A Yuletide Universe - ed Brian M Thomsen

one sentence summary
a collection of totally quirky short Christmas stories.

review:

a real hit and miss collection, all of the stories are worth reading even if only because the really terrible stories make the next ones seem better. the strong authors who I love (Gaiman, McCaffrey, and Willis) stories can be found elsewhere, I recommend doing that as they were almost disapointing anyway.
6/10

The Delaney Christmas Carol - Kay Hooper, Iris Johansen and Fayrene Preston

one sentence summary:
many generations of the Delaney family have looked into the magic mirror and seen a glimpse of the future, these are three of those stories.

Review:
none of these stories were particularly well conceived or well written. Iris Johansen's was the best in my opinion and the other two weren't much worse. All three felt rushed and without strong plots. The Delaney family, however, does seem like a family worth writing about and I will probably seek out more of their stories.

4/10

The Bite Before Christmas - Heidi Betts

one sentence summary:
even vampires need a little love around the holidays.

Review:
Three vampire stories that all feed one to another and are written by Betts. She has done a phenomenal job of all three vampire tropes, human girl loves vampire male, vampire female loves human male, and vampire female loves vampire male. All in all  three stories about overcoming the odds, coming to terms with your emotions and falling in love, all with happily forever after endings. The writing is pretty alright, easy reading for sure. The stories are cute and entertaining. Great reading for a snowy afternoon by the fireplace (or the sweltering heat of July if you, like me, are in need of a taste of Christmas to lift your spirits.)

7/10

Making Spirits Bright - Fern Michaels et al

One Sentence Summary:
A collection of four romantic Christmas season novellas.

Review:
over all this was a cute, easy to read book. Some of the stories were better than others, the one by Bass was my favourite and the one by Rossiter was my least favourite. The romance was a bit rushed in all of the stories but that is to be expected when you are writing with less than 150 pages to work with. For a light read around the holiday season (or anytime of year if you are like me and occasionally miss Christmas) I recommend this. Be warned the writing is really not particular good.
6/10
8/10

If you enjoyed this I recommend:
Nora Roberts
Debbie Macomber
Robyn Carr

A Redbird Christmas - Fannie Flagg

One Sentence Summary:
Oswald is told by his doctor that if he stays in Chicago he will die so he moves south to the small town of Lost River where he is adopted by the small close knit community.

Review:
I am not ashamed to say I love Fannie Flagg, her stories are all have characters I want to have tea with and communities I would hate to live in because everyone knows everyone else. Her writing is simple, old fashion, character driven, small town exposing story telling. I recommend this to anyone looking for an easy read with a happy ending full of off the wall characters.

6/10

If you enjoyed this I recommend you read these authors next:
Garrison Keillor
Alan Bradley
more Fannie Flagg
Rebecca Wells
Garth Stein

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

One Sentence Summary: 
Grumpy wealthy man is visited by three spirits and becomes a philanthropist.

Review:
One of Dickens less superfluous pieces of writing. A classic story worth reading under the Christmas tree, unfortunately the language used makes it less accessible than it once was as it requires more than a grade 9 education to read (which is a wonderful thing in my opinion). The descriptions of everything as still long winded but the plot plays out much more quickly than in other Dickens classics making this the one story of his that I will recommend everyone read for a taste of the Victorian Era.  


9/10
8/10

Notable Quotes:
"Bah," said Scrooge, "Humbug."

If you enjoyed this (because you like Victorian Era story telling) you should read:
Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
Kim - Rudyard Kipling
Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson

ps. I think the Muppet Christmas Carol is the best - followed closely by the one with Mickey Mouse and Goofy