Customer Reviews

Yuletide Brides (2 Novels in 1)

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From the back cover:

'Tis the season for decking halls, wrapping presents and jingling bells--wedding bells!

Join favorite authors Marie Ferrarella and Suzanne Carey for two special stories this holiday season...

CHRISTMAS BRIDE by Marie Ferrarella
Stuck sharing a tiny bed with her soon-to-be ex, Toni tried to find a way to tell Derek about the baby-to-be--and tried to resist the man she had never really stopped loving. She desperately needed a holiday miracle. Would the power of love deliver?

FATHER BY MARRIAGE by Suzanne Carey
The assignment was straightforward--bring back his client's lost granddaughter. But Jake McKenzie's feelings grew for the girl and her lovely adoptive mother, Holly Yarborough. Did the lonely P.I. deserve a holiday blessing...and true love?

And my review:

Both of these stories were previously published seperately in the mid '90s and reissued together in this volume.

I enjoyed CHRISTMAS BRIDE. I find the Ferrarella is a hit-or-miss with me, but this one was a hit. I really liked that she had much more than just one stupid big misunderstanding keeping the hero and heroine apart. The issues of real, deep trust and commitment were well explored in this story. It wasn't a case of just "heroine finds out that she was mistaken and all is well" contrived plot. Nor did the author rely on childish behaviour, endless bickering, or over-the-top sexual attraction to keep the story going. The characters were real people, with real issues to work through. Also, the Christmas aspect of this story was well done, as was the "big Italian family" theme. This was truly a character-driven story, and I enjoyed it. Four stars.

FATHER BY MARRIAGE was a disappointment, especially coming off the heels of CHRISTMAS BRIDE. For one, the writing style was very awkward, with lots of head-hopping from the heroine's point-of-view to the hero's and back and forth throughout each scene. Sometimes this even happened when the characters were miles apart. It was rather confusing and jarring to go from looking through the heroine's eyes while she's fixing the barn roof to looking through the hero's eyes while he's in the next town (I'm not joking) without even a section break. One sentence we're with the heroine, the next we're in the next town with the hero. Sound confusing? It was. The story did not have a nice flow to it.

Also, there was nothing but out-of-control hormones drawing the hero and heroine together. I need more than just amazing sexual chemistry for a romance to be satisfying. I also didn't like how the heroine had loved her first husband, but found her relationship inferior to the one she had with the hero because the hero makes her mindless with lust. As if overwhelming lust is superior to true love, affection and intimacy. I'm so sick of this overdone and tired theme. I couldn't motivate myself to finish this story. Two stars.

Half of this book is worth reading, the other half is not. I recommend CHRISTMAS BRIDE, but as it was already published on its own, you might just want to hunt down a copy of the original issue.