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Authors: Tessa Dare, Sarah MacLean, Sophie Jordan, Joanna Shupe
Publication Date: 2018
Sub-genre: Historical
Heat Level: Varies from story to story, but overall, hawt
So what happens when four of my favorite historical romance authors get together to write a Christmas anthology based on popular holiday movies? I love every second of reading it.
HTDSC is a collection of four novellas (each approximately 100 pages), all based on different Christmas movies. Meet Me in Mayfair by Tessa Dare retells Meet Me in St. Louis (which I haven’t seen in forever and need to remedy). Sarah MacLean’s novella, The Duke of Christmas Present, is based on Scrooged, which is of course based on A Christmas Carol. Heiress Alone by Sophie Jordan takes its inspiration from one of my favorite holiday movies, Home Alone (though, not as fun to watch as a parent). And finally, Joanna Shupe’s Christmas in Central Park pulls from a Christmas movie I’ve never heard of, Christmas in Connecticut. In addition to their movie tie-ins, each novella also features a magical shortbread and of course, a duke.
Honestly, I love all of these ladies, so it should come as no surprise that I devoured this entire anthology and loved every second of it. Sarah’s story was probably my favorite (shocker) because it features a grumpy duke and childhood friends to enemies to lovers, and you know I can’t get enough of that. I also really enjoyed Joanna’s story, despite having never seen its inspiration film. But truly, I found all four stories to be enjoyable and the perfect way to get into the holiday mood.
I think I really loved this collection because, while I love a good holiday story, I can’t handle the typical city girl moves home to her small town to fall in love for Christmas vibes. I thought these four stories were the perfect answer to that conundrum for me. They had all the elements I love about historical romance, including some sassy heroines, but they also tied in perfectly to getting in the holiday spirit. I will be keeping this one on my shelf and giving it a reread every December.
Overall Rating: 4.5 stars for the collection as a whole
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