Seems a little odd to be reading a Christmas anthology while sitting by the pool in Florida (in May!) but somehow it worked.
The Heart of Christmas (Anthology)
(2009, Regency) 5/2/10
Grade: 3.5
Three stories: A Handful of Gold by Mary Balogh, A Season for Suitors by Nicola Cornick, This Wicked Gift by Courtney Milan. The first two are reprints, the third is new.
The Balogh story is a reprint, but it’s still one of her most charming. The heroine, Verity Ewing has to become a mistress to save her sick sister. Julian Dare is planning a week of debauchery before an arranged marriage. But when they are stranded in the snow at Christmas, the find love. A little schmaltzy, but Balogh always gets me even when the story is as corny as this one.
The Cornick story is also a reprint, although I hadn’t read it. It feels like an excerpt from a longer book. The heroine, Clara Davenport, has been in love with Sebastian Fleet for years, but he considers her just a friend. Finally she turns to him for advice, and he starts to see her in a new light. The characters were interesting, but it felt like a badly abridged version of a full length book – a lot of important details were missing.
The Milan story was well written and unusual, but it also felt somewhat contrived. The most interesting aspect was that the hero and heroine were not wealthy or titled. They were working people on the edge of poverty. The dialogue was also well written. However, the setup was odd. The heroine sleeps with the hero because he bought up her brothers debt.. but not really. At first they seem to be strangers, but then they act like they’ve been deeply in love for years. The story just felt unfinished, as if the author had to leave important parts out to fit it in the allotted page length. It definitely showed promise, but it didn’t quite work for me.
Writing short stories is definitely an art, and most authors are not that good at it. Too many of them try to squeeze a full length book into short story length. And yet, I keep trying, because a good short story is so satisfying!
Karen Wheless
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