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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Christmas Cheer,
This review is from: Winter Wonderland (Mass Market Paperback)
This was a great Christmas Anthology. All four authors presented a Christmas story that reminded me of the magic of Christmas, restoring our faith in words such as love, friendship and happiness. It would be hard to say which story was best but my favorites were Amanda Harte's Silver Bells and Emma Craig's "Merry Gentlemen". I bought the book when it was released but as is the plague of a bookaholic, I did not reach it on my "to be read" pile until March. What a breath of fresh air. I loved this book. It raised my spirits and reminded me how wonderful a holiday Christmas, the gifts being what people need the most-love and understanding. Try this book-it truly will bring a smile to your lips. Happy reading.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sorry...none of these stories did anything for me,
By Gemma "bookworm" (Alberta, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Winter Wonderland (Mass Market Paperback)
From the back cover:
Christmas is coming...and the streets are alive with the sounds of the season: "Silber Bells" and sleigh rides, jingle bells and carolers. Choruses of "Here Comes Santa Claus" float over the snow-covered landscape, bringing the joy of the holiday to rebelers as they deck the halls and string the lights "Up on the Housetop." And when the songs of the season touch four charmed couples, melody turns to romance and harmony turns to passion. For these "Merry Gentlemen" and their lovely ladies will learn that with the love they have found, not even a spring thaw will cool their desire or destroy their "Winter Wonderland". And my review: Well, the back cover description doesn't really tell the reader much about the stories in this collection, so I'll include a brief synopsis about each story, as well as my own personal thoughts: The first story in this anthology is Leigh Greenwood's HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS. Basically, a man who's father was basically a Scrooge for all his life suddenly becomes a philanthropist, giving away almost all of his possessions and playing Santa to the local kids. His son, (the hero of this romance) is concerned that his dad has lost it and rushes back home. There he meets a young lady (the heroine) who has helped his father to rediscover the true spirit of Christmas. But the hero is convinced that the heroine is just a con artist. But of course they end up falling in love. I didn't have high hopes for this novella, since I have yet to like a single story written by Leigh Greenwood. This one was no exception. The characters felt flat, and I also felt that there was nothing drawing the hero and heroine together except lust (which was almost immediate--a real turn-off). The hero hates the heroine, yet starts practically picturing her naked on her back the second he meets her. Not very romantic. Two stars. The next story was Amanda Harte's SILVER BELLS. This is a story of reunited love. Many years ago, the heroine jilted the hero and married another man. Now her husband is dead, and she has happened to run into the hero, who has never stopped loving her and wants to pick up where the left off. This story had so much promise, but failed to live up to it. I had a really hard time connecting with the characters. Also, the explanation as to why the heroine had thrown the hero over for another man (even though she was still madly in love with the hero at the time) was a long time coming. I was left wondering why she would jilt him in the first place. And since she'd hurt him so badly (without a decent explanation forthcoming), I found it really hard to like her. Two stars. The third installment in this anthology was Emma Craig's MERRY GENTLEMEN. Basically, the heroine has started a beautiful shop (that sells lots of Christmas stuff), but is having a hard time making a go of it because there's a movie set being constructed next door, and the noise and mess is discouraging customers. The hero (the son of the man who's running the movie) tries to straighten things out with the heroine, and they eventually fall in love. I'm afraid that this is another author who just doesn't do it for me. Her writing feels disjointed, and often downright confusing. There were a lot of times when I couldn't be sure who was speaking, or even how many characters there were in the room. Seriously, it was that difficult to follow. There was no real flow to the words. Reading romance shouldn't feel like homework. Also, the heroine came across as a spoiled, petulant child, and the hero not much better. I couldn't really like either one of them, so I found that I didn't really care whether they got together or not. Two stars. The last novella was Linda O. Johnston's UP ON THE HOUSETOP. The widowed heroine wants to adopt a baby more than anything. The problem is that while the about-to-pop birth mother is more than happy to give the heroine her baby, the baby's uncle doesn't think that a child should be raised in a single-parent family. So in between the heroine trying to convince the hero that she'll be a good