Gail Ranstrom

Scarlet Ribbons - Lyn Stone

Fairly forgettable story of a widowed soldier crippled in the Napoleonic Wars and a feisty spinster injured in a riding accident. I did enjoy their dialog and the mirroring of their injuries, but it was written with a mystifying emotional distance. I never felt truly absorbed into the story or like I understood the characters' motivations. Enjoyable, but lacking something. 3 stars.

Christmas Promise - Carla Kelly

Wonderful, emotional tale of love that waited, and show more waited. Captain Jeremiah Faulk is back in England after 22 years fighting in the navy. Ianthe Mears is his childhood friend and love, as well as his friend and comrade's widow. Both have secretly held a flame for the other for many years. A chance meeting with the Mears children brings Faulk to the Mears' for Christmas. In a short format, Kelly deals with Faulk's emotional fallout from his gruesome time in the navy, their undeniable love for each other and what their future will look like. She pulls no punches and the result is heartwrenching and uplifting in equal measure. Includes more crying than I've ever read in a novel, I think. 5 stars.

A Little Christmas - Gail Ranstrom

I found this so cliche riddled that I couldn't finish it. Totally lacking sexual tension or believable dialog, I could not care at all about the characters or what happened next. DNF.

In sum, I'd buy it all over again. The Kelly story was worth the purchase price on its own. show less

Anche con questo si torna a girare sempre attorno agli stessi cattivi e agli stessi personaggi, senza portare nulla di nuovo ed interessante. Le ultime 30 pagine, poi, hanno dato la mazzata finale ad un libro già non propriamente entusiasmante. Quel pò di parte investigativa che nei precedenti volumi era stata trattata abbastanza bene, qui sembra ideata da un bambino di 2 anni. L'intenzione di tenere il dubbio sulle motivazioni di un personaggio cattivo, cade nel ridicolo da tanto è show more trattata male (insomma, non c'è alcun dubbio e non ci si pone nessuna domanda. è chiarissimo!).
Se quindi la parte iniziale può essere interessante, se non altro per il rapporto tra Gina e James, più si prosegue e più -sia i personaggi e le loro motivazioni, sia la storia in se e per se- mi hanno reso insofferente e irritata. show less

Wow, that's bad. I like Lyn Stone, but hers was very weak - an orphan promised to wed, especially in medieval times, seems unlikely to have been left there for so long, for one thing. And lots of stupid misunderstandings, like the boy. Then the regency one - yeah right, she would conspire to thus ruin her reputation. She'd have to be even stupider and more - reckless? unthinking? - than she's depicted. And that her brother and her betrothed would go along with it... and... ghahh. There are show more no words. And the last one, set in the Wars of the Roses, is the stupidest of all. She jumps to conclusions, he and her brother are both utter idiots - 'I won't tell her what her husband did, but I will say that he was killed by a famous knight on our, and supposed to be his, side… and leave it at that'. Plus the utterly gratuitous sex scene at the end. She may be a widow, but! It took me forever to get through this, because every time I put it down I didn't want to pick it up again. But I needed to read them all to be sure I could happily get rid of it and wouldn't regret it - now I'm sure. Whew, free! show less

I love the regency Christmas anthologies and was pleased to see another with an offering from Carla Kelly, one of my all time favorite authors. Her offering in this book, "Christmas Promise," is very good. It is set right after Napolean is defeated and our hero, Captain Faulk, is waiting to see what the Navy plans to do with him. He chances on two youngsters who are the children of his very good (deceased) friend. He was, and probably is, in love with their mother. They reunite and the story show more progresses as it should. A very nice Christmas story with solid characters that you would like to know.

The other two stories are nice. I think the Lyn Stone offering, "Scarlet Ribbons," is the stronger. I didn't enjoy the Gail Ranstrom, "A Little Christmas," quite as much, but still a very nice story. show less