New Book Alert: Holiday Romance Novels

St. Martin’s Press has a wonderful line up of books coming out in the month of October ready to take you into the holiday season.  Whether you like contemporary romance, westerns, or historical novels there is a little something for everyone.  Below I’m highlighting the two historical novels of the bunch, but you can check out all of them in the banner image above.

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First up is an anthology collection featuring men in kilts!

Christmas in Kilts by Terri Brisbin, Lecia Cornwall, Bronwen Evans, Lavinia Kent, and May McGoldrick
Published by Swerve on October 31, 2017

Tis the season to fall in love! These five bestselling authors bring you great tiding of highlanders and romances this holiday season!

A HIGHLANDER’S HOPE by Terri Brisbin
A village harlot who would never dream she could have a different life meets a Highlander who visits for the holidays and brings with him an offer and hope.

A HIGHLAND CHRISTMAS WAGER by Lecia Cornwall
When a snowstorm forces a charming lass hiding a broken heart to take shelter in a castle with three fine Highland lairds just days before Christmas, there’s a game afoot—who will be the first to win a kiss and maybe her heart.

A SCOT FOR CHRISTMAS by Bronwen Evans
She’s ready to embrace her life and future as a spinster, he’s trying to have one last hurrah before he gives into his family’s wishes and proposes marriage to his neighbor, but fate has other ideas when the lady and the Scot meet at a holiday house party in the wilds of Scotland.

LEFTOVER MISTLETOE by Lavinia Kent
What happens when a highlander finds himself stranded, maybe kidnapped, with an English lady around Christmas... maybe the mistletoe will help answer that question.

SWEET HOME HIGHLAND CHRISTMAS by May McGoldrick
An encounter between an English officer and a desperate aunt trying to keep custody of her young niece leads to a little magic during the holidays.

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Publisher

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With this Christmas Ring by Manda Collins
Published by Swerve on October 3, 2017

A wallflower determined to fulfill a dying promise, the rogue she jilted years ago, and an orphaned baby are all brought together amidst the magic of Christmas in this new novella from Manda Collins.

Miss Merry Parks makes a deathbed promise to a schoolfriend that her infant daughter will be taken to her absent father. There’s only one problem—to find the baby’s father, she’ll have to consult his cousin, Viscount Wrotham, the man she jilted five years ago. The man she couldn’t forget.

Alex Ponsonby, Viscount Wrotham, is stunned to find Merry Parks—looking more lovely than ever--on his doorstep with an infant in her arms. His shock soon turns to dismay when he learns his own cousin William is the man who abandoned his wife and child. As head of the family he’s duty bound to see right is done. But he can't let this opportunity pass. He’ll take Merry and the baby to his cousin, but he’ll woo her back in the process.

Merry agrees to travel with Alex and the baby to Wrotham Castle, where the entire Ponsonby family has gathered for Christmas, but her plans to see the baby settled then leave are ruined by a snowstorm. After five years apart, Alex and Merry will spend the week getting reacquainted. Perhaps it’s the spirit of the holiday, or the magic of the season, but there could be something else in the air this Yuletide…A Christmas Reunion.

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Publisher 

Copyright © 2017 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: Christmas Bells by Jennifer Chiaverini

Christmas Bells by Jennifer Chiaverini
ARC, e-book, 320 pages
Dutton
October 27, 2015
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical fiction, Christmas

Source: Received from the publisher for review via Netgalley

In 1860, the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow family celebrated Christmas at Craigie House, their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The publication of Longfellow’s classic Revolutionary War poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” was less than a month hence, and the country’s grave political unrest weighed heavily on his mind. Yet with his beloved wife, Fanny, and their five adored children at his side, the delights of the season prevailed.

In present-day Boston, a dedicated teacher in the Watertown public school system is stunned by somber holiday tidings. Sophia’s music program has been sacrificed to budget cuts, and she worries not only about her impending unemployment but also about the consequences to her underprivileged students. At the church where she volunteers as music director, Sophia tries to forget her cares as she leads the children’s choir in rehearsal for a Christmas Eve concert. Inspired to honor a local artist, Sophia has chosen a carol set to a poem by Longfellow, moved by the glorious words he penned one Christmas Day long ago, even as he suffered great loss.

