Take a photo of a barcode or cover
forevermorepages 's review for:
All I Want for Christmas
by Maggie Cummings, Georgia Beers, Fiona Riley
This was a really cute collection to end the holiday season with! It contains three short stories, but unfortunately, only one of them I really fell head over heels for.
Triple Dog Dare - 5-ish stars:
This was the one I enjoyed the most. To begin, it has my favorite trope of all time: fake-dating. Therefore, I was destined to love it. Not only that, but the writing was the most mature of the three stories and I felt like I actually knew the characters. They were deep, well-characterized, and they didn't feel like Hallmark knock-offs. This is the only of the stories that I could see myself enjoying as a full novel, even if a tad cheesy at parts.
Hustle & Bustle - 3-ish stars:
This one was honestly a bit forgettable. I appreciated how the characters' relationship developed over time. However, I found both of them a bit boring. Much of their relationship was one of the girls (I can't remember her name) making assumptions about the other (Toby) and then finding that she had stereotyped her all along. I didn't really love that and didn't find it all that compelling of characterization. It was cute, definitely sexier than the first story, but I think I much preferred the first story's plot.
A Christmas Miracle - 2 stars:
This one felt very Hallmark. I was a bit bored, not going to lie, and neither of the characters had distinct voices. For the only story that was dual-narrated (I believe), you really couldn't tell. More so, I didn't like how both of the characters seemed entirely different when they were around their family. Their interactions together were sexy, but honestly only that, and their interactions with family were calm, reserved, and caring. I had trouble reconciling the two personalities of Courtney and Mira that were displayed.
Anyway, this collection is definitely really cute and I don't regret reading it! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc.
I would also like to say that the one thing I really appreciated about this collection was that, yes, all characters were gay, but it was never a point of conflict. They were just girls in love and happy. There were no parental issues, no coming out stories, nothing that would make this anything less of a feel-good collection, and that made me really happy to see.
-Book Hugger
Triple Dog Dare - 5-ish stars:
This was the one I enjoyed the most. To begin, it has my favorite trope of all time: fake-dating. Therefore, I was destined to love it. Not only that, but the writing was the most mature of the three stories and I felt like I actually knew the characters. They were deep, well-characterized, and they didn't feel like Hallmark knock-offs. This is the only of the stories that I could see myself enjoying as a full novel, even if a tad cheesy at parts.
Hustle & Bustle - 3-ish stars:
This one was honestly a bit forgettable. I appreciated how the characters' relationship developed over time. However, I found both of them a bit boring. Much of their relationship was one of the girls (I can't remember her name) making assumptions about the other (Toby) and then finding that she had stereotyped her all along. I didn't really love that and didn't find it all that compelling of characterization. It was cute, definitely sexier than the first story, but I think I much preferred the first story's plot.
A Christmas Miracle - 2 stars:
This one felt very Hallmark. I was a bit bored, not going to lie, and neither of the characters had distinct voices. For the only story that was dual-narrated (I believe), you really couldn't tell. More so, I didn't like how both of the characters seemed entirely different when they were around their family. Their interactions together were sexy, but honestly only that, and their interactions with family were calm, reserved, and caring. I had trouble reconciling the two personalities of Courtney and Mira that were displayed.
Anyway, this collection is definitely really cute and I don't regret reading it! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc.
I would also like to say that the one thing I really appreciated about this collection was that, yes, all characters were gay, but it was never a point of conflict. They were just girls in love and happy. There were no parental issues, no coming out stories, nothing that would make this anything less of a feel-good collection, and that made me really happy to see.
-Book Hugger