Review: Five stars for Heating Up the Holidays, a collection by Lisa Renee Jones, Mary Ann Rivers, & Serena Bell
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 28, 2013
When I received Heating Up the Holidays, a collection of three novels by Lisa Renee Jones, Mary Ann Rivers, Serena Bell, I think I was expecting some hot holiday romances. Well I received those, plus a lot more. For me, these stories weren't really holiday-themed, but themed about the deeper meaning of love - which I guess is the true message of the holidays, right?Very rarely do I find myself having to stop reading a book as it's so difficult for me to process the emotions that have been raised by the story, but Mary Ann Rivers' beautiful and haunting Snowfall achieved that. The story is beautifully written, but it's hard to convey the depth of feeling that left me in tears at the end. I will be on the lookout for more of Ms. Rivers' titles because she is one talented and amazing author.I love reading Lisa Renee Jones' books as they're usually hot, have fabulous characters, and the story rocks. Well, Play with Me has all those qualities and again, was a tear jerker. I loved to love this and it was the perfect story to put at the front of this collection as once you read it, you knew this wasn't your traditional holiday collection, but something a little more.The collection concludes with Serena Bell's After Midnight and, may I say, that this collection makes women scientists and science teachers amazingly sexy. Look out Larry Summers as Hot for the Holidays should inspire more women to enter the science field. Meeting at a New Years Eve party our hero and heroine kiss at midnight and then like Cinderella, Miles disappears. Eventually thanks to some social media intervention, they find one another again, but all is not smooth sailing. Again, the emotions that Bell conveys are powerful and beautiful.I highly, highly recommend this book, not just for the holidays, but for permanent placement on your bookshelf. I know I'll be pulling it out again to re-read when I truly desire some powerful emotional support - as that is what those stories provided for me. Five stars atop the tree for this hot, sexy, and moving collection by three absolutely talented authors.Fab Fantasy Fiction[...][ARC received through NetGalley for fair & honest review.]