Christmas Bells chronicles the events of 1863, when the peace and contentment of Longfellow’s family circle was suddenly, tragically broken, cutting even deeper than the privations of wartime. Through the pain of profound loss and hardship, Longfellow’s patriotism never failed, nor did the power of his language. “Christmas Bells,” the poem he wrote that holiday, lives on, spoken as verse and sung as a hymn.

Jennifer Chiaverini’s resonant and heartfelt novel for the season reminds us why we must continue to hear glad tidings, even as we are tested by strife. Reading Christmas Bells evokes the resplendent joy of a chorus of voices raised in reverent song.

Despite the name, Christmas Bells is a novel that while it fits more with the holiday/winter season, it can certainly be enjoyed throughout the rest of the year. The title relates directly to the poem, and later the Christmas carol, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the novel by Jennifer Chiaverini takes that poem at its heart and builds around it both a modern story as well as a historical story. Let’s explore that more.

The historical story is set during the years of the Civil War in the United States and follows the Longfellow family (yes, the Longfellow that wrote the titular poem) through all the trials and tribulations that led to the composition of said poem. I had not known anything about Longfellow, I’m not a huge fan of poetry, but I found his life fascinating, but so tragic. There was a lot of sadness during this time for him. While we learn a lot about the man himself we also see what some aspects of the War would have been like for those living in the North as well as on the battlefield as that touched close to home for Longfellow as well.

The modern story line ties in because it is based around a church children’s choir that is practicing to perform Christmas Bells for their Christmas service. While the historical narrative follows one man/one family, the modern narrative looks at several different people’s stories each filled with a lot of hardship and sadness around the holiday, just like Longfellow.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I liked both the historical and the modern for different reasons. The historical narrative evoked the time period very well and looked at the effects of the War on the people at home and how they dealt with their family member being at war. The modern story was one that kept you on the edge of your seat wondering how each person’s plight would resolve and if it would be happy or not. Both stories pulled at my heart strings and made me truly care about the characters. However, there were a couple issues as well.

My major issue was with the structure of the novel. The historical narrative is told from the limited perspective of Henry Longfellow whereas in the modern narrative each chapter is told by a different character – from children in the choir, to the choir directors, parents, and church people. It was weird for me to bounce around between characters in one narrative, but remain with one character in the other. However, this wasn’t my most significant issue with the structure. In the modern narrative there were some instances of repetition in storytelling between characters. This was particularly obvious with the chapters from the brother/sister and their mother. There were entire passages that I skimmed right past because I had already read that exact thing not a chapter before, which was a little frustrating. It felt almost like a copy/paste job. You can still have overlapping segments, but being from 2 perspectives there should be differences there. They were wasted words on me.

At its heart, Christmas Bells is the story of survival, moving on, and embracing what life throws at you, which can be appreciated at all times of the year.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• The Calico Critic
• Always With A Book

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | RJ Julia

 

Also by Jennifer Chiaverini:

Jennifer Chiaverini has written many books in the Elm Creek Quilt series, that I am not going to list here for brevity. You can find the complete list on her website.

Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule

The Spymistress

Fates and Traitors

Mrs. Lincoln’s Rival

Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker

Find Jennifer Chiaverini: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

 

Copyright © 2017 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: Christmas Spirit by Annie Boone

I am participating in a blog tour for the Christmas novellas that are part of the Cutter’s Creek series and this week I will have a review of Christmas Spirit by Annie Boone, but I will also be sharing some other content as well.  I previously featured a review of Season of Love by Vivi Holt and an excerpt of that novella.  Don’t worry about if you have never read a book in this series before, you can still dive right in and enjoy the season with these novellas without prior knowledge.  So, first just an intro to the series and then my review of Christmas Spirit is below that.  Enjoy!

