Review: 3.5 stars from Red Adept Reviews
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 16, 2012
Overall: 3.5 starsPlot/Storyline: 4 starsThese somewhat-interrelated romances (NOT romantic comedies, in case that is what you were expecting) are set around different holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and Valentine's Day. The character-driven tales are quite predictable and not-quite-believable, with each lonely woman meeting Mr. Right in the least likely way, but this won't be a drawback to romance fans. "Missing Christmas" is the exception; the perfect hero and heroine are already living together as the story starts, facing problems. And Scott skips the detailed sex scenes that push some romances over the line into erotica. There are a few minor plot holes. When a character turns out to have had a good first marriage but a lousy second marriage, Scott never indicates which marriage produced the child. The police don't take missing-person reports on adults for 24 hours. Only romance fans will enjoy the stories.Characters: 3 starsThe stories are peopled almost exclusively by stock characters - wounded divorcee, lonely workaholic, tired-of-dating singles - but this again won't be a drawback to those who like the genre. All the women are incredibly gorgeous, all the men are heavenly hunks who have resisted all other women for years but instantly fall for the heroine, and able to read their woman's mind and do exactly what is needed, totally understanding and supportive. Scott keeps the story so focused on the main characters that the reader may not notice that she pays very little attention to the minor characters.Writing style: 3.5 starsSentence structure is clean and appropriate. Dialogue doesn't really distinguish between the different characters, but since they were stock characters I wasn't surprised I had trouble keeping them straight. Descriptions mostly consisted of the characters' physical perfections and tender actions: "His brown eyes stood out against his green shirt." "He should be yelling at me, but he was being sympathetic and understanding." "Is your hair really that gorgeous red?" "those long dark lashes" "And next time you get homesick, I'll make sure to really listen." "wrapped up in a six-foot tall blond bow and a gorgeous Armani winter coat" "But the way Charlie stared in her eyes chased that bad feeling away." An occasional exception was used to advance the plot: "the bloody fingerprints she was now leaving on the steering wheel."