1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Dallas Schulze's story is enjoyable, November 14, 2006
This review is from: California Christmas (By Request 2's) (Mass Market Paperback)
Since the back cover description is already included on this page, I'll skip straight to my review:
Both of these stories are reprints. One nice thing about this collection is that they are both full-length stories, not limited-length novellas. The first story is 300 pages, and the second is 250 pages.
The book started out with Marie Ferrarella's CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY. I wasn't sure what to expect, as I've found this author to be hit-or-miss. Unfortunately, it was a miss. Not only was this book written in a very jerky, choppy, awkward writing style (reading romance should be an escape, not feel like work), but the heroine was waaay too annoying. She had a major chip on her shoulder, and I was so sick of how whiny she was. Everything was "poor pity me, I've had such a lousy life". Well, I've had friends who've gone through everything she's gone through, and more, and none of them wallowed in self-pity like this. One star.
Dallas Schulze's A VERY CONVENIENT MARRIAGE was the story that made this book worth the money I'd spent on it. This is an author who creates vivid characters, writes with light humor (which is more difficult to do well than it sounds) and draws the reader into the story. Her writing style is flowing and easy-to-read. She is one of the few authors who can manage to write an initial mutual animosity between the hero and heroine without having it descend into childishness or pettiness, or make the characters annoying while she does it. That's a very difficult task for an author to manage, and I congratulate her on a job well done. I often find that Dallas Schulze is a hit-or-miss author, but luckily, she wrote a winner here.
My only complaint with A VERY CONVENIENT MARRIAGE is that the Christmas aspect of it felt rather tacked-on. Christmas doesn't get much more than a passing glance at the end of the book, and wasn't really an integeral theme to the story. Still, it was enjoyable, and I do recommend it. Four stars.
So while the first story was a dud, the second made up for it. But both stories are available on their own, so you might be better off just buying a copy of A VERY CONVENIENT MARRIAGE and forgetting about CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY.
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