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It’s a Christmas sugarplum celebration! Christmas in Cutter’s Creek means a Christmas social; sugarplum contest, dancing, a dash of mayhem and a heaping helping of romance.

First off is Kit Morgan’s Recipe for Christmas. This novella is set in 1866 and is the very first Cutter’s Creek Christmas social, and so much mischief happens, it’s a wonder they had another!
Lucius Judrow from Love is Blind has a brother and he’s on his way to Cutter’s Creek. Come see who Eldon meets in this hilarious and sweet romance!

The next is Vivi Holt’s Seasons of Love. It takes place in 1872. The social has changed just a bit. You’d think they’d learned with all the trouble, but no, the social is more fun than trouble. Margaret is a lonely school teacher from the East looking for a little love and adventure. She finds just that and a whole lot more in this sweet Christmas romance!

Third Christmas novella is just a few years later and the social has changed yet again, to a cider competition! The contestants get a little rowdy and words are said that might ruin Christmas! Felicity will need special help to solve this mess. Find out more in Annie Boone’s Christmas Spirit.

The fourth and final Christmas novella takes place in 1892 and rumors of Christmas social’s past dominate the festivities. Carol needs to find a husband and the new doctor in town provides a great opportunity. A snowball fight leads to romance in Kari Trumbo’s A Carol Plays.

Recipe for Christmas ǀ Season of Love ǀ Christmas Spirit ǀ A Carol Plays

Find the Cutter’s Creek authors on Facebook!

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Christmas Spirit by Annie Boone
Book 12 in the Cutter’s Creek series
ARC, e-Book, 121 pages
October 27, 2015
★★★★☆
 

Heat Level:

Genre: Historical Romance, Western, Christmas

Source: Received from Author for Review

A handsome cowboy. A sweet young woman. A stranger from New York.

Felicity Lipscomb has loved Josh Garrett almost as long as she can remember. She thinks he’s nothing short of amazing. She doesn’t have the confidence to let him know, so she longs for him quietly, hoping one day he’ll notice her.

When she overhears a conversation just before Christmas, Felicity gets an idea she’s sure will help her finally snag her dream man. To make her plan work, she needs to learn to cook. The Christmas Festival Cider Competition is the perfect opportunity for her to prove her kitchen skills to the handsome cowboy.

Then the festivities begin. Secrets are revealed. Tempers flare. Nasty words are exchanged. All at a time when people should be joyful. In the blink of an eye Felicity’s happiness shatters. Can the stranger from New York make things better? Will his purpose for being there bring people together when they’ve been torn apart?

Pick up a copy to find out if renewed Christmas Spirit comes to the sweet little town of Cutter’s Creek just when they need it most.

Christmas Spirit is the first book I have read in the Cutter’s Creek series that is from a different author. Annie Boone brings us a sweet novel where the heroine is sort of having a conflict of identity. She has been in love with her best friend’s brother since she was a young girl, but didn’t realize he has any interest in her. Upon discovering that he is indeed interested, she struggles with the idea of remaking herself into the woman she thinks he wants. But does he really want that? At the same time, Josh is struggling to take over the responsibility of the ranch because his father has been quite ill and to be able to deal with the downturn that is befalling it. Can he potentially support a wife and family? These hardships make their relationship all the more real because I think that a lot of people today can identify with many of these ideas, even if they aren’t in the exact same manner.

There are some comedic moments in this novella as Felicity tries to learn how to cook, and boy does she make quite the mess of it! Also, the cider judging scene was more than I could have expected from it – dramatic it certainly was! I quickly got behind Felicity and Josh – I think many young girls have a secret crush on their best friend’s brother, and this story played on that very well. All the family members have to intervene in their little ways to push them forward toward each other.

Although this was a brief novella it offered a lot in the way of characterization and world building. I had a very clear idea of who the main characters were and some of the side characters as well. The Cutter’s Creek novellas have done a good job of integrating different ethnicities and cultures into the town. In Christmas Spirit, we learn a little something about the Chinese experience and cultural contributions.

