Review: A Sugar Cookie for the Holiday Lover's Soul
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 13, 2013
Book provided by publisher for review purposes on my blog from which this is excerpted.  No remuneration was exchanged and all opinions presented herein are my own except as noted.Each of these stories is centered around a family theme. In several it’s right there but in Molly Cannon’s it’s pretty subtle. That’s whence most of our holiday memories come.I believe that the degree to which you like the diverse stories in this anthology will greatly depend on how much you enjoy each person’s writing and, also, if you like your stories really sweet, or sweet and hot. But I did enjoy something in each story and if I look at this from a bang-for-your-buck it’s a good value.My favorite story was Dream a Little Dream by Jill Shalvis. It’s unapologetically sweet but there’s some good spice tooThis story has everything: danger, Christmas trees, cookies, poignancy and even a really cute present!Although Kristen Ashley’s Every Year wasn’t my cup of tea, it had really nice descriptions of family time; it was deep and heartfelt.Hope Ramsey’s Silent Night is sweet and its direction is pretty clear. How terribly sad it is that the life struggles the main female character, Maryanne, experienced stole her childhood from her. The predictability of this story doesn’t make it less sweet and poignant.Have Yourself a Messy Little Christmas by Molly Cannon was sweet and funny. I really liked the main female character's  tenacity. And it is a little sexy too. I thought it was great fun.Marilyn Pappano’s story, A Family for Christmas, is family oriented and while it wasn’t my favorite and it wasn’t steamy it was still nice. There is one very tame sex scene.  Marilyn’s characters in the story and her excerpt are about military wives. I often think the people who are holding down the home fort also serve and suffer as much.Almost more than the stories I really enjoyed each author’s excerpts following her story. And their introductory letter to the reader. Each gave me a glimpse into their work. Like I said, it’s a good value and I enjoyed all the stories to some degree. Highly Recommend for an afternoon before the fire.