hotel to see what is holding her up, and what he finds isn't good. There is blood all over the hotel room, and Annette is all out of sorts - definitely acting strange. She also refuses to give up the name of the person that hurt her. Frustrated, they take her back to their home, where they have another surprise. But I'm not going to tell you who or what because that will ruin the surprise for you!

I enjoyed this short story - we meet a new character, like I just said, I'm not going to tell you who, but this person holds many secrets about Bones. And, as a result, we learn a lot about Bones's past. I was actually surprised by the depth of what we learn, especially something at the end of this story.

In true Night Huntress fashion, there is a big conflict with lots of violence, one liners from Cat, and the very sexy (and I admit sleazy) Ian has lots of page time. And to pique your curiosity even more, at one point Ian says this to Cat:

***

"That's right, you nasty little vixen, bite me harder." Ian urged.

***

Oh yes - there are some crazy things that happen in this book - but it all works out in the end. Fans of this series are going to want to read this one for some details we learn about Bones.

Rating: 4/5

Overall rating: 3/5

This rating is just for the Cat and Bones story, since that's the reason I bought this and it's all I read in the book. LOVED it. I really felt for Bones and the family issues he had to deal with in this one. I enjoyed Cat and Ian teaming up to fight the bad guy...I love anything where Ian has a lot of page time.

Ian on bringing new people under his protection: "Because while I don't require morals from members of my line, I do expect loyalty."

That's Ian to a "T" - he might be the fun, or as Cat says, sleazy, guy you can't help but give a hard time too, however, no one can ever doubt his loyalty to his friends.

I started reading the Argeneau story, but didn't go beyond the first couple chapters. I've read a few books in the series, but this one just didn't grab me. The hero is an older man, probably in his 60s or 70s, and the heroine is 25. Eww. Granted, I'm sure something happens where he's turned and goes back to his "prime" age, but I didn't really care to read that far to find out.

But, if you're a fan of the Cat and Bones series, you won't be disappointed with their latest adventure. It comes in at around 150 pages, so it's a "long" short story, and J. Frost really packs a lot into all those pages. Great read.

An odd pairing of holiday vampire novellas served up with a fangy twist - from Sand's light humorous Argeneau vampire romances and Frost's sexy wise cracking Night Huntress urban fantasy series.

(5 stars = I really really liked it) "Home for the Holidays" by Jeaniene Frost - A Night Huntress novella - Looks like Annette has totally one upped Cat's birthday present to Bones but the surprise guest has almost every one in Bone's 'family' acting really wierd - Frost had released the first few chapter of this as a sneak preview a while back but even having read the beginning before, this Cat and Bones short was really excellent. If the anthology had been a mass market release, I'd have almost said that this story was worth the price of the whole book, since "Home for the Holidays" is a pretty substantial novella length short story, with a really great conflict, with a touching moment near the end, and with lots of cameos, plus a decent sized supporting role for Ian - he's so unabashedly bad but with a redeeming touch of loyalty that makes him a standout character.

(3 stars = ok) "The Gift" by Lynsay Sands - an Argeneau connected novella, starring Teddy the Port Henry Chief of Police who has appeared in quite a few of the books (Accidental Vampire for one). Teddy's attempt to avoid a 'charity' invite to one of his paired off friends' holiday celebrations, ends up with him snowed in and with no power, but with a very interesting neighbor to make the experience more interesting. - I was happy that Teddy got his HEA, but there were places where I was borderline squicked with the 60 something Teddy thinking 'gramppa thoughts' while lusting after the 20's looking Katricia. Katricia is around 1600 years old or something like that and Teddy feels bad about scoping her out before he learns her age, and Katricia is on the make from the start but ... I'd have been happier if the lustiness had waited until after the 'turning'. And I have had this pet peeve in the last five or so books, I wish Sands would stop using Little 'fill-in-heroes-name-here' for a significant male body part, it was cute the first time in Thomas' book but needs to be retired.

The last 14% of the book has sneak previews for Sand's next book Under a Vampire Moon (which if the rumors are true, will no longer be a hardback release) and for Frost's first Night Prince (Vlad's spinoff series) I am skipping both teasers - I will just wait for the real thing.

"The Bite Before Christmas" includes 2 novellas by fan favorites Jeaniene Frost and Lynsay Sands. The plots continue the series for which both writers are renowned.

Cat and Bones are the usual hoot. I still think it is amazing that Ms. Frost keeps her readers interested in the couple. Each entry in the series shows how the different facets of these complex characters mesh as they actually grow in their relationship. Who would have thought that was possible in a paranormal romance?

I have waited to read Teddy's story from Ms. Sands with trepidation as the last several entries in the Argeneau series have had a very "been there...done that" feel. This story was a much hoped for return to the heart of the series. Katricia and Teddy make a great couple but I felt short changed as the novella was not the right format for a story that had so many threads too neatly sewn together. The age thing (Teddy is at least 70 at the beginning of the story) alone needs a least 25 more pages. Katricia also needed quite a few more pages to explore the near "rogue" personality she supposedly was developing that lasted all of 1 page in the novella. I was left feeling like Oliver Twist asking for MORE PLEASE!

As a fan of both series, I was happy to see new stories. I must say that the Cat and Bones novella was probably the stronger of the two simply because it builds on a relationship already fleshed out in other books. Sands' entry needed more back story and depth in comparison. Also, the two books may be about vampires but they don't share quite the same mindset. Bones is a lot more edgy than the more cuddly Teddy. I love both series but didn't like the emotional shift between the two stories in 1 book. I wouldn't recommend reading both in one sitting.

I'm very fond of the Argeneau Family and naturally I'm all thumbs up for the sheriff to find a mate too, but TOO SHORT for a story and maybe that's why it was not as funny and enjoyable as the books are. For a person keeping up with the serie this is 'must read', but won't be a pleasure for a weekend.

An anthology of two stories about vampires and Christmas.

Series:

The Gift (Argeneau, 15.5)

Home for the Holidays (Night Huntress, 6.5)

The Stories

Lynsay Sands' Gift is a cute story of two individuals, Teddy Brunswick and Katricia Argeneau, escaping the pity of family and friends at Christmas and just happening to rent cottages side by side. It takes a blizzard snowing them in without electricity or food to push Katricia and Ted outside their comfort zones and into each others' arms.

Jeaniene Frost's Home for the Holidays is much more desperate with Cat, Ian, and Dierdre forced to bargain with a demon to save the friends who have gathered to celebrate Bones' birthday. Family. It's not all it's cracked up to be.

The Cover

The cover is a peaceful snowy landscape...with tombstones and a circular peekaboo window as Bones holds Cat closely to him looking up at us tauntingly, gathering her long blonde hair to one side just as he is about to nuzzle her neck.

The title is all about vampire holidays with The Bite Before Christmas.

The first book by Sands was very lame.Too short, not much of a plot.Bite before Christmas was good, could of beena little longer. Not worth 10.99:(

In this book,there are two shorts. The first by Sands is fairly typical of her work. The plot is straightforward and the romance is cute. The second story is worth the price of admission. It's a short in Frost's Night Hintress series. Like the other Bones and Cat stories, it is fast paced, creative, and takes a few unexpected turns. If you have not read this series, this short will have you itching to start at the beginning.

Home for the Holidays By Jeaniene Frost,

This is an Awesome Series and this Novella just adds to it! Can't Wait for the Next full lenght book to be released. I want to See what happens with Cat & Bones,Mencheres & Kira and Spade,Denise...and the rest. Curious to See what Ms.Frost has in store for them.in the next installment.