Christmas Spirit embraces the true idea of the season: celebrating with friends and those you love, friendly competitions, food, and some religious elements (however this element is not used heavy handed).

While I haven’t read any of Annie Boone’s other contributions to the Cutter’s Creek series, I could immediately recognize that two of the side characters, Nick and Jemma, had to be from one of the other novels in the series. And I was right! They are the main characters in Becoming a Family and I look forward to reading their story as I found them interesting and I want to know more about their backstory. I also feel that there might be a subsequent novel about Josh’s sister on the horizon (but that is just a guess)!

Buy the Book: Amazon


Other Books in the Cutter’s Creek Series
The Cutter’s Creek series is a loosely interconnected series of novellas that all take place in Cutter’s Creek, Montana, each written by a different author.


The Healing Touch by Kit Morgan (Book 1)


The Strong One by Vivi Holt (Book 2)
[My Review]


New Beginnings by Annie Boone (Book 3)


A Lily Blooms by Kari Trumbo (Book 4)


A Penny Shines by Kari Trumbo (Book 5)


Becoming a Family by Annie Boone (Book 6)


Betrothed by Vivi Holt (Book 7)
[My Review]


Love is Blind by Kit Morgan (Book 8)


Cherished by Vivi Holt (Book 9)
[My Review]

The Other Cutter’s Creek Christmas Novellas:


Recipe for Christmas by Kit Morgan (Book 10)


Season of Love by Vivi Holt (Book 11)
[My Review]


A Carol Plays by Kari Trumbo (Book 13)


Find Annie Boone: Website | Facebook
 



Copyright © 2016 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: Season of Love by Vivi Holt

I am participating in a blog tour for the Christmas novellas that are part of the Cutter’s Creek series and this week I will have a review of Season of Love by Vivi Holt, but I will also be sharing some other content and reviews with you throughout November and December.  Don’t worry about if you have never read a book in this series before, you can still dive right in and enjoy the season with these novellas without prior knowledge.  So, first just an intro to the series and then my review of Season of Love is below that.  Enjoy!

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It’s a Christmas sugarplum celebration! Christmas in Cutter’s Creek means a Christmas social; sugarplum contest, dancing, a dash of mayhem and a heaping helping of romance.

First off is Kit Morgan’s Recipe for Christmas. This novella is set in 1866 and is the very first Cutter’s Creek Christmas social, and so much mischief happens, it’s a wonder they had another!

Lucius Judrow from Love is Blind has a brother and he’s on his way to Cutter’s Creek. Come see who Eldon meets in this hilarious and sweet romance!

The next is Vivi Holt’s Seasons of Love. It takes place in 1872. The social has changed just a bit. You’d think they’d learned with all the trouble, but no, the social is more fun than trouble. Margaret is a lonely school teacher from the East looking for a little love and adventure. She finds just that and a whole lot more in this sweet Christmas romance!

Third Christmas novella is just a few years later and the social has changed yet again, to a cider competition! The contestants get a little rowdy and words are said that might ruin Christmas! Felicity will need special help to solve this mess. Find out more in Annie Boone’s Christmas Spirit.

The fourth and final Christmas novella takes place in 1892 and rumors of Christmas social’s past dominate the festivities. Carol needs to find a husband and the new doctor in town provides a great opportunity. A snowball fight leads to romance in Kari Trumbo’s A Carol Plays.

Recipe for Christmas ǀ Season of Love ǀ Christmas Spirit ǀ A Carol Plays

Find the Cutter’s Creek authors on Facebook!

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Season of Love by Vivi Holt
Book 11 in the Cutter’s Creek series
ARC, e-Book, 82 pages
Black Lab Press
October 27, 2016
★★★★☆

Heat Level:

Genre: Historical Romance, Western, Christmas

Source: Received from Author for Beta and Review

Margaret Hutchins has been alone since her parents died of influenza in Chicago a decade earlier. When she moves to Cutter’s Creek in Montana Territory for a fresh start, as the new teacher for the little school, she discovers a cozy community where she’s welcomed and appreciated.