enough mother to make up for the lack of a father figure, the hero and heroine fall in love, thus creating a two-parent family for the baby. This story was just okay. Nothing special. I found it a little hard to cheer for the heroine, since I really sided with the hero on this issue. No offense to people forced into single parenthood out there, but I think that actively choosing to deprive a child of a full-time father figure is wrong. I tried to get past this and move on, but the romance itself was also rather weak. Again, I didn't feel that there was any real attraction between the characters. Any attraction that existed was merely sexual; there was nothing else. And I need more for a satisfying read. Two stars. Anthologies are always a hit-or-miss scenerio, and I'm afraid that this one was a miss. There are better Christmas romance anthologies out there. See my list "Christmas romance books worth buying" for a list of my keepers and re-reads. As for WINTER WONDERLAND, I would recommend that you only read it if you can borrow it or find it at a garage sale. Otherwise, don't bother.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not so good,
By Miss Blueeyes (Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Winter Wonderland (Mass Market Paperback)
1st story: Here Comes Santa Claus by Leigh Greenfield
Couple: Michael Wetherford and Ellen Weems Michael's father, Nick, was an verbally abusive, neglectful man until a few years ago when Ellen and her father moved to town, befriended him and showed him how to be a caring person. Because of his radical change in behavior, Nick's lawyer writes to Michael and he comes to see what is going on. Ellen is sweet to everyone except Michael. She's mean to him because he hasn't come to see his father since he graduated so he obviously doesn't care about him and just wants his money in her point of view. Nick even told her that he had been a bad father and wants a second chance with his son. Ellen still tells Micheal he should leave, (ignoring what Nick really wants although she claims that she only wants him to be happy,) and when Michael tells her he is leaving she gets mad that he wont stay and spend more time with his father. She hurts Michael's feelings many times. I do like that Michael and Nick fix their relationship with each other, but I wish he didn't marry Ellen. 2nd story: Silver Bells by Amanda Harte Couple: Alex Bradford and Karen Lang Karen takes her daughter, Jill, to New York for their first Christmas since her husband, Tom, died. There she runs into Alex. I actually liked Karen until I found out she and Alex had been engaged and she dumped him to marry Tom, an old boyfriend whom she didn't even love just because her father was sick and she wanted to be with him until he died. Alex hadn't done anything wrong and she didn't even give him a choice of waiting to get married or living near her father for couple years. It wasn't fair to Alex or Tom. Then I found out that Jill was actually Alex's daughter. Karen lied about her pregnancy to Alex and kept their daughter from knowing her real father. I hated Karen by the end of the story. She and Alex get engaged and Alex wants to tell Jill that he's her real father. Karen agrees, but the story just ends and you never find out Jill's reaction to finding out the man she thought was her father wasn't, and that she now has to move to New York leaving her boyfriend and all her friends behind. I don't see this being a happy Christmas for any of them. I just hope Jill isn't mean to Alex about this because he at least deserves a nice Christmas after all these years of missing Karen at Christmas time. The way Jill talked bothered me. I was a teenager at the same time this book was written and never once heard any teenager use the word "fierce" instead of cool. 3rd story: Merry Gentlemen by Emma Craig Couple: Alex Hawkes and Gina Sullivan Just boring. Alex was a depressed man who worked for his horrible narcissistic father and Gina owned a store in a town where his father's book was being made into a movie. Gina was either whining and being childish or trying to force Alex and his father to enjoy Christmas together. 4th story: Up On the Housetop by Linda O. Johnston Couple: Sam DiGregorio and Carrie Ritenour I thought Carrie was okay and would have made a good mom. I know several single mothers who are wonderful. Just because you have a mother and a father doesn't mean their adopted child will be raised well. My brother dated a girl in highschool who had been adopted. The family already had a boy and adopted her so they could have a girl. When they got older the boy molested her. She tried to tell her parents, but they wouldn't believe her because he was their real child. It really hurt her and made a mess of her life. Single men and women can make good or bad parents just like any married couple. Sam had faults but was really a decent guy who wanted his sister's baby to go to someone who he was sure would care for it. I liked him more by the end of the story, but didn't really see much love between Sam and Carrie. This story was okay and should have been first. I almost skipped it because I disliked the others.
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