Heath Moore had his heart broken by Charlotte Beaufort years ago, and he’s hesitant to court again. Until, that is, he runs into Margaret just before Christmas – she’s beautiful, intelligent and compassionate. But when she makes a decision that changes her life forever, it drives a wedge between them.

Enjoy spending a white Christmas in Cutter’s Creek, as a season of love unfolds in the most unlikely way.

There is nothing better than sitting down to enjoy the Christmas and winter season than with a good book, and the authors of the Cutter’s Creek series have each written a novella to treat you to just that! Vivi Holt contributes Season of Love which brings the heart back into the season.

When six children arrive in Cutter’s Creek after a long trek on the pioneering trail alone and with no parents in sight, the residents of the town do their best to house them, but it quickly becomes a difficult challenge. Margaret (Meg), a single school-teacher, steps up to the plate to take in all six of the children and realizes that she might have bit off more than she can chew – especially considering the hesitant nature of the children to trust her. Heath Moore, a neighbor, helps Meg in many ways with the children and is clearly interested in Meg, however she cannot see beyond the children and uses them as a barrier to possibly finding love with Heath. Will the two be able to find their way to each other and what will happen to the children as Christmas draws near?

Heath has made a previous appearance in an earlier Holt/Cutter’s Creek novel, Betrothed, and that novel provides a small amount of backstory for him – but it is entirely unnecessary to have read any of the Cutter’s Creek novels to fully enjoy this one as it’s relatively self-contained. He is so kind and goes out of his way to help Meg and the children. Meg is very giving and takes on a huge responsibility with these children and she wants to make them feel loved and at home as the holiday season approaches. I felt her hurt and struggles as she tries to figure out how to connect with the children. This novella is so full of heart – not only with the establishing of this new family, but also with the relationship between Heath and Meg. This gave the story a different feel than many westerns or romances that I have read and helped build the feelings of the season. Building on those seasonal elements, there are outings in sleighs, and skating, etc!

A couple little quibbles. The beginning of the novella starts out with the children experiences on the trail west and what happens to their family so that they arrive in Cutter’s Creek alone. After that initial prologue, the story turns to focus on Meg, Heath, and their perspective with handling the situation that the children bring. I would have really liked to have had more chapters from the perspective of the children to help provide more understanding behind what they were going through or why they reacted the ways that they did. This could certainly have been easily resolved with a lengthier piece. Additionally, I hesitated to really get behind Meg for a little while, not that I didn’t like her, I just didn’t like how she would essentially use the fact that she was now caring for six children as an excuse for why a relationship with Heath would never work.

Overall an enjoyable stand-alone piece that could be utilized as an entryway into the Cutter’s Creek series.

Buy the Book: Amazon

Also by Vivi Holt:

Mail Order Bride: Christy
[My Review]


Mail Order Bride: Ramona


Mail Order Bride: Katie
[My Review]


Of Peaks and Prairies (Book 1 of Paradise Valley)
[My Review]

Other Books in the Cutter’s Creek Series:
The Cutter’s Creek series is a loosely interconnected series of novellas that all take place in Cutter’s Creek, Montana, each written by a different author.


The Healing Touch by Kit Morgan (Book 1)


The Strong One by Vivi Holt (Book 2)
[My Review]


New Beginnings by Annie Boone (Book 3)


A Lily Blooms by Kari Trumbo (Book 4)


A Penny Shines by Kari Trumbo (Book 5)


Becoming a Family by Annie Boone (Book 6)

 
Betrothed by Vivi Holt (Book 7)
[My Review]


Love is Blind by Kit Morgan (Book 8)


Cherished by Vivi Holt (Book 9)
[My Review]

The Other Cutter’s Creek Christmas Novellas:


Recipe for Christmas by Kit Morgan (Book 10)


Christmas Spirit by Annie Book (Book 12)


A Carol Plays by Kari Trumbo (Book 13)

Find Vivi Holt: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest



Copyright © 2016 by The Maiden’s Court